"As we bid adieu to the Donovan McNabb era and blow up the party balloons and pour the champagne to welcome in the Kevin Kolb era, everyone is eagerly waiting to see how the transfer of quarterback power will impact the Eagles' offense.

You can make all the jokes you want about worm balls and puking in the huddle and not knowing the overtime rules and the scarcity of fourth-quarter comebacks on his resume.

McNabb wasn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Brett Favre, but he still was pretty damn good during his 11 seasons in Philadelphia. Good enough to help the Eagles make it to the playoffs eight times in the last 10 years. Good enough to help them get to five conference championship games.

Good enough to throw for nearly 33,000 yards. Good enough to have the third best interception percentage in NFL history and the third best touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio, behind only Brady and Steve Young.

With McNabb at quarterback, the Eagles finished sixth or better in scoring three times in the last 4 years. They've finished in the top 10 in passing yards the last 7 years.

What they didn't do in McNabb's 11 seasons here, of course, is win a Super Bowl. And that's why he's in Washington now and Kolb is replacing him.

Based on two impressive starts last season when McNabb was out with a fractured rib, based on 3-plus years of watching him in practice and preseason games, the Eagles felt Kolb was ready to replace McNabb.

"I told him I want a high completion percentage, and I want him to stay away from interceptions," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said yesterday. "If he does that, everything else will take care of itself."

McNabb's knack for not throwing interceptions was one of the best things he brought to the table as a quarterback. Say what you will about those balls at receivers' feet, at least they didn't get picked off.

He's thrown just 100 interceptions in 4,746 career attempts. He's never thrown more than 13 interceptions in a season. He's thrown more than one interception in just 20 of 142 career starts. He's only thrown more than two in a game three times in his entire career.

Can Kolb match that? Probably not. He has seven interceptions in 130 career attempts, but four of those picks came in his first 34 passes, in '08. Last year, he had just three interceptions in 96 attempts.

"Every quarterback's a little bit different," Mornhinweg said. "Some don't anticipate as well as others early in their career, and that can lead to a few more turnovers. I'm not sure Kevin's that way. And he's built up some time in the league, so he's seen a lot."