The Cold, Hard Football Facts hold an enviable position, preaching their gridiron gospel from the bully pulpit of pigskin. From the front of our football flock, we’re able to dismiss the opinions that false prophets and “pundits” attempt to pass off as truth.

Today we take a look at Sunday night’s Eagles-Colts showdown and bludgeon three baseless opinions with a cudgel of Cold, Hard Football Facts:

Indy’s Dwight Freeney is an elite defensive lineman
Cold, Hard Football Fact: There is no more overrated and less productive defensive player in football today than Freeney.

He is, at best, a one-trick pony: a pass rush specialist who’s a liability against the run. At worst, he’s an over-hyped media creation who’s done little in his career to earn the praise and magazine covers that have come his way.

This season, at least, he definitely falls into the latter category. Through the first 10 games of the year, he has just 13 tackles and 2.5 sacks. That should be two games of work for an elite defensive end. Instead, it’s his production for the entire season.

Compare Freeney’s season with that of unheralded Green Bay defensive end Aaron Kampman: 52 tackles and 10 sacks. That’s exactly four times the production in both categories.

The average game throughout Freeney’s career looks like this: 2 tackles and 0.75 sacks. Not exactly the numbers that will make us forget true impact defensive ends like Deacon Jones or Reggie White.

Freeney made 41 total tackles (solos and assists) in his rookie year of 2002. He’s never topped 34 tackles since. To put that into context, Kampman, for example, registered 81 tackles last year alone.

Freeney recorded at least 11 sacks in every season from 2002 to 2005. That’s a very solid streak. But, in typical Colts fashion, he’s beat up on second-rate opponents and disappeared against better teams. In 2005, for example, 8.5 of his 11 sacks came in five games against some of the worst teams in football: Cleveland, Tennessee, San Francisco and Houston (twice). In 2004, when Freeney set a personal best with 16 sacks, seven of those QB takedowns came in three games against Tennessee and Houston.

Freeney is essentially non-factor against the run. Watch any game and you’ll see that he typically takes himself out of the run defense with his upfield (and usually failed) rushes to get after the QB. He’s one reason why the Colts are dead last against the run (155.1 YPG) and 31^st in yards allowed per rush attempt (4.9 YPA).

The Eagles are all done without Donovan McNabb
Cold, Hard Football Fact: No team in football has a more accomplished back-up QB than the Eagles have with Jeff Garcia. There are probably 15 to 20 NFL teams that would be better served with Garcia as their starter instead of the quarterbacks currently leading their offense.

Jay Novacek's NFL picks Lions will spoil Pack's feast Detroit, Dallas, Indy will win Thanksgiving Day games

Consider this: only 13 quarterbacks in pro football history have posted a better career passer rating than Jeff Garcia. His 85.5 career mark puts him just a shade behind future Hall of Famer Brett Favre (85.8) … and just a shade ahead of Philly’s injured starter, Donovan McNabb (85.2).

Garcia has played just three full seasons in the NFL: 2000 to 2002 with San Francisco. He was a Pro Bowler all three seasons. In fact, he might have been the best quarterback in football over that period. Here are his cumulative numbers from those three seasons: 999 for 1,593 (62.7%), 11,160 passing yards, 84 TDs, 32 INTs, 7.0 YPA, 92.7 passer rating.

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