Reid really does need to get better

By John McMullen  |   Thursday, October 02, 2008  |  Comments( 3 )

Philadelphia Eagles
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There is reason for optimism in Philadelphia.

Donovan McNabb is healthy and performing at a high level and the Eagles look like a much-improved bunch from the moribund team that finished the 2007 season out of the playoffs.

Of course, Philadelphia also plays in the NFC East, the NFL's toughest division, featuring the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants along with what most consider the NFL's most talented team, the Dallas Cowboys, and the surprising Washington Redskins.

The last thing the Eagles need, then, is a coaching staff that is giving away games.

However, as we round the quarter pole of the 2008 NFL season, Philadelphia finds itself in last place, thanks in large part to a stubborn head coach who gave away a contest in Chicago.

Andy Reid is notorious for clearing his throat at each post-game press conference before giving the assembled media a clandestine injury update and then muttering the phrase "time is yours."

At that point, a series of questions is then usually thrown at the Eagles mentor by legitimate reporters, along with a few softballs by some of his apologists.

No matter what the question or who the reporter is, Reid rarely answers with anything substantive. After a loss, he has a few standards. "I have to do a better job" is one of his favorites.

Never has that been more true.

Philadelphia should have been victorious last Sunday, but Chicago preserved a precarious 4-point lead with a goal-line stand late in the fourth quarter during which the Eagles failed on four straight running attempts after a first-and-goal from the Bears 4. On the final try, running back Correll Buckhalter was stuffed just short of the goal line with under 4 minutes left to play.

The sequence showed a stunning lack of imagination by a coach usually ridiculed for his undying love of the forward pass.

Observers wondered why Reid suddenly fell in love with his running game despite missing his best offensive lineman, Shawn Andrews, and his star running back, Brian Westbrook.

And if you really do want to punch it in from a yard out, what about using your best player, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound quarterback by the name of McNabb?

After the game, Reid offered up his usual "I have to do a better job" rhetoric while defending his ill-fated game plan.

"I thought we could run it in," the coach said. "When they go down there, they don't use a goal-line front. They use their base personnel group there. I thought we had them on their heels just a little bit. Their defensive line had played basically that whole game because of the injuries they had. We were running the ball effectively that last series and I thought we had a chance to pound it in there. Obviously, hindsight is 20-20 here. I thought we had a better chance right there to pound it in."

Sound logic if Andrews and Westbrook were available or he went to McNabb on the quarterback sneak, but Reid ignored his missing Pro Bowlers and blamed a chest contusion on why McNabb couldn't take it in himself.

"I didn't feel comfortable with (McNabb) having sat out all week of practice because of an injury," Reid added. "Common sense tells you that you have to be smart with that. To look back on his record of sneaks, it's almost flawless, but again, you have to use judgment on that."

That same judgment didn't discourage Reid from letting McNabb drop back 41 times, subjecting him to blindside blitzers and 290-pound defensive linemen.

The Eagles have a chance in 2008, but only if Reid really does get better.
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the ...
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