The Philadelphia Eagles have countless problems this season. Every problem the Eagles have this season can be laid at the feet of Head Coach Andy Reid. The game Sunday at Buffalo is more or less a blueprint of the Eagles performances under Andy Reid, especially this season.
This season was supposed to be the dream season, Vince Young one of the many free agent acquisitions by the Eagles even names the Eagles the “Dream Team”. Since a decisive week 1 win over the now 0-4 St. Louis Rams this season has been a nightmare for the Eagles. After that win the Eagles blew fourth quarter leads against the Falcons, Giants, and 49ers. Of course excuses and reasons for each loss can occur and explain each loss away for instance after the Falcons loss Michael Vick’s injury came up as part of the reason the Eagles. Of course the Eagles had an 11 point lead going into the fourth quarter of that game. Their defense was gashed by Michael Turner in the fourth quarter spearheading Atlanta’s comeback. Stopping the run may be the biggest of Philadelphia’s big problems. It’s also a predictable problem, the Eagles allowed 100 yards rushing in 12 of 17 games including their last 7 games. While Cullen Jenkins was a nice addition to their run defense the Eagles did nothing to improve their linebacker situation and their Defensive Ends while productive are rush ends and not run stopping ends.
Run defense is not the Eagles only defensive problem. When Nnamdi Asomugha was brought over from the Oakland Raiders in free agency he was known as a player that excels in man to man coverage. He is not a corner who played in a zone scheme in Oakland and he was shown to be a below average tackler. In the eagles zone coverage defensive scheme Asomugha looks out of place Even if Asomugha was a zone corner smart front offices (which I still consider the Eagles to be for the time being) don’t spend $12 million a season on zone corners.
Finally the Eagles defense has been in decline since former defensive coordinator Jim Johnson died of cancer between the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Last season Reid threw Johnson’s replacement Sean McDermott under the bus and replaced him with eagles offensive line coach Juan Castillo. Yes that right Andy Reid in his brilliance replaced his defensive coordinator tutored by the great Jim Johnson with a man who has been coaching offense his entire NFL coaching career coaching on the offensive side of the ball and his only defensive coaching experience came at the high school level. It should come as no surprise that Castillo has been outcoached in all three of the Eagles second half collapses or that the Eagles are giving up over 26 points per game.
Offensively there’s no arguing the Eagles are one of the most explosive teams in the league. At times they look dominating at other times their baffling. This can be attributed in large part to Reid. Although Reid is a veteran coach he constantly gives up on the running game quickly and many times for no reason at all in football games. Any coach that allows his team to be put in a situation where they are one dimensional should know they make life much easier for defensive coordinators. Yet Reid does this constantly and his refusal to stick with a running game especially the last two years when he has a very good running back in LeSean McCoy shows Andy Reid’s troubles as a play caller.
Andy Reid may have the worst game management skills as any coach in football. He habitually wastes timeouts in games as if the mean nothing. I was honestly to see the Eagles had multiple timeouts to call late in the game as the Bills ran out the clock. Of course Andy Reid did make his classic game management mistake Sunday. Training 21-7 with eight seconds to go in the second quarter Andy Reid was faced with a choice kick a field goal and go to halftime down 21-10 or allow Vick one end zone throw to score a touchdown. Reid chose to allow Vick to throw for the end zone a very low percentage play and he either did not warn Vick about needing to get the ball off quickly or trusted a player who obviously should not have been trusted in that situation costing his team three points. Eagles’ teams have been dealing with the Reid disadvantage since Reid took over as the Eagles coach. It seems this year the Eagles can’t overcome Reid’s game mismanagement and poor coaching.
While it may seem like it I’m not advocating the Eagles fire Andy Reid today even if they did who would take over for him. They haven’t failed yet. Talent wise they are still right there after the Packers, Saints and Lions in the NFC. More importantly the NFC East is still there for the taking and there definitely is not a dominant team in the division. 10-6 probably wins the division. If the Eagles need to go the wild card route that looks possible also, only the Packers Lions loser looks a sure bet for the wild card and the other preseason best bets are struggling (Falcons, Bears, Bucs) so 9-7 may be enough to sneak in. The team certainly has the potential to go 9-2 or 8-3 down the stretch but if they don’t on a year they went all in, should it be time for Andy Reid to be the one under the bus?