If you think the Philadelphia Eagles looked good in their preseason victory over the Cleveland Browns last night, I have some bad news for you. You don’t know the first thing about football.
The Eagles looked terrible. If you don’t believe me, then maybe you’ll believe the voice of the Eagles, Merrill Reese. Reese is the play-by-play man for the Eagles on the radio. Reese has been the voice of the Eagles forever and, as an employee of the team, will never be accused of being critical of anything that ever happens. During last night’s game, Reese pointed out the obvious.
While Michael Vick was running for his life behind what will be a horrible offensive line for the Eagles this season, Reese made this obvious statement, “Vick is getting killed out there. And these are the Cleveland Browns, not the Pittsburgh Steelers folks.”
Yes, the Eagles offensive line played so poorly that even an employee of the team was moved to comment on it. I’m sure Reese will get docked a paycheck for this insubordination. Team president Joe Banner doesn’t stand for such nonsense. Don’t forget, Banner once fired a handicapped employee who dared to criticize the team on Facebook when they wouldn’t re-sign one of the all-time great Eagles, Brian Dawkins, over a few dollars.
Reese’s comment does point out another obvious fact that the majority of Eagles fans and the national media fail to realize. The Philadelphia Eagles under Andy Reid are normally talented enough to beat the mediocre-to-bad teams in the NFL, but they get their butts handed to them when they come up against the elite teams in the NFL, like the Steelers. Or maybe against the Patriots, or any other team the Eagles may have played in, say, an NFC Championship Game.
I looked up some numbers to prove my point that Andy Reid is a terrible coach.
The Eagles have played 192 regular season games under Andy Reid and their record is 118-73-1, a .618 winning percentage. That looks good until you really dig into those numbers. Of those 192 games, 103 have come against teams with a record of 8-8 or better and 89 were against teams 7-9 or worse.
Reid’s record against teams with a losing record 70-18-1 (.787 winning percentage).
Reid’s record against teams with a winning record 48-55 (.466).
But wait, I have more.
Reid’s Eagles have a 10-9 record in the playoffs. Against teams with 8 or 9 wins, the Eagles are 4-1, with all four wins coming in the first round of the playoffs. The lone loss was against the Cardinals in the 2008 NFC Championship Game. That means that Reid is only 6-8 against teams with more than 9 wins. That is pathetic. It is also a fatal flaw for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Just in case any of you think that these numbers are normal and I’m just being negative, let’s compare Reid’s record to the guy who really is the, ahem, “Gold Standard” of NFL coaching during Reid’s time with the Eagles. That would be New England’s Bill Belichick.
Belichick’s overall regular season record is 126-50 (.716). But his record against losing teams is 65-9 (.878) and his record against winning teams is 61-41 (.598). Belichick is obviously better, but it’s actually pretty close. Where the real difference can be found is when it counts the most, in the playoffs.
In 19 playoff games (same as Reid), Belichick’s teams are 14-5 and all but one win has come against teams with at least 10 wins. I guess that explains the three Lombardi Trophies to none advantage Belichick has over Reid.
As if those numbers aren’t bad enough, Reid is also the worst game-day coach in the history of sports. Some may disagree with that assertion, but he continues to prove my point each and every game he coaches. Last night’s game was no exception.
Even though it was a preseason game, Reid was in mid-season form. Reid actually challenged a play that is not reviewable. How a veteran NFL coach doesn’t know the rules of the game is beyond me, but it’s typical of Reid. The NFL changed the rules this offseason so that every score is now automatically reviewed. I knew this. Andy Reid did not. Priceless!
Another failing of Andy Reid’s is that he is terrible at finding talent in the draft. Sure he has hit on a few good players, but he is far below the league average at finding talent in the draft.
Take the offensive line. Last night the Eagles started a rookie sixth-rounder at center, a rookie at right guard and a 2008 seventh-round draft pick at right tackle. Is it any wonder that Vick was running for his life last night and only had enough time in the pocket to complete one pass to a wide receiver? Of course it isn’t. Only an idiot would think otherwise. Oh, sorry Andy.
Jason Kelce started at center last night because new offensive line coach Howard Mudd prefers smaller, agile offensive linemen for his blocking schemes. So much for smaller and agile. Kelce got dominated by the lowly Browns defensive front for the entire first half. He gave up a sack botched a snap and was flagged for a holding penalty in his half of work.
First round draft pick Danny Watkins wasn’t any better. Watkins doesn’t have much experience actually playing football and it showed last night. At least he has experience as a fireman, because last night looked like a fire drill with all the defenders coming free after Vick.
And then we have King Dunlap at right tackle trying to protect Vick’s blindside. Dunlap is only starting because last year’s starter, Winston Justice is still trying to recover from offseason knee surgery and free agent signing Ryan Harris is about to have back surgery. If Dunlap has to play this season, Vick will also need surgery when a defensive end plants him into the turf.
The defense looked better, but again to quote Reese, “These are the Cleveland Browns, not the Pittsburgh Steelers”. The Browns finished 5-11 last season and figure to be just as bad this season. Ben Roethlisberger isn’t a Hall of Fame quarterback, but he’s light-years ahead of Colt McCoy in talent and experience. This was not a true test for the Eagles even though it was the third preseason game when teams historically play the starters into the third quarter.
This Eagles team has some serious issues and the biggest one is on the offensive line. For all the big-name free agents this team signed to make headlines, they forgot to take care of one of the things Andy Reid always preaches. Games in the NFL are won in the trenches. Too bad the Eagles are sorely lacking on the offensive and defensive lines.
I actually feel sorry for Michael Vick, because he’s sure to get injured behind that offensive line. Oh well, at least he knows what to expect this season now that the team has played a few preseason games under Andy Reid.