After lamenting the fact that I couldn’t get on my high horse for Sunday’s Redskins/Eagles tilt, I’ve now jumped on Secretariat and told him to start bucking.
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| The good no longer outweighs the bad with Andy Reid. |
But what happened Sunday, which resembled a Kanye West meltdown (you could see it coming minutes before it happened, as it happened you could believe it was happening, when it was over, you were searching for cheap excuses for why it wasn’t that bad, even though, it was bad), is cause for serious concern.
If there’s one thing you can give Andy Reid for Sunday’s game, it’s that he finds new and inventive ways to butcher the game clock. He never blows time the same way twice. Sometimes, its blowing all your timeouts in the first quarter, other times its calling plays that go to the middle of the field with only seconds left and no timeouts, so the clock painfully runs out and the team doesn’t score.
Then there was Sunday. Reid calls timeout before a fourth and one near the goal line with only seconds left in the first half to call a play, forgetting only one thing: calling the play. The team takes a delay of game penalty and has to kick a field goal. Though, with the way the Eagles have historically converted fourth and inches, it was probably better.
But this is what he always bungles. The Eagles are past-due milk bad at the end of halves. Always have been.
There has always been a tradeoff for having Andy Reid as coach/GM/czar/resident fat man (the fat joke is required for every blog post that mentions Andy Reid. It’s in the rules of the internet. I’m not trying to be unnecessarily mean. I’m not. Really. C’mon, believe me).
You had to take the bad clock management, unbalanced play calling and soft offensive line to get the shrewd personnel moves, above average drafting and regular playoff appearances (even if they have all ended in heartbreak).
Except now, as Sunday proved, you are getting none of it right now.
Instead, you have a confused Reid who is struggling in and out of the game.
Over the last few offseasons Reid and the Eagles brass has:
1. Tried to replace offensive line stalwarts Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan with Jason Peters, the Andrews brothers and Winston Justice. One was crazy (Shawn Andrews), one was oblivious to how much he sucked (Stacy Andrews), one is pretty average (Justice) and one is the worst left tackle in football (Peters). Not to mention, three have had bloated contracts (everyone but Justice) and Peters is currently in the midst of a 6 year, $60 million contract.
2. Tried to replace Brian Dawkins with Sean Jones, Macho Harris and Quintin Demps, and tried to do it with a straight face.
3. The major free agent signings since 2008: Asante Samuel, Chris Clemons, Dan Klecko, Rocky Boiman, Stacy Andrews, Sean Jones, Leonard Weaver, Marlin Jackson and Daryl Tapp. The major trades were: Lorenzo Booker, Ellis Hobbs, Will Witherspoon, Ernie Sims, and the giveaway of Sheldon Brown and Chris Gocong for Mike Holmgren’s fat trimmings. Only two have worked out (Samuel and Weaver, very well I might add), with everything else reminiscent of a Friday night with Jason.
4. Then, there’s the biggie: the Kolb/Vick/McNabb fiasco.
All of these things had a major impact in Sunday's meltdown: the offensive line resembles a bad M. Night Shyamalan movie. The defense doesn't have any real players outside of Trent Cole and Asante Samuel (though Nate Allen is promising). And then theres the quarterback situation
Reid was ready to stake his reputation and job on what Corn on the Kolb was selling. He sold it everyone all summer. He traded his quarterback away to a division rival. And it all came crashing down.
It’s not that Corn on the Kolb isn’t good. I still don’t think we know enough about him to really judge (though after watching his checkdown-fest on Sunday, the name Matt Leinart keeps popping in my head). It’s the way Reid was so quick to throw him aside after one half of play. Of course he was going to come into the game with no confidence and just check it down. Of course he was going to make the offense look like Mo'nique after a night at Roscoe's.
With that change Reid essentially said this to Kolb: “Look, I really messed up with that Donovan trade. I forgot one crucial thing about watching someone in practice all the time. Everyone is going to look good in practice. Taylor Swift probably sounds remotely talented in practice.”
There are two things that Reid really misjudged in this situation (yes, I am making ample use of the list feature. Yes, it is lazy. Yes, I don’t care): First, he was way too quick on the Kolb trigger. If you really believed in the guy (a guy you are paying over $12 million for this season because you did), you wouldn’t have yanked him so quickly because you usually give guys you believe in more than a half. How do you think Tiger and Elin made it as long as they did?
Second, he bought into all the Mike Vick hype. Look, I think Mike Vick has played really well. And I also really like him. But haven’t we seen this before? Haven’t we watched him prove to us that he can pass from the pocket? Hasn’t he had two good passing games in a row before? And at the end of the day, wasn’t he the exact same guy? Before we anoint Vick as the next Steve Young, let’s see him do it on a semi-consistent basis.
All this shows is that Reid is completely unsure of his decisions. He’s wavering. Does 2005 Andy Reid waver like this? I don’t think so. He picks his guy and he rides him (though let’s hope he doesn’t actually ride the guy).
And that’s what this Andy Reid has lost. For all of his stubbornness about the offensive playcalling and flat-out hatred of the clock, you could count on him to go into his office and make the right personnel decisions.
But now, without that stubbornness, without that conviction, Andy Reid resembles the typical college coach who doesn't know what he's doing. Yanking quarterbacks back and forth, not really assembling the talent needed to win at a high level, making serious mistakes in the game.
Somewhere, McNabb, B. Dawk, and Brian Westbrook are lighting up.
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