 The Hubris Of Andy Reid I've seen more stories than I care to read about the audacity of Donovan McNabb. How could a quarterback in this league for a decade not know a game could end in a tie? It's a fair question, but really, who cares. McNabb's a pretty sharp guy, I find his comments more curious than anything, and I really don't think they had anything to do with the outcome of the game.What I want to talk about is our coach. As the years have gone by, Andy Reid has been nothing if not stubborn. His great run with this team bought him more leeway than it should have, but it's time for his Super Bowl honeymoon period to finally come to an end. The Eagles took the field against a bad Bengals team on Sunday. They really are quite bad. It should have been an easy win. It should have been a walk in the park. Why wasn't it? Because Andy Reid decided to reinvent the wheel. He decided that he was going to prove, yet again, that his pass-happy offense was the only solution. This isn't conjecture on my part, there's no other way to see it. The Eagles called 61 pass plays and 17 run plays. Two of those run plays were end arounds to DeSean Jackson, one of which was designed to be a pass by DeSean, so the split was really 62 to 16. Keep that in mind when you read the stats below. These are the number of running plays and yardage each Cincinnati opponent had in their game against the Bengals:
I don't want to hear about Westbrook's myriad injuries. Buckhalter was healthy, if Reid wanted to run the ball, he would have. If he cared more about winning the game than proving his point about being able to win any game with the pass only, the Eagles would have run the ball and they would have won the game. Quotes like this don't mean shit to me when the coach makes conscious decisions which cost the team games. "We're going to get it straight is what we are going to do," Reid said. "We're going to work a little harder, up the concentration level, and make sure we do the right thing. I've seen our offense play well, I've seen our defense play well, and I've seen our special teams play well, and I just want to see them do it all together in one game. And when we do, we've got one heck of a football team." You know what, Andy? You may just have a heck of a football team but we'll never know as long as you're at the helm.
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I'm appalled that the Jets tied for the worst rush average against the Bengals.
Amen.
Excellent article, Brian. This one was probably brewing over the course of the past few years, I'd imagine. Can we start an online petition to FIRE THE WALRUS??
Andy has gone from being an asset to a liability. No one is fooled anymore by the tired and overused WCO. His gimmicks are too overused and predictable to be effective so that even a 1 -8 team was able to effectively shut down this offense~! His pass at all costs philosophy means the Defense is on the field for the majority of the game and getting gassed by the end of the third quarter. To be honest, we were lucky to get out of town with the tie.
While I see Andy as the main problem with the Eagles, there is no leader on this team, everyone appears to be keeping their mouths shut out of fear of being benched or losing their jobs. McNabb may be talented, but no field or locker room leader. He doesn't call out his receivers for dropped passes or not fighting for the ball (LJ Smith on the latter). He's not making those 3rd down passes and picking up first downs.
And certainly while Andy's playcalling and stubborn insistence of relying on the pass is a large part of the problem, but I don't see McNabb as a Superbowl calibur QB.
He might be a super bowl QB, if he could ever run a two-minute drill without puking or having to let the clock run down to the 2 minute warning so he can catch his breath.
this is too funny...scroll to the bottom of this article when he talks abut andy reid challenging the brandon jacobs fumble...
damn thats funny.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081114
"The Flabbergasted Four."
That's awesome.
You are so right on that one Brian. It's not his talent in question, it's his heart and intestinal fortitude.
If you had the choice of taking Garcia back (or another guy with average talent but who has a drive to win), do you think we'd be in any better shape though? Do you think it would even matter if Kolb was in given this horrendous time management and playcalling? In all fairness to McNabb, I don't think it would make a difference.
Reid has already stated he stands behind McNabb. That means we won't be seeing Kolb as long as Andy's calling the shots. And if a highly unlikely decision would be made to pull McNabb, we'd have to plan on getting rid of him and sending him to a safe haven like Chicago for him, as he'd be a real headcase and of no use to the Eagles afterwards. McNabb really needs to man up.
I don't know who the blame should fall on, to be honest with you. Clock management is 90% Reid's responsibility, and he fails about 90% of the time. This makes things harder for McNabb, but I've honestly never seen a QB get tired in the 4th besides McNabb, never.
The thing about Garcia's magical run is that Reid actually called smart games during that time. Westbrook carried the load, the same thing happened last year after the Eagles were pretty much done for the playoffs.
It's like when Reid's ass is on the line, when he needs to win games or the team will finish 6-10 and he might have to answer questions, he has no problem running Westbrook into the ground. When the games mean something and the playoffs are on the line, he refuses.
Maybe he has too much confidence in McNabb, maybe he has too little confidence in Westbrook and the O-Line. Maybe he just loves this WCO when McNabb runs it and he gets a boner for throwing 2-yard passes. Who knows?
I don't think we can say they'd be better or worse w/ another QB, it depends completely on what Reid would do w/ that QB.
Brian,
Didn't Reid let Marty Morningweig call the plays when Garcia took over?
GDog, great link! Andy as one of the "Flab Four."
Just speculating (dreaming), but in the unlikely event that Lurie should pull the plug on Dandy Andy, who would be a good choice as the next Eagle coach?
Cowher?
I had a long post earlier today but it got deleted. Doh...
Im about done with Andy Reid. 60 friggin passes against a team that cant stop the run on a super windy day ? SIXTY ? In the words of Charles Barkley..."boy, you must be outta yo damn mind !"
I dont want to hear squat about how Andy's track record speaks for itself. It doesnt...the first 5 years he was good. Since 2004 this team has been mediocre at best. Guess what Andy...this is a 500 team over the last 4 years in LAST place ! What does it take to get a guy fired ?
I dont know about you guys but I am done with mediocrity. Rip it down if you have to and start rebuilding. I honestly dont think they need to rebuild though...they NEED a new coach and MAYBE a new QB. The "west coast" offense is great with a super-accurate QB. We havent had one of those in decades....so why do we force feed this type of offense ? I think Mcnabb can be effective with a 60 percent run--40 percent pass gameplan...or with wide receivers that can grab badly thrown balls. (only baskett fits that bill)---but honestly if he left the team after this season I wouldnt be too broken up. Provided Reid goes with him. I doubt this team will win any more than 8 games this year...
Oh and I would LOVE to get Bill Cowher in here...bring some smash mouth to this town !
I've found myself at last, with all due respect for his great run and liking for him as a decent human being, on the "Fire Andy" wagon.
I think aside from a "what's best for the team" view, I'm just getting tired of the same 'ol same 'ol storylines with Mcnabb (I do very much consider myself a McNabb supporter) and Reid - CHOKE! STUBBORN! VOMIT! FOOT-IN-MOUTH!, etc.
They've been consistently good, and I don't think they're as awful as it seems to us this year -- they just consistently underperform expectations (and, yes, by both their previous success and their worlds, they've set those high expectations), and that's just not fun.