 |
10/30/2005 |
|
What the Eagles Must Do | |
|
||
|
||
|
While watching the 49 - 21 embarrassment and the ensuing Post-Game Show, I left with one positive thought, Ray Didinger really knows what he is talking about. Here is what I took away, the Eagles will never win a championship with Andy Reid as the Head Coach. No, I'm not off the bandwagon, in fact I was never on the bandwagon. I have lived and died by the Eagles as long as I can remember, and I hope I am wrong. Reid has been the coach for 7 seasons, and what do we have to show for it, 1 NFC Championship and a really good regular season record. We also have a coach that still can not manage the clock, is so stubborn that he insists on calling all plays and defying football logic with his play calling, waste time outs, and does not enable his offense to conduct an efficient drive. The results of the first 3 drives today, 3 and out, 0 yards, 9 passes, 0 completions! Why, because Reid refuses to run the damn ball. I could prepare a defense against this offense because of the mono-facet of the play calling. All you need to do is attack McNabb. The Broncos often had 7 or 8 men in the box and blitzed from all over. McNabb ended up with 2 sacks, 10 hits and 15 hurries on 34 passing plays. Nearly 80% of the passing plays McNabb was rushed or running for his life. This, however, is the result of a larger problem and why Reid has to change his coaching or leave and why R.D. is brilliant. Because of the slowness of Reid getting the plays in to McNabb, the offense is commonly getting to the line with only a few seconds to spare. No time for McNabb to adjust to the defensive scheme and audible. You may look at the Eagles record and say I'm nuts, but let's be honest, the NFC sucked the past few years and the Eagles were lucky. The Eagles also have a great road record, however, if you look at who they played, per R.D. they are 6 and 12 against teams, on the road, with a winning record. However of those 18 games, if they have a 100 yard rusher, they are 2 and 1. If they Eagles would have run against Tampa Bay and Carolina, they could have won those NFC Titles. But the stubborn coach had to have his way and pass. Right now nearly 80% of all their offensive plays are passes. (No team in NFL history has been so mis-balanced in favor of the pass.) As a result, 42% of all their offense drives have been 3 and outs. Last year was lightning in a bottle, the offense clicked on all cylinders and there was no real competition, except Pittsburgh and New England. The last few years the NFC stunk, but now that teams are improving, Dallas, NY, and Atlanta for examples, the Eagles struggle. These issues were not major problems because the talent of the players on the Eagles and lack of talented players on the opposition teams allowed them to get by. Reid now must adjust or in my opinion, be let go at the end of this season. 1) Get the plays in to McNabb with enough time for him to make audibles at the line of scrimmage. This would also result in the likelihood that timeouts would remain when they were needed most and a decrease in delay of game, false start and other offensive setup penalties. 2) Alter the game plan to increase the run percentage. Resulting in better protection for McNabb, the ability to use play action (which is a joke that they actually run this), increase in offense TOP keeping the other teams offense off the field and Eagles defense rested, and the need for defensive coordinators to prepare more. You might think I am off my rocker to think Reid should be let go, but it has been 7 years and these same issues always come up, if the rest of the league did not suck the past couple of years, I firmly believe Reid would be someplace else by now. I am tired of him saying in his post game press conference, "I take full responsibility for that," and "We need to do better in that area of the game." You are supposed to be contending for the Super Bowl, you should be able to execute the basics of coaching a football game. Boy, I hope I am wrong. |
|
|
||
|
||