Bob Ford | It's time to give Kolb his chance

It is sad, it is unfortunate, and it is surprising in many ways, particularly the speed with which this moment arrived. But it has arrived.

So, play Kevin Kolb.

That is said with the understanding that the Eagles can beat Washington and Miami in their next two games and even their record at 5-5. If they do so, they will talk about getting momentum and playing with confidence and making the postseason, and it will sound familiar enough to be believable.

"We need to back-to-back a couple of games here and get ourselves on a roll," Reid said yesterday. "Things can change quickly in the NFL, but we've got to do it. We've done it in the past, and that's what we need to do now."

And then what? Even if they do?

Let's say they do get on that downhill roll, somehow parlaying the Redskins and Dolphins wins with further success against a daunting end of the schedule. It goes New England, Seattle, New York Giants, Dallas, New Orleans and Buffalo. Are there four more wins in those six games, enough to get the Eagles to 9-7 and have a hope for the playoffs?

You wouldn't think so, but let's give them the benefit of our towering doubts. Let's say they do that and make the playoffs. So what?

If the 2006 season did anything, it should have provided a valuable lesson in the illusory nature of a late run to the postseason. The Eagles made that run last season and, while it was billed as an uplifting end to the season, a morale-building gift that would certainly carry over to the next year, that hasn't exactly been the case.

The Eagles aren't good enough to compete for a championship, and if that is still the point of all this, then it has to be acknowledged that, even if they slip into the playoffs, they don't belong there.

On Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles were revealed. You can argue about their schedule to this point - whether Green Bay is great, whether Detroit is a fraud, whatever - but there is no argument that the Cowboys are the best team they have played. And they didn't belong on the same field with them.

Even the Eagles' own Web site, the house organ that plays only uplifting tunes, called the game "truly embarrassing," noting that the team was "outclassed in every phase of the game." That's the positive spin, folks.

Not all of this, not even most of this, is McNabb's fault, but he's also not good enough right now to overcome the deficiencies around him. He's still gimpy, and he's still making awful mistakes. When he looked at Hank Baskett and looked at Hank Baskett and looked at Hank Baskett near the end of the first half, it was not a major surprise that the ball was intercepted when he threw to Hank Baskett. And that was the game right there.

Reid, of course, says McNabb will be the quarterback for the rest of the season, although even he stuttered a bit in making that call.

"Yeah, that's where I'm looking at things," Reid said. "Again, nothing is guaranteed in things. That's how I'm looking at it, yes."

He indicated that when the time comes to shut it down, take a hard look at the reserves, and begin playing for the future, he would do that.

"We'll see how things go here," he said. "I'm not going to put that out publicly, but I look at all that stuff. I'll do what I have to do when the time comes."

Not to state the obvious, but things aren't going too well here. How much longer it takes to see how things are going, and to see it within the office of the head coach, is unknown.

But the Eagles have gone far enough down the wrong road that there is no turning back, no getting it together with a couple of wins against mediocre teams.

The Eagles are not very good, and aren't going to be a true contender for a long while - long enough, regrettably, that it is time to make the most painful of decisions. It is time to put Kolb out there and begin to see what they have.

It is also time to get further looks at Stewart Bradley, Winston Justice, LaJuan Ramsey, Tony Hunt and the others. If they can't play, put them on the Matt McCoy retirement program. Find out now.

But, most of all, play the kid.

It's time.

at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com.

Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/bobford.