John Smallwood: Season is getting late already for Eagles
IT STARTED OUT well for the Eagles - sort of like Jimmy Rollins hitting a leadoff home run for the Phillies.
But while the Fightins carried their momentum to a spot in the National League Championship Series, the Birds fizzled out like a can of soda left open for 2 days.
Phillies players charge the mound to celebrate their NLDS-clinching 6-2 win over Milwaukee. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
The Eagles went from a 14-0 lead to a 23-17 loss to the Washington Redskins yesterday, and into a deep hole just five games into the season.
The only positive for the Eagles is that the city is probably so wrapped up in the elation of the Phillies being one step from the World Series that it might not realize what kind of jeopardy the Eagles have put themselves in.
Officially, they are teetering on the edge.
The Birds didn't just drop to 2-3 overall - they also are 0-2 in the division and 1-3 in the conference.
It's not just that the Eagles have only made the playoffs once under Andy Reid when having a losing record after five games. It's that the Redskins and Dallas Cowboys are 4-1 while the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants (4-0) are the only undefeated team in the NFC.
The Eagles are last in the NFC East and look like they legitimately belong there.
They were the only NFC East team to miss the playoffs last season, and they are well on their way to a repeat performance.
It's amazing how 2 weeks can change so many things. After beating Pittsburgh, the Eagles looked like they might be special.
Today, they look average, like a team with few answers to the questions raised after consecutive losses.
For a coach who likes to tell us, "It's my responsibility that we play better," Reid doesn't seem to know how to live up to that.
If Reid really had answers, wouldn't he have delivered them before his team fell two games behind all three division rivals?
Doesn't it stand to reason that if Reid really could "get our guys in better positions to make plays," this would not have been the fourth straight game that his offense checked out with at least 30 minutes to play in a game?
If a coach actually knew how to "make sure that [plays] get made," would his team really have failed to gain less than the yard it need at the goal line in the fourth quarter for the second straight week?
"I'm not going to get into all that," Reid said when asked how Brian Westbrook lost 3 yards on a third-and-1 from the Redskins' 2 that forced the Eagles to settle for a 23-yard field goal from David Akers.
Hey, I wouldn't want to get into all that, either.
And speaking of Akers, if a coach has dismissed concerns that his kicker is providing ample evidence that he might no longer be effective from beyond 40 yards, should he again be explaining why he sent him out there to miss another 50-yard attempt?
"He is going to make a lot more of those than he is going to miss," Reid said of Akers, who has now missed 11 of his last 14 kicks from beyond 40 yards. "Down the stretch here, he'll be fine."
Oh, really?
Needing the ball back against Chicago a week ago, the Eagles let Bears rookie Matt Forte run for 10 yards on a third-and-4 play with 2 1/2 minutes left in the game. The Bears then ran all but the final 17 seconds off the clock.
After gashing the Eagles for more than 200 rushing yards, Redskins coach Jim Zorn was so confident that his troops had worn down the defense that he called for a pass play on a third-and-1 from the Eagles' 38 with just under 3 minutes left.
When the pass fell incomplete, Zorn sent running back Clinton Portis up the middle for 3 yards on fourth down.
The run succeeded out of the shotgun formation.
Technically, it's still early in the season. But it's starting to get late for the Eagles.
Their next three games against San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle seem winnable, but the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys also have manageable schedules during the same period.
There is a strong chance that even if the Eagles get things turned around, they could still be at least two games behind everyone in the division at the midway point.
"We're going to get it straight," Reid said. "We wanted to do it this week. It didn't work out, so now we have to go back to the drawing board and get it done next week."
Maybe Reid needs some better chalk. *
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