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If ever something fell under the category of careful what you wish for, this is it.

You may not like the way Reid goes about his business. Every human being alive, including this one, is sick and tired of his nonanswer answers at news conferences. You can question his play-calling and ability to make in-game adjustments. You can call him fat, stupid, and whatever else makes you feel better.

Here's the thing: Reid is a good football coach.

That's not an opinion. That's an indisputable fact easily supported by Reid's resume. The Eagles' coach is two wins shy of 100 for his career. Only 36 of the 440 coaches in AFL-NFL history have won 100 games, and 20 of them have accounted for 36 of the league's 42 Super Bowl titles.

The idea that the Eagles could never win a Super Bowl with Reid as their head coach is silly. This is a man who took his team to four NFC championship games and lost to New England by three points in the 2005 Super Bowl. You come that close, you have what it takes to win it all.

Look at the Eagles' 76-year history and you could argue that one coach - Greasy Neale - has been better, and if you remember him, congratulations on your retirement, and I hope the Social Security system is working well for you.

Now back to Reid.

Even though he has won more games than any Eagles coach in history and more than 88 percent of the men who have coached in the league's history, it doesn't change the fact that Big Red has the ability to frustrate.

It also doesn't change the fact that the head coach's performance should be watched with a critical eye. The fact that Dan Klecko has become the on-again, off-again, on-again fullback is as disturbing as the coach's oversight at punt returner and kick returner last season. Both decisions have resulted in costly early-season losses.

The fact that Reid felt the need to resume his role as the Eagles' play-caller after the team had so much success with offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg in that exclusive role in 2006 is also worth questioning.

Some good coaches in this league have been fired, and maybe Reid will eventually fall into that category because of his own general-manager decisions to trade away first-round picks in 2007 and 2008.

For now, however, Reid deserves the chance to turn around the 2008 Eagles, a 2-3 team that he believes is better than its record.

That, in fact, was the message that Reid relayed to his team after Sunday's loss to the Washington Redskins put them in the hole that has left the region turning against green.

Safety Brian Dawkins said Reid also had emphasized that it was still early and that there was time to turn things around.

"We have a long season ahead of us," Dawkins said. "Despite what our record says right now, we believe we have a good team. Everybody who doesn't feel that, I understand how you would feel" otherwise.

"But I don't think you . . . can get out of a tough hole without being positive."

That has always been the way Reid has handled crises. Go back to 2002 when the Eagles lost Donovan McNabb with six games remaining and finished 5-1 to win the NFC East. Go back to 2003 when the Eagles started 2-3, then won nine in a row en route to a 12-win season. Go back to 2006 when the Eagles lost McNabb again with six games remaining and again finished 5-1 to win the division.

Each time there were people inside the NovaCare Complex and outside convinced that the Eagles were finished. In 2006, just like now, there were cries for the head coach's job.

"I think you have to be flexible, but, at the same time, I think the players, they need to know what's expected of them each day," Reid said. "That doesn't mean there aren't subtle little changes that take place, but I'm not going to change drastically. This is what I know and what has been successful."

Even though the offense has been flooring it in reverse since piling up points and yards in Weeks 1 and 2, Reid's only major change in preparation for Sunday's game in San Francisco was making Klecko a fullback again and replacing him with Victor Abiamiri as a defensive tackle on passing downs.

Reid believes if you stay positive, keep a one-game-at-a-time approach, and work hard that everything is going to be all right. He has been right a lot in the past. What's different now is that the NFC East has become a beast of a division. And maybe the Eagles' improved rivals will be the monster that eats Reid out of a job.