WolfGANG
01-02-2008, 03:38 PM
Two things stick out most from all the areas Eagles coach Andy Reid covered in his season-ending press conference on Monday.
First is his emphatic remark about finishing off games.
"Those games that we were ahead in the fourth quarter, that's my responsibility to put our players in a position to finish those things off," Reid said. "We've got to get back to that mentality as a football team. I thought we did that better down the stretch. But there has to be an intensity, a want to dominate, an aggressiveness, both from coaches and players, not to allow that kind of thing to happen, nor a season like this to happen."
Second is his admission that even his basic philosophy is open to question.
"You do that every year," he said. "Whether you win or you go to the Super Bowl or you're sitting here at 8-8, you go through everything. Normally, your fundamental principles stay intact, but you go through it and you re-evaluate everything."
These are not mutually exclusive points. Fact is, Reid's time management and failure to make proper offensive adjustments were the reasons behind many of the heartbreaking defeats his team suffered this season.
In three of their losses, they either had a fourth-quarter lead (vs. Chicago and New England) or were tied going in (vs. Green Bay).
What everyone remembers about the Green Bay game was the muffed punt by J.R. Reed that set up the game-winning field goal. What many forget is that the Eagles might well have lost that game anyway. It was tied at the time, and the Eagles had gone three-and-out on their last two possessions.
They had a chance to possibly kick a long field goal on their next-to-last series, until a holding call on guard Todd Herremans turned a fourth-and-12 from the Green Bay 38-yard line into a third-and-22 from midfield. After an incomplete pass, they had to punt.
On their last series, quarterback Donovan McNabb dumped a third-and-5 pass to Buckhalter 2 yards short of the marker.
What everyone remembers about the Chicago game was the Bears going 97 yards with no timeouts to pull it out at the end. What many forget is that they never should have been in that position in the first place.
The Eagles had one more possession after coming from behind to take a 16-12 lead with just 4:57 remaining. But the play-calling did not put them in the best position to kill the clock.
Even after McNabb scrambled 9 yards for a first down -- following an incompletion that stopped the clock -- and the Eagles approaching field-goal range with the Bears sitting on just one more timeout, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg elected to pass, and McNabb was sacked.
Two more unsuccessful runs and another holding penalty (again on Herremans) later, they were being forced to punt from inside the 50 with 1:57 to go.
The coup de grace, however, came against the Seattle Seahawks, a team they never led in the fourth quarter but should have beaten three times over.
After calling 22 runs -- against 19 passes -- for 115 yards in their first 41 plays, which were good enough to create a 24-21 lead early in the third quarter, the Eagles ran it just eight of 32 times for 24 yards the rest of the way, gaining a total of three first downs in the process.
That offensive meltdown was just enough to allow the Seahawks to make a late third-quarter touchdown stand up as the difference.
After every game and throughout each week, the coaches are quick to point out that every game is different.
This is true.
The only thing that stays the same is the number of Super Bowls won.
Although it is probably an oversimplification to just say the Eagles pass too much, it cannot be repeated enough in this case.
A team with this much talent on the offensive line, devastating blocking power at the fullback position and an all-pro-caliber running back should never throw the ball as much as the Eagles did this season.
That's what's most in need of analysis right now.
First is his emphatic remark about finishing off games.
"Those games that we were ahead in the fourth quarter, that's my responsibility to put our players in a position to finish those things off," Reid said. "We've got to get back to that mentality as a football team. I thought we did that better down the stretch. But there has to be an intensity, a want to dominate, an aggressiveness, both from coaches and players, not to allow that kind of thing to happen, nor a season like this to happen."
Second is his admission that even his basic philosophy is open to question.
"You do that every year," he said. "Whether you win or you go to the Super Bowl or you're sitting here at 8-8, you go through everything. Normally, your fundamental principles stay intact, but you go through it and you re-evaluate everything."
These are not mutually exclusive points. Fact is, Reid's time management and failure to make proper offensive adjustments were the reasons behind many of the heartbreaking defeats his team suffered this season.
In three of their losses, they either had a fourth-quarter lead (vs. Chicago and New England) or were tied going in (vs. Green Bay).
What everyone remembers about the Green Bay game was the muffed punt by J.R. Reed that set up the game-winning field goal. What many forget is that the Eagles might well have lost that game anyway. It was tied at the time, and the Eagles had gone three-and-out on their last two possessions.
They had a chance to possibly kick a long field goal on their next-to-last series, until a holding call on guard Todd Herremans turned a fourth-and-12 from the Green Bay 38-yard line into a third-and-22 from midfield. After an incomplete pass, they had to punt.
On their last series, quarterback Donovan McNabb dumped a third-and-5 pass to Buckhalter 2 yards short of the marker.
What everyone remembers about the Chicago game was the Bears going 97 yards with no timeouts to pull it out at the end. What many forget is that they never should have been in that position in the first place.
The Eagles had one more possession after coming from behind to take a 16-12 lead with just 4:57 remaining. But the play-calling did not put them in the best position to kill the clock.
Even after McNabb scrambled 9 yards for a first down -- following an incompletion that stopped the clock -- and the Eagles approaching field-goal range with the Bears sitting on just one more timeout, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg elected to pass, and McNabb was sacked.
Two more unsuccessful runs and another holding penalty (again on Herremans) later, they were being forced to punt from inside the 50 with 1:57 to go.
The coup de grace, however, came against the Seattle Seahawks, a team they never led in the fourth quarter but should have beaten three times over.
After calling 22 runs -- against 19 passes -- for 115 yards in their first 41 plays, which were good enough to create a 24-21 lead early in the third quarter, the Eagles ran it just eight of 32 times for 24 yards the rest of the way, gaining a total of three first downs in the process.
That offensive meltdown was just enough to allow the Seahawks to make a late third-quarter touchdown stand up as the difference.
After every game and throughout each week, the coaches are quick to point out that every game is different.
This is true.
The only thing that stays the same is the number of Super Bowls won.
Although it is probably an oversimplification to just say the Eagles pass too much, it cannot be repeated enough in this case.
A team with this much talent on the offensive line, devastating blocking power at the fullback position and an all-pro-caliber running back should never throw the ball as much as the Eagles did this season.
That's what's most in need of analysis right now.