Andy Reid's Last Stand?

Is this Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins the last stand for Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid? History shows that it just might be.

Only five NFL teams have ever started a season 1-4 and qualified for the playoffs since the current 12-team playoff format was implemented in 1990. All five of those teams won their sixth game to improve their record to 2-4.

Reid's 1-4 Eagles will face the NFC East division-leading Redskins (3-1) in what has to be considered a must win game. That's because no team has started the season 1-5 and made the playoff under the current format. Only the Cincinnati Bengals made the playoffs after a 1-5 start and that was all the way back in 1970. Again, this is a must-win game for Reid.

The problem is, this Eagles team has shown no signs of being able to win games. Their lone win was in Week 1 against the winless St. Louis Rams.

The Eagles have many problems and they all reflect poorly on the head coach. They lead the NFL in turnovers with 15 and have a minus-10 turnover ratio. In Reid's previous 12 seasons, the Eagles have had a negative turnover ratio only twice, in 2005 and 2007. Besides his first season in Philadelphia, those are the only two years that Reid has missed the playoffs.

Quarterback Michael Vick is the main culprit with the turnovers. He has thrown seven interceptions and lost three of his seven fumbles this year. And he has thrown at least one interception in 10 of his last 11 games dating back to last season.

While you might think that Vick's inability to protect the football isn't Reid's fault, you obviously forget that Reid brought Vick to the team and just insisted that the team sign him to a huge contract. It's Reid's fault that Vick is being paid as one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, even though anybody who has access to the statistics and a functioning pair of eyes, knows that Vick is vastly overrated.

Reid has a wide array of offensive weapons, yet he neglected to build even a decent offensive line. The rookie center gets physically over-matched on every snap. The rookie first round draft pick at guard couldn't even get on the field until a journeyman was so inadequate the team decided they had nothing to lose. The right tackle never played the position before this season. And the group can't get a single yard in short yardage situations, which has led to their futility in the red zone.

That brings us to the defensive side of the ball, where most of the real problems reside on this 1-4 team that many predicted to win the NFC East.

It was destined to be a disaster from the start when Reid hired his offensive line coach to be the defensive coordinator, even though Juan Castillo had never coached on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL. But the worst part about that hiring is that Reid forced himself into that corner.

You see, Reid hired defensive line coach Jim Washburn before he started interviewing defensive coordinators. While Washburn is a highly respected NFL coach, he also runs a very unique defensive line set, called the "wide nine". The "wide nine" sets the ends out wide and has all four down linemen go after the quarterback on every play, almost ignoring the run. It works in theory by producing big sack numbers, which the Eagles have actually generated this year. The problem is that it leaves huge gaps for opposing running backs to run through and allows offensive linemen to get right on the linebackers.


The Eagles didn't bother to sign even a decent linebacker and the results have led directly to that 1-4 record. The scheme worked well for Washburn in Tennessee because he had a good middle linebacker in Steven Tulloch. Tulloch was a free agent, but Reid decided he liked a rookie fourth-rounder in that spot instead. Tulloch signed with the 5-0 Detroit Lions, who run the same scheme, while the Eagles are at the bottom of the defensive rushing rankings.

Getting back to Castillo, the reason Reid hired him is that nobody else wanted the job. Other candidates didn't want to come in and be forced to run the "wide nine" scheme without a decent linebacker corps. So Reid essentially limited his options by hiring Washburn first. The reason Reid hired Washburn was because his offense always had so much trouble against those defensive fronts. The reason they had so much trouble is that Reid never runs the damn ball and since the "wide nine" is built to rush the passer, it's easy to see why it worked so well against Reid's offenses.

The rookie middle linebacker was moved to the outside and then moved to the bench. Yet teams are still running the ball straight down the Eagles throats. This was an obvious problem before the season even started to everyone with a clue, yet Reid didn't see it that way.

The team traded quarterback Kevin Kolb for a draft pick and a starting cornerback, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, then proceeded to sign the biggest name in free agency to a huge contract. That fact that Nnamdi Asomugha also played cornerback and the Eagles already had a Pro Bowl cornerback in Asante Samuel, didn't seem to matter to Reid. Bring in the big names and his new defensive coordinator will figure out how to use three players in two starting spots. Too bad it hasn't worked out that way.

Asomugha has surprisingly struggled in the zone coverages that the Eagles are using and Cromartie and Samuel shy away from tackles like Reid shies away from a salad bar. The subpar safeties aren't helping matters either. The team let safety Quintin Mikell go in free agency and never adequately replaced Brian Dawkins.

Speaking of Dawkins, another problem with Reid's hand-picked players is a complete and utter lack of heart. The team doesn't tackle well and other teams are not afraid to go over the middle since there isn't a single defensive player on the Eagles capable of laying a big hit on a receiver. When Dawkins was here, and even Mikell to a lesser extent, receivers didn't run across the middle without a care in the world like they do now. Intimidation is still a part of a good defense in spite of the NFL fining every borderline hit.

Another thing missing from this team is leadership.

When Dawkins was here he was the leader of the whole team. He led by example and by his words. He could fire up his teammates with a big speech and then go out on the field and wreak havoc on the opposing team. There isn't a single person on this current team with the credibility to be a leader.

Vick is considered the leader of the offense by default since he is the quarterback, but he is a turnover machine this season and doesn't have much pull with the defensive players. The offensive linemen are either young or quiet. LeSean McCoy is quiet and DeSean Jackson is more of a finger-pointing punk than a leader.

On the defensive side of the ball, there isn't even an option. Asomugha would normally be the best choice, but he's new to the team and still learning this horrible defense. Samuel is the defensive version of Jackson. The linebackers and safeties are all young and terrible. Trent Cole isn't a vocal leader and, like Asomugha, Cullen Jenkins is new to the team.

If you don't think strong leadership among the players is important, then think about the fact that Dawkins never allowed his defense to give up fourth quarter leads almost every week. Leadership matters and this team doesn't have any.

Since Reid picked every player on this roster that failing is on him. He assembled a bunch of stars and can't get them to gel as a team. Hey, what do you expect from a man who couldn't even keep his own sons out of trouble?

Speaking of the defense, it's now obvious that I was right all these years about the defense carrying Reid's teams during the early years of his tenure as head coach. Jim Johnson was a mastermind and Reid hasn't won a single game since his death. That is not a coincidence.

Then there is Reid's game-day failures.

I have long contended that Reid is the worst game-day coach in the NFL. He almost never runs the football in spite of the fact that McCoy is one of the most talented backs in the NFL. Reid never met a replay challenge he couldn't botch. He is simply the worst time-management coach in the NFL. And he is absolutely incapable of making any in-game adjustments. These are not my opinions, they are the facts of Reid's 12+ years of coaching the Eagles.

Then there is the matter of how bad Reid is at drafting players. There are actually those out there who disagree with me that Reid couldn't find a talented player in the NFL Hall of Fame. Those people would be wrong. The reason the team had to spend so much money on free agents this past offseason is that Reid's draft day mistakes have left this team woefully short on talent.

The Eagles front office is too cheap to fire Reid during the season though. Reid would have to not win another game for team president Joe Banner to fire him before the end of the season. This team values their public image almost as much as it values their money.

Unfortunately, Reid always manages to win a few games late in the season to make his record look better than it really is. I would say that stinks because it costs the team spots in the draft, but he is terrible at the draft remember? What's the difference?

Plus the Eagles have a bye after the Redskins game and Reid is a perfect 12-0 in games after the bye. His teams are also 65-27-1 in November and December, so there is a chance Reid could win enough games to actually get this team around .500 and save his job.

That is the doomsday scenario for any true Eagles fans. This team has fallen and it can't get up. That's because it's stuck under the weight of Reid's incompetence.

The more likely scenario is that this team continues to under-perform in spite of the fact that Banner declared that the team was "all in" after the free agent spending spree. In that scenario, the team would have no choice but to finally set Eagles fans free from the Andy Reid regime that has produced zero Lombardi Trophies.

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was just put on notice by his GM and Manuel actually won a World Series. Reid has never won a thing and it's time for him to move on. All he needs to do is continue down the same path he has been following all year and he'll force the Eagles to make a move.

The next step down that path takes place on Sunday in Washington. That's when we'll get to see which way Reid takes the Eagles.