1 Child’s play. How boring is the end of this Phillies regular season? The biggest story last week was a 3-year-old girl throwing away a foul ball and her Dad hugging her.
2 Paging Dr. Phil. The most underreported story of the week was Andy Reid’s 35-minute phone conversation with Dr. Phil. That’s right. Reid bared his soul to TV psychologist Dr. Phil. You can’t make this stuff up.
3 Safety net. So far, Brian Dawkins has 17 tackles in Denver, including a fumble recovery. His replacement at free safety, Macho Harris, has four tackles. Yeah, the Eagles won’t miss that old, slow Dawkins at all!
4Cowboy up. It costs a family of four $758.58 to go to a game at the new Dallas stadium. And the fans are happily paying it — proving again that Cowboy fans score higher on breathalyzers than IQ tests.
5 Masked man. Sheldon Brown wore a mask before Sunday’s game. That mask would have been a much better idea after the game.
Andy Reid called Sunday’s 48-22 loss to New Orleans “an absolutely horrendous performance.” What he didn’t say is why. So, I’ll tell you why. Reid’s coaching was atrocious. After 11 years, he remains an unsolvable puzzle.
Consider these questions: Did it make any sense to unveil a whole new package of Wildcat plays on the day Kevin Kolb made his NFL starting debut? Why did the Eagles throw out of the end zone in the final seconds of the first half, thereby handing the Saints an easy touchdown? And in what alternate universe is it wise to call a timeout with seven seconds left and trailing by 26 points?
Andy Reid would have been better off bringing a menu from the local pancake house than the color-coded game plan he consulted obsessively on the sideline. He didn’t need that laminated sheet against the Saints. What he really needed was a fresh copy of “Football For Dummies.”
Among many indignities on a horrific afternoon, the biggest area of debate after the game was Reid’s sudden affection for the Wildcat offense — a ploy he used nine times in the game for 44 yards and four first downs. Are those numbers really worth the disruption it causes the normal offense?
No, they’re not.
“It never allowed [Kevin Kolb] to get into a rhythm,” backup quarterback Jeff Garcia said later. Then the veteran Pro Bowler suggested that the Eagles “just go out and play football the way we’re used to playing.”
Amen.
Reid has lasted 11 years as a head coach in one of the toughest sports cities in America, and yet he remains an unsolvable puzzle — one week a genius, the next week a dunce. It makes no sense. He makes no sense.
A Pop Warner coach wouldn’t have tried a third-down pass from his own 8-yard line with 93 seconds left before the half, tied 10-10. When the pass fell incomplete, New Orleans — which had run out of timeouts — had enough time to grab a lead they would never relinquish.
Even more puzzling was Reid’s decision — with no one in the stands — to prolong the agony for one more play by calling that ridiculous final timeout with seven seconds left. Of course, the ensuing flutterball launched by Kolb landed in the hands of a Saint, punctuating a sad, strange day.
Reid is known after bad losses to chirp out the same tired old phrases, like taking “full responsibility” and vowing to “do a better job.” Well, his cliches actually rang true this time. The Eagles were absolutely horrendous on Sunday. Especially the coach.
– Angelo Cataldi is host of 610 WIP’s Morning Show. He can be heard from 5:30 to 10 a.m. His column runs in Metro every Tuesday.
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