Andy Reid’s days in South Philadelphia might be numbered, but the coach continues to go through the motions. On Monday, at his weekly day-after press conference, Reid attempted to calm the storm. He still believes he can fix this broken season.
“I believe it’s fixable. We’ve got to eliminate the mistakes. It’s not an effort or a want-to [situation]. I don’t see that,” Reid said. “I’ve said before, sometimes I see guys are pressing a bit when they don’t need to press. Guys that have been very consistent players for us in the past, [those] guys are pressing just a bit. They want to do so well, they want to be that guy that makes the play, and you’ve just got to back up and do what you do the best. Relax, play the game and play the way you know how to play.”
The Eagles are 3-7 with six games left. It would take nothing short of a miracle for Reid’s team to make a playoff push now. And, after owner Jeff Lurie said 8-8 wasn’t acceptable, Reid will most likely be fired. That will be Lurie’s call to make after the season because Reid has no intention of stepping down.
“I’m standing in front of the team and telling them these are the things we need to do, one of which is to continue to battle. So, I think that’d be a cop-out,” Reid said, when asked if he might resign. “That’s not how I see things. That’s not the way I’m wired. We’re going to keep battling and do it as a team. I’m not going to tell the guys one thing and then do the other.”
McCoy concussed, no regrets
LeSean McCoy woke up with a headache Monday morning, a tell-tale sign of a significant concussion. Andy Reid called it a day-to-day situation, but it appears unlikely that he’d be cleared to play Monday night against Carolina.
Reid has taken severe heat for leaving his franchise running back in the game with 1:58 remaining while trailing by 25 points. Reid said he wished the injury wouldn’t have happened, but he doesn’t regret the decision.
“These kids want to play. There are two sides of this,” Reid said. “With that, I don’t regret it. It happened. Do I wish he wouldn’t have been hurt? Yeah I do wish he wouldn’t have been hurt, but I don’t regret that.”
Mike Vick is also fighting back from the concussion he sustained two weeks ago against Dallas. Vick, like McCoy, is in stage one of the NFL’s concussion protocol.
“He took the impact test but he’s still not at baseline, so he would be considered in stage one,” Reid said.
Reid said that if Vick is cleared later this week, he’d be the starting quarterback.
“Well, we’ll see how he does this week, but yes,” Reid said.
