BLOG: "The Gold Standard"
By: Bill Campbell
Eagles' owner Jeffrey Lurie once called his team "the gold standard". I wonder if he included Andy Reid's coaching record of double digit wins 8 times in 12 years. Not bad. Last week before the playoff game, I wrote a line about NFL teams changing coaches these days like the rest of us change shirts. I should have added "except the Eagles."
Many are blaming Michael Vick for the Green Bay playoff loss, mainly because of the interception he threw on first down from the Packers' 27 yard line which was picked off in the end zone. But Vick wasn't the only offender – though the most impatient offender, probably, as he admitted after the game. Even Riley Cooper, the intended receiver, said that he thought Vick was going to spike the ball. Vick had 44 seconds in which to work. He had turned his ankle on the previous play. He could have easily spiked the ball or checked off to a back. But he was not the only culprit.
David Akers was another, for one. He had been nothing short of brilliant for years, carrying the Eagles on his talented feet. He unfortunately picked this day to miss two field goals, both within his manageable distances – 34 and 41 yards. And there was the defense, which rarely came together all season. In this game it couldn't stop the Packers on 3rd down. And, of course, the offensive line couldn't protect Vick.
The injured DeSean Jackson was really a non-factor. He alone at full strength could have produced an easy Eagles victory.
In short, what happened at the Linc last Sunday was almost a case of the Eagles beating themselves rather than the Packers beating them.
And somehow, the man in charge, the major domo, the head coach manages to escape responsibility despite the fact that in his weekly post-game and day-after press conferences he uses sentences that say something about "responsibility". How many times have you heard him say, "I have to put people in the proper positions, that is my responsibility"?
All of these aforementioned people do work for Andy Reid. They play in the positions to which he assigns them. He is responsible, as he admits, for their being there. Yet for more than a dozen years, he has been able to wear the same shirt, not changing it, like so many of his brother NFL coaches. No one, as far as I know, has even suggested it. Amazing.
The failure in the red zone has been debated ad nauseum. It's not just the Eagles' failure to score in the red zone; they cannot stop the opposition from scoring there either. The Eagles have the worst red zone defense in the NFL this season. Opponents scored on 98 percent of their possessions on either a touchdown or a field goal. Last Sunday, Green Bay batted 1000 – 3 for 3, all touchdowns.
Reid said, post game, "It's one of our off-season projects, obviously."
Green Bay was 5 for 6 on 3rd down in the first half. Third down was pretty much the story of this game. Linebacker Ernie Simms summed up the Eagles' failure by commenting, "They gave us a little different look than we expected." Which, I think, is also part of coaching.
When all was ended and in the history books for all to see, this was a game dominated by incompetence on both sides with plenty of blame to go around.
Andrew and Oliver Luck
The college football story of the week was all about luck: specifically the luck of the Stanford Cardinal. Andrew Luck, the quarterback of the Stanford Cardinal, was a cinch to be the first pick in the upcoming college draft. But he announced the other day that he will pass up the millions that pick would bring to him to remain at Stanford for his senior year. And the reason for his surprising decision had nothing to do with the ramifications of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. His father, Oliver Luck, happens to be an attorney and holds no official connection with the NFL. But he also happens to be a lawyer who follows all of the CBA doings very closely and has a sound knowledge of the controversy. He took time, like a good father should, to explain the workings of the CBA stuff to his son and then advised him to make his own decision. The young quarterback agreed and to everyone's shock decided on another college season. In his father's opinion, he made the decision strictly on his own, without parental influence, because he simply loves Stanford.
