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Not an Eagles beat writer, but Bill Simmons pretty much nailed FB with this latest piece from his mailbag. I personally think the Art Shell comment is the funniest part.

Q: On behalf of every Eagles fan, can you please be the one media guy who doesn't suck up to Andy Reid and point out all the reasons why he sucks and needs to either resign or start smoking? The man either needs more oxygen or more nicotine. Thanks in advance.
-- Randy, South Philly

SG: I'd be delighted! Reid is like Art Shell with a better PR staff. He makes terrible decisions at the worst possible times. His players make boneheaded mistakes (like the DeSean Jackson spike, or McNabb's pathetic eight-minute drill in Super Bowl XXXIX) and nobody ever blames him. He doesn't seem to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his players even remotely, as we witness every week when poor David Akers is forced to try 50-yard field goals with a 43-yard leg and their crappy offensive line is forced to keep ramming it down someone's throat on third-and-1. His clock management has always been horrendous -- always -- even back when the Eagles were going to the NFC title game every year.

Here's how much Reid has slipped as an NFL coach: During the Skins-Eagles game, Antwaan Randle-El threw an option pass TD that Reid challenged even though Randle-El was clearly behind the line. There was no debate. I watched the play live and didn't even know what Reid was challenging until Troy Aikman guessed it correctly. ("You're exactly right, Troy!") So we wasted two minutes watching replays of Randle-El throwing the pass from two yards behind the line of scrimmage, then Philly eventually losing a timeout on one of the five dumbest challenges of this decade. And I was sitting there thinking that we needed some sort of "Coaching Boners" stat to capture the following things …

1. Calling for inane challenges that have no chance of getting overturned.
2. Horrendous goal-line plays that cause fans to start booing even as the ball-carrier is getting tackled.

3. Egregious and indefensible brain-farts by a player.

4. Any needlessly counterproductive decision along the lines of "David Akers couldn't make a field goal of more than 50 yards right now unless we injected him with enough cocaine, Red Bull and HGH to kill a thoroughbred horse, but screw it, we're trying this 52-yarder anyway."

5. Screwing up the clock management in the "Two minutes to go and we need two scores" scenario.

6. Screwing up your three timeouts when there is less than four minutes left, you're trailing and you need to save as many seconds as possible.

When you think about it, we could easily keep track of those six categories. And if we did, we'd find that Andy Reid has doubled the total of any other coach for 2008 coaching boners through five weeks. I am convinced.

Ya beat me by 7 minutes.

It was nice to finally see someone on the national level rip a new one into Reid.

Wow.

The luster is coming off the polished turd...

In fact, I just thought of a bunch more categories I could add:

7. Not calling for challenges when they could very well turn out to be game changers.
I.E. The fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown against Dallas. The goal line
rushes which actually seemed to cross the goal. The 4th and inches calls that screamed
for a better spot. I could go on forever.

8. Continuing to think you should have a 70/30 pass/run ratio when none of your receivers
could be considered the #1 receiver on any other NFL team.

9. Continuing to believe that people who are injured can play as though they're not injured
(McNabb last season, Westbrook this season)

10. Putting someone in a position they've never been in before, and expecting them to succeed.
Greg Lewis as punt returner last season (fumbles 2 punts). Tony Hunt as fullback this season (getting
stop 4 straight downs at the goal line)

Domo apparently has grown a pair.

Who'da thunk it?
click here

This was pretty funny:

Les Bowen: Grounds for concern after Eagles' loss to Giants


By Les Bowen
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Sports Columnist

IN THE GOOD old days, 5 or 6 or 7 years ago, we would complain about the Eagles not being able to hammer out tough rushing yards, and not being able to stop the run. These complaints would trigger a sort of condescending chuckle from the team's brain trust, and a lecture on how running and stopping the run were so '90s. The new millennium was going to be all about passing and stopping the pass. You were going to have to beat teams like the St. Louis Rams and their Greatest Show on Turf to get to the Super Bowl.

Well, here we are in 2008, and somehow, we aren't all flying around in rocket cars, like the Jetsons. The No. 1 rushing attack in the league, heading into last night's action, belonged to the defending Super Bowl champion Giants, no small thanks to the mind-bending 219 yards gobbled up in Sunday night's beat-down of the Eagles. Washington weighed in at No. 4 in NFL rushing. The Cowboys were 12th. And the Eagles, who couldn't convert third-and-3 or fourth-and-1 on the ground to give themselves a decent shot at the end of Sunday's game? Twenty-second, far and away the least effective rushing attack in the NFC East.

In rush defense, the Eagles (14th) again rank behind the Redskins (sixth) and the Giants (seventh), slightly ahead of the Cowboys (17th), who also are a troubled team right now.

So, a reporter wanted to know yesterday, as the other teams in the division have gotten bigger, stronger and more run-oriented over the past few years, what have the Eagles done to counter this?

"I'm not concerned, other than stopping it,'' said Reid, who might as well have showed up for his day-after news conference wearing bell-bottoms and a Nehru jacket. "I know we can do that with the people we have.''

Reid talked yesterday about scheme and execution being to blame - translated, the coaches and the players both stunk. The answer didn't provide much insight, but it was a little easier than having to listen yet again about the need for Reid to put players in a better position to make plays.

And let's visit the other side of the argument, one Rich Hoffman:

On NBC the other night, Tiki Barber's cohorts were lauding him because Barber apparently predicted in the studio that Andy Reid would call running plays on third-and-3 and fourth-and-1 near the end of the Eagles' loss to the Giants. You might have heard that the plays failed.

By definition, that makes them lousy play calls -- and that's on the coach, and that's fine. But when Barber said that Reid had become "predictable" in those situations, well, that isn't true. On fourth-and-1, everybody knew it was going to be a running play because virtually everybody in the NFL runs in that situation. There was no special clairvoyance required there, despite the back-patting occurring on television.

The issue was the third-and-3. Maybe the formation tipped Barber to something, but that isn't what he said. What he said was that Reid had become predictable. But there was nothing predictable about the play. It might have been a lousy play but it wasn't predictable. The Eagles had not run on third-and-3 all season, not once. How could this be predictable?

For what it's worth, here are the six previous third-and-3 plays this season.

Dallas, first quarter, incomplete to DeSean Jackson.
Pittsburgh, second quarter, 4-yard pass to Lorenzo Booker. (Who?)
Chicago, third quarter, incomplete to Reggie Brown.
San Francisco, second quarter, complete to Jackson for 2 yards.
Seattle, first quarter, incomplete to Kevin Curtis.
Seattle, second quarter, complete to Curtis for 26 yards.

That's it -- six plays, six passes, two successful conversions.

There was nothing predictable about a running play when the Eagles broke the huddle there. For Tiki Barber, it was a good guess.

He even has a nice picture of Tiki in a lizard outfit to extend his point. Moron.

Reid HAS become predictable, and Rich trying to do an end-around to defend the coach is laughable (hey, what were the conditions on those plays? Because that's as much cause for predictability as anything else).

And that doesn't even mention the fact that the Giants KNEW they were running right and shifted their formation right before the snap to adjust.

Not really Rich's point, but listening to Runyan last night on DNL was a little painful. Without saying it aloud or maybe even realizing it, he admitted the Giants knew what they were doing when they tried to run.

He kept saying stuff like "We were missing blocks partially because they weren't doing what they were supposed to do as a defense. We kept wondering why they lined up a certain way or a player played in a certain gap they really shouldn't have been in, but they gambled and won"

I think that pretty clearly says two things:

- They knew the play calls (at least in the run game).

- McNabb either didn't know or wasn't able to audible out of the calls.

Considering Reid's control-freakish nature, it's no surprise that he doesn't really let McNabb audible out of the play - I mean, even McNabb had to see the Giants were shifting, and his frustration is not born out of someone who's allowed to do a Peyton Manning.

So, a reporter wanted to know yesterday, as the other teams in the division have gotten bigger, stronger and more run-oriented over the past few years, what have the Eagles done to counter this?

As I mentioned in the game thread. The Joe Gibbs "Run the ball down their throats" mentality started to return the NFC East last year and is in FULL FORCE this year with the exception of??? The Philadelphia Eagles.

Not really Rich's point, but listening to Runyan last night on DNL was a little painful. Without saying it aloud or maybe even realizing it, he admitted the Giants knew what they were doing when they tried to run.

He kept saying stuff like "We were missing blocks partially because they weren't doing what they were supposed to do as a defense. We kept wondering why they lined up a certain way or a player played in a certain gap they really shouldn't have been in, but they gambled and won"

I think that pretty clearly says two things:

- They knew the play calls (at least in the run game).

- McNabb either didn't know or wasn't able to audible out of the calls.

Effin scary :-)

"I'm not concerned, other than stopping it,'' said Reid, who might as well have showed up for his day-after news conference wearing bell-bottoms and a Nehru jacket. "I know we can do that with the people we have.''


Reid must go.... ASAP

"I'm not concerned, other than stopping it,'' said Reid, who might as well have showed up for his day-after news conference wearing bell-bottoms and a Nehru jacket.

is that what people wearing in the early 2000's?

maybe boot-cut jeans and those collarless leather jackets would have been a more accurate put-down.

"I'm not concerned, other than stopping it,'' said Reid, who might as well have showed up for his day-after news conference wearing bell-bottoms and a Nehru jacket.

is that what people wearing in the early 2000's?

maybe boot-cut jeans and those collarless leather jackets would have been a more accurate put-down.

ugh.

I think he had carpenter jeans and frosted tips in his hair

Carpenter jeans were sweet. Nothing capped them off like a pair of Docs or Timbos and a flannel shirt.

I really do want Docs to come back already. I might just do it myself because they are really comfortable and practical.

Docs were the best. I wore mine for years until the soles completely disintegrated.

How many members could fit inside Reid's Member's Only jacket?

To add to what Tiki was saying, my 13 year old son knew what they were going to run as soon as they broke the huddle. And he has only been playing football for 2 years!! Of course this makes him over-qualified for the Eagles linebacker coaches job.

absolutely scathing article by domo today on reid's "mind boggling" (his words) handling of the fullback situation this year.
linc

whoops, that probably should have gone it the fullback thread.

Hoffman is saying 11-5 and this team makes the playoffs. Sounds fair.

That means going 6-1 from this point out. Possible? Yeah. Probable? Nope.

There's something in Hoffman's mouth, and it's either a huge hit of acid or Reid's cock.

FINALLY.

Someone is suggesting it's time for Reid to go.

Of course, it's Les Bowen.

(Note there is one line in here that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.)
Yo, click it

"to allow management to cling to the mistaken belief that it has the personnel in the trenches to line up with the best."

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