Andy Reid is a good football coach who has won a lot of games in this town. He hasn't forgotten how to coach this season, hasn't suddenly gone senile, and - heaven knows - hasn't changed the way he does things.
If you like consistency, that hobgoblin of small minds, you are inclined to like Reid. The team practices on time, watches film on time, and gets to the airport on time, following the precise itineraries outlined in neat three-ring binders lined alphabetically on Shelf B - for "Binders."
Structure, the Eagles have that. Wins? Not so many this time around.
If the coach is the same, and the binders are the same, then the problem is probably the players. This is not speculation. This is process of elimination, and if the process goes much further, the Eagles are going to be eliminated awfully quickly.
Reid pulled the binder from the shelf that is labeled, "What To Do If You Are 2-4," and on the first page was this instruction: "Make them come in on their day off to watch film right away. This will get their attention."
And so it was. The players did not spend Monday waxing their Escalades or making January vacation plans for Playa del Nacho Grande. They went into the NovaCare Complex to watch a rocky, horrific performance against the Chicago Bears and to, according to Reid, get things fixed once and for all.
"There's a problem and we need to make sure we fix it. I don't want it to sit another day or two days," Reid said. "I want to make sure we get in, and we get the corrections that we need to get in so that the fellows can move on to Minnesota."
And don't ask what happens if they don't get to the airport on time.
That was the good news yesterday. Everyone came in and the mistakes were viewed on film and the corrections were dispensed.
The only remaining problem is that if the players were able to do things the right way, they would have done so in the game. You can show your cocker spaniel the mistakes it made on a physics test (the principle of least action should not take place up on the couch, even if no one is home, for instance), but that does not mean the next score will be any higher.
That might be the scary truth about the Eagles at the moment: They are playing as well as they can. Reid can make them come in Monday, Tuesday and twice on Wednesday, but it guarantees nothing.
Reid disagrees, naturally. He repeated yesterday his contention that the team is just a whisker away from a winning streak.
