Bill Conlin: Eagles players nearly put Reid in position to lose

THE NEXT-TO-LAST play of the first quarter. Third-and-a-yard on Denver's 18.

This was one of those situations that have come up hundreds of times during Andy Reid's now epic and recently extended stewardship of this football team.

And the idea advanced by the coach after every Sunday or Monday night misadventure - now a mantra that can be recited even by schoolchildren - is this:

"I've got to do a better job of putting players in a position to win."

There are semantic variations, of course - "It's up to me . . . ," etc. But the root message is always the same. It leaves little room for misinterpretation. It has been a chiseled-in-stone constant for

Reid during the 11 seasons that have become more reign than career.

The message is this, and it obviously resonates through the various dramatis personae of what has also been the Donovan McNabb Era:

"When we lose, it's on me; when we win, it's on you."

Accept the blame for gloomy Sundays. Step out of the klieg lights when the green-jerseyed mobs are online looking for the best Super Bowl packages and the airwaves are awash with civic hubris.

So it's the penultimate of the first quarter on Dec. 27, the NFC East title with its still-possible golden bye week to heal and prepare, and a homefield conference playoff game touching-close. Time to stop treating the red zone like airport security.

Marty Mornhinweg dialed up the Wildcat with DeSean Jackson, the littlest Eagle, running wide left in a play that was so slow to develop, there was time to shriek, "Why not let the 245-pound QB follow Jamaal Jackson on a quick count?"

DeSean kept looking for a cutting lane, but the tough Denver run defense strung him to the sideline, where linebacker D.J. Williams slammed him out of bounds for a minus-3. Slammed him hard. The diminutive dervish appeared to be hurting a little and pretty much vanished from the offense the second half. Kind of the way he vanished early in the fourth quarter of the lopsided, Week 2 loss to the Saints. Turned out with 8 minutes, 42 seconds left in the second quarter of that game, he lined up in the Wildcat, ran right and gained 4 yards, tweaking his groin on the play.

Turns out Jackson's minus-3 on a play where finesse was deemed the best way to gain a yard was a bit of foreshadowing in what appeared to be ho-hum victory No. 11 after the Birds took a 17-point, third-quarter lead.