By JEREMY ELLIOTT, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
PHILADELPHIA — Andy Reid’s grand experiment of building an all-star team to quench Philadelphia’s thirst for an NFL championship has officially come to an end.
Time of death on the 2011 Eagles and what was supposed to be a “Dream“ season: 7:25 p.m. Sunday.
And if it was up to a portion of the fans that were in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field to witness another Eagles comedy of errors against the New England Patriots, Reid’s tenure as head coach would be over as well.
During the fourth quarter of the Patriots’ 38-20 dissection of any heart left in the Eagles, an emphatic chant rose up from the chilled stands: Fire, Andy, Fire, Andy, Fire, Andy. After another dismal performance, you couldn’t blame them.
Eagles fans have had enough. They are sick of the excuses. Sick of the penalties, sick of the turnovers, sick of DeSean Jackson, who seems like his head is elsewhere, dropping touchdowns -- he missed two more Sunday.
Most of all, they are fed up with Reid’s mantra. “I need to do a better job. That‘s might responsibility. It starts with me, and we need to do a better job.”
No kidding, Andy. Everyone in this organization; players, coaches and the guys in the Eagles front office have to be accountable for this mess.
It’s pretty bad when Temple has more wins at the Linc this season -- they have five -- than the Eagles, who are now 1-5. Good thing the Army-Navy game isn’t played in Philly, otherwise, one of those teams would be guaranteed to match that total.
Hell, Real Madrid has as many wins in Philly as the Eagles, who have lost eight of their last nine, dating back to Dec. 3, 2010.
“It’s embarrassing,” tight end Brent Celek said. “Looking at the schedule at the beginning of the year, you have to win at home and steal a few on the road.
“It’s been the exact opposite. It’s something we need to fix, I mean, we are supposed to have an advantage at home.”
It’s not that the Eagles can’t play with the Patriots. They can play with anyone in the league if they could get out of their own way. Problem Sunday, the stumbled over themselves and fell further into a season-long abyss.
What makes this even more gut-wrenching is that the Eagles scored on their first two possessions and had a 10-0 lead. Reserve quarterback Vince Young was 4-of-8 for 130 yards on the first two drives, and the offense was clicking on all cylinders.
That’s when the wheels fell off. The Patriots made adjustments, and the Eagles defense was ripped apart by Tom Brady’s crew.
Some of it was scheme. Defensive coordinator Juan Castillo is a nice guy, but Patriots receiver Deion Branch admitted that once they saw what the Eagles were doing, it wasn’t hard to defeat. When the Eagles made adjustments, Branch said, “We just rolled to the next thing.”
Translation: Castillo is out of his depth, and Reid should be held accountable because he is the one that put him in that position.
But not all of it falls on Castillo. The defense kept two early drives alive with two false start penalties -- the Eagles had 10 infractions on the day -- and another for 12 men on the field. The tackling was at the high school level.
Chemistry continues to be a problem. Branch abused Joselio Hanson to set up a touchdown, and Wes Welker was open by 15 yards for a score that made it 21-10 when safety Nate Allen and Hanson had miscommunication.
Even when the Patriots went up 31-13 on the first drive of the second half, the Eagles still had a glimmer, albeit a dim one, of hope.
The offense drove inside the Patriots 5-yard line but stalled. The questionable fourth down call: a jump pass from Young, who finished with 400 meaningless yards, to Brent Celek in the right corner of the end zone.
That’s when the fans came to life. They peppered this team with boos and a tune towards their head coach of 13 years.
“It’s horrible. You know what kind of coach he is,“ Celek said. “We don’t want to hear that, he doesn‘t want to hear that.
“It’s the players that are putting a bad product on the field, and we need to pick it up.”
That may be, but it’s happening on Reid’s watch. And even if the Eagles (4-7) do step up and win out, it is too little, too late.
This team needs to focus on one game at a time to save their leader’s job and their pride. But after watching them Sunday, I have to wonder if this team has any of the latter left.
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