Eagles coach Andy Reid faced the media Monday for his normal post-game wrap-up. But this week the media availability featured an icier (post loss) Reid after the Birds' embarrassing 27-6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
"All-in-all, we obviously need to do a better job," Reid said in his remarks. "I need to do a better job as the head football coach. It’s my responsibility if there are failures on both sides of the football. It obviously comes back to the head coach there. Getting a team prepared is very, very important, and I take full responsibility for that. We need to coach better, we need to prepare better, and we need to play better."
Besides saying he needs to "do a better job" what else did Reid say about the disaster in the desert?
“I thought we could get one into the end zone,” Reid said about the failed goal-line attack with seconds remaining in the first half that could have cut the Cardinals lead to 17-7. Instead, a Michael Vick fumble turned the game into a 24-0 lead for Arizona.
"They got us on that one with a zero blitz, but you saw (Vick) also make some nice checks prior to that and then after that," Reid said. "They got us on that one. He did a fairly decent job with that during the game, with the exception of that play."
Speaking of Vick, Reid says he is getting hit way too much and that all those hits aren't Vick's fault. Reid did admit that Vick should be getting rid of the ball quicker.
"We’ve kept a decent mixture with six-man protections and chip in and so on, but we’ve got to make sure that we eliminate some of these hits on him, for sure."
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Reid says he plans on sticking with Vick and not turning the quarterbacking duties over to Nick Foles at this point.
"Right now we’re with Michael and that’s what we’re doing. We’ll evaluate as we go."
So no news is good news it seems for Vick, and pretty much the same old news for Reid.
Here's my take on all this. I wouldn't put much into benching Vick at this point. The Eagles still are in first place and if they beat the Giants Sunday night they will be in even better shape.
As for the "do better" mantra?
Many fans (and media) will focus angst towards Reid's usual "do better" refrain but Reid repeating himself again and again may actually be a good thing because by doing so Reid puts the blame on himself rather than on his players.
Rarely, if ever, do I recall Reid publicly ripping a player. Instead, he's likely saving criticisms for the locker room and private meetings. He keeps his house in order by taking the blame, which keeps his players protected. No one ever wants their boss to let everyone else know about what they are doing wrong. Reid gets that.
