A Nightmarish Start

Photo oourtesy of lloydvance.wordpress.com

The majority of Philadelphia believed this was finally the year their beloved Eagles would bring a parade to Broad Street.  Going into week six of the NFL season, Eagles fans are left scratching their heads, pondering if a change in the coaching staff as well as the personnel will happen.

The Eagles have an abysmal 1-4  record.  They are desperately looking for a win when they travel to Washington to face the 3-1 Redskins on Sunday at 1pm.

On paper, the Eagles look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.  However, you can't judge a book by its cover.  The Dallas Cowboys experienced this first-hand last year when they went 1-7 going into week 8 of the season.  A move was made by Jerry Jones, firing Wade Phillips in the middle of the season and replacing him with interim and current head coach Jason Garrett.  

Expectations is a word that can excel or destroy a team.  So far, the Eagles are feeling the wrath of those high expectations, turning their season from a dream season to a nightmare.  

The Eagles have one main issue that is significantly obvious to their downfall of play:

   

Coaching- Turning an offensive line coach into a defensive coordinator with no experience is a risky experiment to run.

Andy Reid proposed this idea and made it happen when he hired his then offensive line coach Juan Castillo, and turned him into a defensive coordinator, replacing the great late Jim Johnson and his supposed successor Sean McDermott, who couldn't get the job done all too well last season.  However, McDermott didn't have the talent on defense like the Eagles have now; he would look really nice as an Eagles defensive coordinator right about now.

The defense looks very soft and cannot make a tackle to save their lives.  A lack in leadership and discipline is causing a downward spiral for the defense.

Players that are not afraid to get in another's face and tell them what they are doing wrong is needed.  Having leadership qualities like Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter and Hugh Douglas are no where to be found.  Tackling cannot be blamed on the coaches, but the schemes or positions that the players are put in could be the problem why it is an issue.  Reid's stubbornness in thinking that the linebacker and safety positions are safe and not that important is ultimately hurting his defense.  In the red zone, they are extremely weak and give up touchdowns like there is no tomorrow rather than holding for three points.  Again, the blame crumbles down to Reid.

On the offensive side of the ball, the run to pass balance has been completely dominated by the passing game.  Nothing new there for an Andy Reid offense.

It has been getting ridiculous and the results are the same.  Reid loses his trust in the run quickly, so he averts to the pass game.  Plays become predictable and defenses send more players to rush Vick.  How many more times will I see the offense set up in a shotgun formation?  Vick gets hurt because he never gets a break from pressure.  Coming in with a bunch of inexperienced offensive linemen has resulted in costly play in important times of the games and injuries to key players.

Yet, with all this said, Reid still manages to say the same thing at press conferences by taking full responsibility and promising to fix the problem the following week.  The problem is that he is not fixing the problem.  It is a recurring theme every week.  He is not getting through to his players.

When that happens, change is a necessity.  The question is, when or if it will happen...