Everyone Has a Breaking Point…Even Me

According to the all-mighty source, wikipedia, “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” is an idiom derived from an Arabic proverb that spoke of a fully-loaded camel’s back being broken by a single piece of straw.  It is against all logic that a powerful camel’s back could be broken by a single piece of straw, but the proverb shows that everything has a breaking point, and it doesn’t matter how large or significant that “final straw” may be, the back will break.

I have, on numerous occasions, been staunch defenders of the current Eagles’ quarterback and head coach.  My defense of them is like a camel’s back–and even after this Sunday, the back has not been broken.  But, let me just say that this season, especially this Sunday, has added several VERY heavy bags to my camel, and now we may just be waiting for that piece of straw. 

Let us start with the head coach.  I am getting sick and tired of many, many things that has to do with Andy Reid.  I am not going to kill him for drafting Jerome MacDougle, Freddy Mitchell, or Winston Justice (probably because I liked all three picks), but it doesn’t help his cause.  I am not going to kill him for being far too loyal to guys like Matt McCoy and Sean Considine and not nearly loyal enough to guys like Ike Reese and Roderick Hood, but that doesn’t help either.  I am not going to go down the oft-traveled roads of ignoring gaping weaknesses in personnel (wide receiver, short-yardage running back) and blatant stubbornness in playcalling (though, it is very tempting after SIXTY f’ing passing plays compared to 18 running plays against a team with a terrible run defense and a mediocre pass defense).  There are some new things that are weighing down my camel.

Let us start by combining the two aforementioned weaknesses–his tendency to ignore gaping weaknesses in personnel and his blatant stubbornness to his “methods” regardless of the personnel on either side of the ball.  And some of this is going to go back to last year because one game may have been the difference between a disappointing 8-8 and being the New York Giants (a moderately talented team who got RED HOT at just the right time–and then had a parade).  It is completely irrespondible that Reid entered last season without a punt returner–costing them the game week 1.  I think it is completely unacceptable that Reid decided not to give Winston Justice help in a Sunday night game against the Giants, when Osi Umenyiora registered 6 sacks in a Giants win that could have been the difference between the Giants getting the Wild Card and not the Eagles.  And, this year’s egregious belief that a career defensive tackle could be signed as a fullback, only to realize that he couldn’t play fullback (after losing 40 pounds), trying him at defensive tackle, only to realize that they had a bigger hole at fullback now and made his change back (and put the 40 pounds back on).

I have never seen a coach be as completely out-coached as Reid was last Sunday against the Giants.  Coughlin strategized circles around our “genius” coach, resulting in another potentially playoff-costing loss to the hated G-men.  And, let us not even start with the two-minute offense that is STILL blatantly non-existent.  Which is the perfect segue to…

The quarterback.  I honestly cannot even wrap my head around the fact that a professional quarterback did not know…oh, never mind. 

Okay, I am scared that this is heading the direction that I did not want it to go.  The point of this was to say that the “straw” has not come yet.  The camel’s back is not yet broken (though he is heavily-laden).  Andy Reid has more wins, playoff wins, and a higher winning percentage than any other coach in team history.  Since he was hired, no NFL team has reached the divisional playoff round more than the Eagles.  He has sent more players to the Pro Bowl than any other team in that period–and none of them had made a Pro Bowl before his arrival.  Reid ranks 11th all-time in winning percentage among coaches who have coached at least 100 games–and is third among active coaches, behind Tony Dungy and Bill Belichick.  So, he rides a pretty strong camel–which, as this season is going, is a good thing.  But, for now, I do not agree with John Smallwood’s column today advocating the firing of the best Eagles coach ever.

And, the quarterback takes far too much criticism.  He is clearly the best quarterback to ever don an Eagles jersey and his birthday next week will only be his 32nd.  And, look around the league and see what quarterbacks have starting jobs in this league–it is too important of a position to run a someone in the top third of the league out of town.  And for whom?  A guy whose last start was at the University of Houston?  Not me…not yet. 

Though I do not completely agree with Rich Hoffman’s defense of him earlier this year.  I do think that in quarters two and three, he may be the best quarterback to ever play.  Unfortunately, those other two quarters count too.  Either way, let us wait and see how this season plays out.  They are not out of it, yet this year, and let us give that camel one more chance to make it through the desert.