So close, yet so far (part 1)

(Part one of a three-part series)
It took me about a week, but I finally am able to watch sports again, and just my luck, I returned to the sports world just in time to see my alma mater get pounded by 41 against Duke in college basketball. But then I turned my attention to the Super Bowl and remembered that for the 24th time in my life, the Eagles aren’t taking part in this game, and I’m determined to figure out why.

Over the next three weeks (assuming nothing major happens in sports that I feel I should write about) I will break down what the Eagles need to do between now and September to make sure next year isn’t the 25th time in my life that they fall short of the Super Bowl, and maybe, just maybe, even win it.

For starters, if the Eagles could have stopped Larry Fitzgerald, they would be playing in the Super Bowl this year, but obviously that didn’t happen!

Let’s start this three-part series at the top, with the head coach. I am still angry at the disgraceful way Andy Reid handled Donovan McNabb’s benching earlier this season, but it certainly worked as a motivator, as the Eagles won four of their last five regular season games and added two more wins in the playoffs to make it to the conference title game. Right now, many people are saying that it is time for Reid’s time on the sidelines to end, and that owner Jeffrey Lurie should bring in a “winner,” like former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, to get the Eagles that elusive Super Bowl victory.

I am not one of those people.

Cowher has indeed won a Super Bowl, but he did it in his 14th season with the Steelers, but Reid has only been with the Eagles for 10 seasons, so to be fair, let’s compare each coach’s first 10 years.

Through 10 seasons the coaches have similar records, with Cowher winning two more games than Reid, but amazingly, an equal number of ties. Each coach led his team to seven playoff appearances in his first 10 seasons, but Reid has four more playoff wins than Cowher, and both coaches were quite unsuccessful at making the Super Bowl, as Reid is 1-4 in conference championship games, while Cowher went 1-3 in his first 10 seasons.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll give Andy four more seasons to win a Super Bowl before I go calling for Bill Cowher, especially considering Andy wasn’t the coach who thought Kordell Stewart and his 70.7 career quarterback rating was a franchise quarterback.

Another point of contention with Reid is his playcalling, and the team’s lack of running plays. We can all debate the effectiveness of Reid’s playcalling, but those plays have gotten us to the playoffs seven out of 10 seasons, and to the NFC Championship game five times, so I won’t sit here and say that I could call a better game on offense.

While Andy Reid the coach is fine for right now in my opinion, Andy Reid the general manager needs a little help. The general manager version of Big Red is excellent at letting go of aging veterans - Duce Staley, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor, Hugh Douglas, and Jeremiah Trotter - but he definitely needs help bringing in players, and he certainly needs help determining that proven stars are worth more than the potential of a future draft pick.

I’m a huge fan of Brent Celek, who was a steal in the fifth round two years ago, but trading a second round pick in the upcoming draft would have gotten us Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, and opened up the field for guys like Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson. I like that we signed Chris Clemons, but Jared Allen would have looked great on our defensive line, and it would have cost us two first round picks, which probably would have been wasted anyway, considering our first selections the last two drafts were Kevin Kolb and Trevor Laws.

In addition to his hoarding of draft picks, Reid always seems to have one positional blind spot on the roster each season. This year, he didn’t have a true fullback on the roster. Last year, the Eagles went into the season without a punt returner. In previous years, the Eagles have had awful wide receivers or lacked a run-stuffer on defense, but these are all things that the rest of the front office could help with, so I’m not willing to place the blame solely on Reid for these shortcomings.

Through ten seasons, I honestly believe that Andy Reid has gotten those most out of the players on the team, and deserves to keep coaching here until he’s ready to move on. When that time comes, I think Reid would be the first person to accurately say that he can no longer coach at a high level. Besides, name me an available coach who would do a better job, especially seeing how similar Reid and Cowher’s records are through 10 seasons.

Next week, I will break down what the Eagles should do on offense this offseason, and then I’ll break down the defense the following week to complete this three-part series.

***
Super Bowl prediction: Arizona pulls off the big upset, winning 27-24 over the Steelers.

Like the “On the Edge” Blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show, where, this week, we will break down Super Bowl XLIII and possibly even talk about non-football sports!