Andy Reid: Les Miles in a Fat Suit

The good thing about being a coach? It’s not how you get there; it’s the result. Les Miles and Andy Reid are the greatest benefactors of this logic that the football world has seen. Eagles fans have long lamented over Eagles coach Andy Reid’s decision-making ability. Through Terrell Owens, Donovan McNabb, and 4 consecutive losses in the NFC Championship, Andy Reid has been through a lot of adversity in Philadelphia. There was no better game that can sum up Andy Reid's tenure with the Eagles than today.
    The clock is winding down before the end of the second half. There are 45 seconds left and the Eagles have the ball on their own 17 yard line. The Eagles offense has gotten nothing all half. Vick scrambles for one yard, the clock is still running. What do you do at this point, Andy Reid? You sure don’t take any risks, do you? Andy Reid opts to keep trying to get points before half. Maclin ends up fumbling and the Giants end up with seven more points than they would have had if Reid had just taken his offense off the field and walked into the locker room. 17-3 is manageable. 24-3 is overwhelming. Or so it would seem.
    In the 4th quarter, the Eagles are in dire need of points. Vick completes a 31 yard pass to Jackson who “fumbles” and the ball is recovered by the Giants. Jackson was clearly down by contact. Reid does not challenge even though the game is likely to slip away if the Giants get the ball back and score (which they did). While this is partially on the men “upstairs” for not telling Reid to challenge immediately (sidenote: does every single announcer refer to the people in the coach’s box as the men upstairs? Where are these stairs?), Reid needs to throw that red flag if there’s any doubt, and there was a lot of reason to be doubtful.
    Questionable decisions. Unquestionable result. The Eagles put it all together with a comeback for the ages in the fourth quarter that makes everyone forget about Reid’s earlier mishaps. Reid’s shining moment came when he called for an onside kick with 7:28 left in the contest. Brilliant. Desean Jackson’s walk-off punt return touchdown sucked the life out of the Giants and capped off a furious comeback where the Eagles s
cored 28 points in the last 7:28 of game time. Tom Coughlin looked like the fool at games end after his punter shanked the ball, making the return for Jackson much easier than it should have been.
    Andy Reid is undoubtedly an offensive genius, but sometimes things happen in games that just leave you wondering. Until, of course, the results are in the book. Then he knew what he was doing al along. Les Miles, “the mad hatter,” has been known for the same kind of results. Miles has, in many people’s minds, redefined luck. But is it luck? Yes, yes it is, and you’re a fool if you think that Les Miles knew Tennessee would have too many people on the field at the end of the game or that good things happen when you squander timeouts. But it’s also something more. Reid and Miles do a great job of conditioning their players to deal with adversity. When all appears lost, that’s when Miles’ and Reid’s players step up the most. These two coaches do a great job of manipulating the minds of their players to come up big in big spots. They must, because there’s no other way they would be as successful as they are.




NOTE: I would also like to inform my readers that Sportswritten is welcoming a second writer to its staff. Jack Wascher, broadcast/journalism major at the University of Missouri has joined my staff and I'm excited to get his thoughts up on the site.