For Eagles, It's Not About Checks and Balances

In sports, as in life, balance is crucial. Someone might want to tell that to Andy Reid.

Better yet, somebody might want to tell that to Jeffrey Lurie.

Something came to mind last night as we were watching Post Game Live, helped along by a highly salient point from panelist Vaughn Hebron. Hebron - who also called Reid not telling McNabb personally of his decision to bench him - made the point that Reid is the one guy wielding 100 percent of the football authority. Team president Joe Banner, along with VPs such as Howie Roseman, are not "football guys" - the front office is largely populated with people whose specialties are accounting and contracts, leaving Reid as the sole voice on all things football.

Again, this is obvious but something that helps to show the systemic dysfunction in the franchise. Reid is head coach, VP and GM (sorry, Tom Heckert). Not exactly a system set up for adequate checks and balances. If Reid is wrong about something, who else is going to have the football credibility and expertise to call him on it? It's doubtful that one of the assistants would do something like that and even if they did, what are the chances Andy would listen? As assistant who might try to make the point would probably end up fired.

All of this permeates to the on-field product. It is nowhere more evident that in the offense, which, not surprisingly, is something Andy runs, too. As pointed out by Ray Didinger on PGL and by several other media outlets, the Eagles throw the ball an astounding 66 percent of the time. Sixty-six percent. It's a lot easier to prepare when you know what's going to be thrown (no pun intended) your way. Reid telling the media last week that he intended to run the ball more? Empty words that were made even more empty by the deactivation of bust Lorenzo Booker, leaving just two running backs available.

One of them, Correll Buckhalter, sprained his MCL Sunday. The other, all-world Brian Westbrook, was trying to perform with a persistent ankle injury. The result was Reid dialing up an obscene amount of pass plays, something that would have happened no matter the health or performance of any of his running backs. The injuries and Booker's deactivation serve as nothing more than a contrived justification.

All that without even considering the quarterback situation. After throwing McNabb off the field, Reid threw Kevin Kolb into the same impossible scenario McNabb had to deal with: Score points with a monumentally stupid game plan. Kolb enters and shock! - the result is worse. A three-point game turns into a 29-point blowout, forcing Reid to watch the Ravens douse former Eagles assistant John Harbaugh with Gatorade.

Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting a different result. Unfortunately for Eagles fans, we're unwitting riders on a psychotic horse insistent on running into a burning stable.