No, but it’s close. And this Sunday will see many teams solidify their playoff dreams and others will have their dreams crushed. The Giants will beat up on the Eagles and ruin the upbeat personality of the Philadelphia fans that has had them believing since their Thanksgiving beatdown of the Cardinals. There might never be anothe 6-5-1 team in NFL history with such hype that the 2008 Philadelphia Eagles are experiencing. They are finished, yet every week mainstream media pumps them up to the point that if you knew nothing about football, you might think they were the greatest team in the game’s history. But if you remember all that talk about Donovan McNabb not being bright and Andy Reid being even less bright, well that talk will return Sunday afternoon an dcarry all the way until the Philly opener in ’09 because at 6-6-1, it will finally be time to talk about the Eagles as what they really are. An underachieving, overrated, team in turmoil.
While watching the San Diego Chargers play the way many thought they would play all season in their embarrassment of a team that needs no more embarrassing (the Raiders), I couldn’t help but to think about what Norv Turner will be doing this time next year. And as they showed Al Davis sitting in a luxury box with what looked to be an Oakland Raiders Starter jacket from 1994, I couldn’t help but to think, where did Al go wrong? As what was once a storied and historic franchise has become the laughing stock of the league full of mediocre football players. But back to the Norv thing for a moment. Let’s take a look at The Big Three. And not Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, but rather the three biggest coaches who might not and should not be coaches in less than a month.
Wade Phillips
Good old Wade. What a character this guy is. For anyone who watched the Hard Knocks and watched country boy Wade Phillips run a camp then you have a good idea of what this guy is capable of. Since coming to the Big D, Wade has a record of 21-7 with the Cowboys, but when it really matters, and by “when” I mean the playoffs, Wade is 0-1 with one Giant loss at home as the No. 1 seed. Many thought it was a ballsy move by Jerry Jones to select Phillips as his coach and he has paid for it and will continue to pay for it when he lets him go this offseason and still owes him another year of pay. The Cowboys will turn the team over to Jason Garrett and will watch their defensive problems continue with the offensive coordinator as head coach. Over/under another 5 years until the Cowboys finally win a postseason game for the first time since 1996.
Andy Reid
Dandy Andy has done a lot for the Eagles. Sure, they have no rings to show for it, but he has taken them to a Super Bowl and four NFC Championships. Andy is 94-61-1 with the Eagles in the regular season and 8-6 in the playoffs, but Andy’s last playoff win came in 2006 against the G-Men, when Jeff Garcia was the QB and the duo of he and Donovan needs to be broken up or there could be a riot in the streets of Philadelphiaaaaaaaaa (nice little Bruce Springsteen reference there). But if you take a minute and actually read the words from “Streets of Philadelphia” you might actually think that The Boss was singing about McNabb and/or Reid. It’s tough when a coach is so closely linked to his QB and as is the case here, Andy will only go as far as Donovan goes. No playoffs mean no return. For either.
Norv Turner
He might have taken them to the AFC Championship in 2007, but it was really a lucky, non-magical ride made possible by the collapse of Peyton Manning in the divisional playoff. Norv is 74-95-1 in his career as an NFL head coach. He was given a team with LaDainian Tomlinson, Darren Sproles, Antonio Gates, Antonio Cromartie, Shawn Merriman (though he was hurt this season), Chris Chambers, Vincent Jackson, and I don’t think he is any good, but I will even throw Philip Rivers in there. With those players and many others good ones, the Chargers are currently 5-8 in a division that consists of them, the Broncos (8-5), the Raiders (3-10), and the Chiefs (2-11). The fact that they couldn’t win this division is enough to get the entire coaching staff fired in my mind. They were basically handed a 6-0 record with divisional games, but they wasted it and for that Norv must go. Though I’m sure that’s already the plan.