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By John Smallwood
Daily News Sports Columnist
LYING IS SUCH an ugly concept.
Still, that is what Andy Reid must do this week.
He has to deceive his players, convince them that Sunday's 24-0 beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys will have no bearing on the rematch in the first round of the playoffs.
Reid has to fool his troops into believing that the Texas-sized woodshed whipping they took won't matter when they return to scene of the crime off a short week.
He has to repeat the mantra that on any given Sunday one team can beat another team, even though they are playing on Saturday night.
Reid has to tell the Eagles all week that they have a chance, when he knows that, in reality, all signs point to just the opposite.
The lying began yesterday.
"We will do better," Reid said less than 24 hours after the Birds were sent packing out of Texas with their tails between their tail feathers. "The things that obviously we can improve on from a coaching standpoint - substitutions, timeouts - again my responsibility; play calls, and then the performance by the players, whether it's dropped balls, turnovers in the red zone.
"Whatever it might be, missed tackles, those things we need to get corrected. They are all things that can be corrected. We'll go back to the drawing board and get better."
OK, so technically, this is not a fib.
I'm sure Reid believes all of this is true, and, given his track record, the Eagles figure to do better in a lot of those areas.
Where the truth is stretched is in the implication that somehow all of this will make a difference.
The simple truth is that Dallas Cowboys are better than the Eagles right now - perhaps even significantly.
The teams played twice this season and Dallas won both.
The Eagles had so much to gain on Sunday - the NFC East title, the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and a first-round bye.
As much ranting as there is about the Birds not showing up to play, that isn't what happened.
What happened wasn't about the Eagles being gutless. It was about the Cowboys just being a better team.
When a team gets manhandled in every phase of the game the way the Eagles did, it usually comes down to the other guys just being a bad matchup for your team.
What Dallas has in the trenches on both sides is capable of overpowering the Eagles at the line of scrimmage.
What Dallas needs is a quarterback to exploit the Eagles' defensive scheme, and that is what Tony Romo has become.
What the Cowboys need to neutralize the Eagles' quick-strike ability is what they have in their pass rush and secondary.
But if you are Reid and you have a game to play on Saturday, you can't tell your team that the other guys are superior.
You can concede that those guys just handed you your butts, but you can't say the same thing will happen the next time.
So Reid couched things.
"At this point, you're in the playoffs," Reid said. "It's a single-elimination tournament. You really don't care who you play or where you play.
"You're in. Anything can go. You don't care if you played them last week or 2 weeks ago. You're in the tournament. In our case, since we did play them last week, it's important to figure out what we did wrong and get that corrected."
That right there is the problem.
Reid is trying to make this more about what the Eagles didn't do than what the Cowboys were able to do.
The only way to get through this week is to convince yourself of that.
"We have a few things we need to take care of, which is stating the obvious," Reid said. "There are no excuses. There are no excuses for our performance [on Sunday].
"We have to do better. I think everybody understands that, coaches and players."
Just the Eagles doing better won't be good enough.
If both teams play their "A" games, the Cowboys will win.
If both teams play their "B" games, the Cowboys will win.
If the Eagles play well and the Cowboys are more than a little bit off, the Birds have a chance.
The truth is, the Eagles can't win. The Cowboys can only lose.
Deep down, that's what Reid and everyone else with the team knows.
So lying to you, me and especially themselves will be the common thread from the Eagles this week.
Asked whether his team will lack confidence in the rematch, Reid replied: "I'm not worried about that. I expect them to get back out and, as coaches and players, figure out the problem, get back out and execute. That's what we have to do."
At least that's what they have to keep telling themselves. *
Send e-mail to
smallwj@phillynews.com.
Daily News Sports Columnist
LYING IS SUCH an ugly concept.
Still, that is what Andy Reid must do this week.
He has to deceive his players, convince them that Sunday's 24-0 beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys will have no bearing on the rematch in the first round of the playoffs.
Reid has to fool his troops into believing that the Texas-sized woodshed whipping they took won't matter when they return to scene of the crime off a short week.
He has to repeat the mantra that on any given Sunday one team can beat another team, even though they are playing on Saturday night.
Reid has to tell the Eagles all week that they have a chance, when he knows that, in reality, all signs point to just the opposite.
The lying began yesterday.
"We will do better," Reid said less than 24 hours after the Birds were sent packing out of Texas with their tails between their tail feathers. "The things that obviously we can improve on from a coaching standpoint - substitutions, timeouts - again my responsibility; play calls, and then the performance by the players, whether it's dropped balls, turnovers in the red zone.
"Whatever it might be, missed tackles, those things we need to get corrected. They are all things that can be corrected. We'll go back to the drawing board and get better."
OK, so technically, this is not a fib.
I'm sure Reid believes all of this is true, and, given his track record, the Eagles figure to do better in a lot of those areas.
Where the truth is stretched is in the implication that somehow all of this will make a difference.
The simple truth is that Dallas Cowboys are better than the Eagles right now - perhaps even significantly.
The teams played twice this season and Dallas won both.
The Eagles had so much to gain on Sunday - the NFC East title, the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and a first-round bye.
As much ranting as there is about the Birds not showing up to play, that isn't what happened.
What happened wasn't about the Eagles being gutless. It was about the Cowboys just being a better team.
When a team gets manhandled in every phase of the game the way the Eagles did, it usually comes down to the other guys just being a bad matchup for your team.
What Dallas has in the trenches on both sides is capable of overpowering the Eagles at the line of scrimmage.
What Dallas needs is a quarterback to exploit the Eagles' defensive scheme, and that is what Tony Romo has become.
What the Cowboys need to neutralize the Eagles' quick-strike ability is what they have in their pass rush and secondary.
But if you are Reid and you have a game to play on Saturday, you can't tell your team that the other guys are superior.
You can concede that those guys just handed you your butts, but you can't say the same thing will happen the next time.
So Reid couched things.
"At this point, you're in the playoffs," Reid said. "It's a single-elimination tournament. You really don't care who you play or where you play.
"You're in. Anything can go. You don't care if you played them last week or 2 weeks ago. You're in the tournament. In our case, since we did play them last week, it's important to figure out what we did wrong and get that corrected."
That right there is the problem.
Reid is trying to make this more about what the Eagles didn't do than what the Cowboys were able to do.
The only way to get through this week is to convince yourself of that.
"We have a few things we need to take care of, which is stating the obvious," Reid said. "There are no excuses. There are no excuses for our performance [on Sunday].
"We have to do better. I think everybody understands that, coaches and players."
Just the Eagles doing better won't be good enough.
If both teams play their "A" games, the Cowboys will win.
If both teams play their "B" games, the Cowboys will win.
If the Eagles play well and the Cowboys are more than a little bit off, the Birds have a chance.
The truth is, the Eagles can't win. The Cowboys can only lose.
Deep down, that's what Reid and everyone else with the team knows.
So lying to you, me and especially themselves will be the common thread from the Eagles this week.
Asked whether his team will lack confidence in the rematch, Reid replied: "I'm not worried about that. I expect them to get back out and, as coaches and players, figure out the problem, get back out and execute. That's what we have to do."
At least that's what they have to keep telling themselves. *
Send e-mail to
smallwj@phillynews.com.
