The Philadelphia Eagles were living on the edge during the first two weeks of the season. They fell off the cliff Sunday in Arizona during a 27-6 loss to the Cardinals.
"I didn't have my football team ready to play. They did. My hat's off to them," Eagles coach Andy Reid said after the game, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I have to get my football team ready to play. I did a terrible job this week."
We'd argue the Eagles also did a terrible job with their timeout management. Any chance the Eagles had to win evaporated late in the first half. They trailed 17-0 and had the ball on the 1-yard line. They passed the ball three consecutive times because they had no timeouts.
They had wasted one timeout at the beginning of the second quarter. Reid wouldn't talk about why.
"We had a problem on that play," Reid muttered, according to Marcus Hayes.
"I changed the play. The coaches thought the clock was going to run out," Eagles quarterback Michael Vick said. "So they called the timeout."
"That timeout would have helped us there," guard Evan Mathis said.
These are the things that happen too often to Reid. He certainly doesn't do a terrible job overall, but clock management remains a consistent problem for him.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
