Ashley Fox: Eagles need action, not Reid's hollow words

Ashley Fox, a Philadelphia Inquirer NFL columnist, is getting pretty sick of Andy Reid's excuses.

I see the merit in her argument. Andy Reid has done an excellent job with this franchise, but his effectiveness is slowly waning. Opposing coaches and players have become accustomed to the Eagle's schemes and they're finding more and more effective ways to dismantle them.

It's easy for Andy to sit in his post loss press conferences, take responsibility for the loss and throw around a handful of cliches, but it's not helping the Eagles reach the playoffs.

Reid needs to fix what is ailing this team: the lack of a run game and poor play calling. The defense has been put into some tough positions this season because the offense has been unable to put together sustained, clock-eating drives. If the defense is on the field almost 40 minutes a game they're going to be ineffective.

Poor play calling has led directly to losses against Chicago and New York. The run game hasn't been on track all season and trusting it in the clutch instead of giving the ball to your superstar quarterback is not working.

McNabb has carried this team deep into the playoffs plenty of times before. Give him a chance to do it again.