Lurie Takes a Mulligan on His Eagles

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What if every NFL team were given one mulligan per game?

What if Andy Reid could re-think the decision to go for it on 4th and 1 against the Giants? What if Alex Henery could re-try either of his two missed field goals against the 49ers?

What if the Bills had to line up and actually punt or run a play after Juqua Parker jumped offside? What if Andy threw the mulligan flag after Asante Samuel left Jaiquawn Jarrett on an island with Larry Fitzgerald?

What if the Eagles had do-overs on last-gasp drives where Jeremy Maclin dropped a fourth down pass in Atlanta, and fumbled the ball away against the Niners? What if they had another chance after Jason Avant failed to haul in the pass that moseyed into a defender's hands in Buffalo? What if immediately after DeSean Jackson put the ball on the carpet at his own nine-yard line, they could have simply made the Bears punt the ball again?

How many more games would the Eagles have won had they used a mulligan on any of their nine turnovers in the red zone this season?

What if the Eagles were given even just one mulligan this season?

Clearly, they would be in the playoffs.

If Jeffrey Lurie doesn't want to admit he's making excuses for Andy Reid and his club's 8-8 record, at least not publicly during Tuesday's news conference, then I suppose I'll have to be the one to play devil's advocate; and the fact is, if Lurie is unable to explain why he believes the Birds will rebound under Reid next season, that's probably because he can't figure out how they fell on the wrong side of the postseason in the first place.

Just look at all the things that had to go wrong to lose those games. It was quality players constantly coming up small, often multiple times during the same sixty minutes. When you factor in some of the hard luck the Eagles fell on -- making massive roster and schematic overhauls during a condensed offseason, the occasional bout of questionable officiating, and of course, a few untimely injuries -- with all due respect, Mr. Lurie, you could come up with all the excuses in the world.

As Lurie so deftly touched on, the Eagles missed the playoffs for only the third time in the last 12 years. Previously, they were decimated by injuries and a fractured locker room in 2005, then in '07, Donovan McNabb was still working his way back from an ACL the previous year. Both seasons, there was logical rationale -- or excuses -- for the disappointing outcomes, and the team was back in the tournament the following year.

This season, you can take your pick of what the excuse is, and if Lurie is right, you can count on the Birds making it back to the postseason.

It's fully understood how difficult it will be for a large portion of the fan base to stomach another year of Andy ball, and chances are an overwhelming percentage of those folks were already off the head coach's bandwagon before this season transpired. After 13 years, any head coach is bound to become a polarizing figure, and most of the people hunkered in with the anti-Reid crowd simply feel his time came and went.

Even those of us who have the tendency to support Andy are conflicted about seasons like 2011, when the expectations were much more in line with Super Bowl appearance than .500 finish.

But then there's what could've been. One turnover, one penalty, one catch, one kick, one tackle, one challenge, one stand, one bounce, one yard; any of them could have meant one more win and one playoff berth. Spread across multiple games, one play in each loss could have been the difference between two, three, maybe even four more wins.

The Eagles have Pro Bowl caliber talent at nearly every position on the field. They have the best head coach for the quarterback who will be under center in 2012. They are on a four-game winning streak, and as fashionable as it is to point out the quality of their opponents -- or lack there of -- good teams beat bad teams in the NFL, so the important part to remember is they handled their business in the end.

Jeffrey Lurie realized that, so he made the most unpopular decision an owner can make.

He took a mulligan on 2011.

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