Reid still confident Eagles can fix mistakes

HE WAS reasonably cordial, at least, and he didn't try to exit stage right during any lulls in the questioning.

Andy Reid sat in front of the cameras yesterday and tried to explain things that really can't be explained, or excused. Well, "tried to explain" is an exaggeration. Let's go with "politely fended off attempts to get him to explain things that really can't be explained, or excused."

Reid said he would not scrap the "wide nine" defensive alignment, and is not replacing defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. He said there would be no player personnel changes yesterday, which doesn't mean there won't be any today.

"Well, I don't know that. We'll just have to see," Reid said, when asked whether there could be benchings or roster changes, as the Eagles prepare to play Washington Sunday.

Reid's ballyhooed Eagles team is 1-4 today because of two things, wideout Jason Avant noted after Sunday's loss in Buffalo: turnovers and stops. The Eagles are committing far too many turnovers - 15 in five games - and they aren't getting enough stops. They remained dead last in the NFL in red-zone defense going into last night's action. Opponents have 11 touchdowns and three field goals in 14 trips inside the Eagles' 20.

Explaining these things might involve acknowledging that changing the blocking style and body type of your offensive linemen in a year when there was no offseason work, and installing a defensive setup that relies on strong, solid downhill play from linebackers when you don't have even one guy like that, was less than stellar thinking. Somewhere in there you might also have to parse how you came to pledge $80 million and your franchise's immediate future to a quarterback whose confidence in his ability to make a highlight-film play never wanes, even when the smart thing to do is put the ball away and try again later.

What Reid did yesterday was pledge to go back and correct the same errors he has been trying to correct for a month now, since the amazing four-game streak of losing to teams the Eagles should have beaten began.

"The thing that has to change, though, is the obvious, and that's the turnovers," Reid said. "We'll go back and we'll work on those things. We'll get better. It's important we maintain the intensity level that we had, taking us throughout that second half. I thought we did some good things there."

Reid said he didn't think the intensity level was low as the Eagles dug themselves an 28-7 hole, in their worst sustained offensive and defensive effort of the season, but "I thought we missed a few tackles, and that was probably the biggest difference" between the awful stretch that extended from the first series into the third quarter, and the comeback, in which the Birds outscored the Bills by 17-3 down the stretch.

Reid said he couldn't say whether his team was pressing, although that seemed as good an explanation as any for the five turnovers that ruined another explosive offensive day.

"Do they want to win a game? Absolutely, players want to win games," Reid said. "So do the coaches. There's a certain process you go through, and you go through it. I wouldn't see a tipped ball as pressing."

As for the "wide nine," Reid said he felt the second-half results - the Bills drove 80 yards in 10 plays and scored a touchdown on their opening drive of the third quarter but managed only a field goal the rest of the way - showed progress.

"Anything new, you've got to work with and work out the wrinkles and get it right," Reid said. "Players, they have to learn it, coaches have to learn it, particularly the new coaches. So it's a joint effort there."

Reid said the Eagles "tackled better" in the second half. "I thought the defensive ends and tackles did a better job up front. I thought Juan did a good job of getting the guys in the position that he wanted them in."

Reid was asked whether he agreed with the assessment of Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who wrote yesterday that the Eagles are "sloppy and dumb."

"I think we need to make sure that we focus on the things we need to get better at, and take care of those things," he said.

Reid said he does not think the players have stopped listening.

"Well, listen, if it was one particular thing [that didn't get corrected], then you might say that. That's not how I feel, no," Reid said. "I think that the players are listening, we've just got to continue to work on our fundamentals and do the right things in practice, practice fast, and so on. Do the things that we've always done."

Jarrad Page (stinger) was the only Eagle injured in the Buffalo game . . . Andy Reid indicated Trent Cole (calf) and Jason Peters (hamstring) are unlikely to return this week at Washington, the last game before the Eagles' bye.