Philadelphia Eagles Week 5 Report Card: Grading Each Unit

The Philadelphia Eagles are the laughingstock of the NFL.

The laughter grew louder as the Buffalo Bills upended the Philadelphia Eagles, 31-24, Sunday afternoon at Orchard Park.

Some Eagles fans are having a difficult time understanding how awful this team and how they cannot save the season. There is still room on the bandwagon rooting for the Eagles to lose in hopes of Reid and Juan Castillo losing their job.

The grades are based on a comparison to other NFL teams and not what the Eagles are cappable of. If grades were based on the Eagles reaching their potential, the defense would get an "A" for their performance against Buffalo because that's the best they can do.

Head Coach: F

Leading by seven points with 1:23 remaining in the game, Buffalo removed its punt unit and put Ryan Fitzpatrick back on the field.

There was no chance Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick would take a snap. Everyone watching the game knew Buffalo was going to use a hard count to try and draw the Eagles offsides.

It became painfully obvious when Buffalo sent a fullback in motion in an attempt to make the d-line jump at the movement. If the Birds didn't take the bait, which was the player in motion, there was no way anyone would jump offsides.

Except for Juqua Parker.

The defensive end jumped at the hard count, which gave the Bills a first down and sealed the Eagles' fate.

So how does this fall on Reid?

Well, the standoffish Reid constantly tells everyone after a loss it is his fault the players were not in the position to succeed. If he wants to give that as an answer, it's time someone holds him to it.

Reid should have made sure every player on the d-line did not move until they saw the ball snapped. They should be told to ignore players in motion or hard snap counts.

There are Reid apologists who will say. "Do you want him to throw players under the bus or call them out?"

Yes. It's time he grows a set and calls out players other than the kickers, which is what he did when the Eagles lost to the Packers in the playoffs last year and when the Eagles lost to the 49ers last week.

And if he doesn't want to call out players in the media, he needs to address in private to make sure it doesn't happen again. Seeing similar mistakes occur on a weekly basis suggests Reid is not addressing the issues or the players are not responding.

Either one is the kiss of death for NFL head coaches.

Offense: D+

Any time an offense rackes up 489 yards of offense and puts 24 points on the board, they are well on their way to an "A."

Sprinkle in five turnovers, and the grade drops drastically.

Turnovers carry more weight than yards and points because they are such a vital part to allowing inferior teams to spring an upset.

The crazy part about it is fans will say things like, "Ah, man. If we didn't have those five turnovers, we would have won the game."

Huh?

It is impossible to discredit the turnovers on any level. It doesn't matter how great the offense moved the ball in the second half. It only helped the unit earn an "F."

And please don't be one of the shortsighted individuals who thinks turnovers are easily fixable.

If there was an easy solution, why have the final two posessions of the last two games ended on a turnover?

Defense: C

The offense put its counterpart in difficult situations, and that has to count for something.

Michael Vick threw a pick six, and the other four turnovers gave the Bills possession near midfield or in Eagles' territory.

Asking this particular unit to play much better is difficult, but that doesn't mean that played well in comparison to the rest of the league.

They forced Ryan Fitzpatrick to toss only six incompletions while allowing Fred Jackson to rush for 111 yards and catch screen passes for 85 yards.

Those numbers make you wonder if any team will struggle to move the ball against the Eagles.

There's no need to count the offsides penalty against the defense because Andy Reid isn't willing to hold anyone accountable for the mistake except for himself.

Here's the scary part about their effort: It wasn't very good compared to what other NFL teams do, but it was pretty good for them.

Special Teams: B+

Alex Henery rebounded from an abysmal out against the 49ers by makng a crucial 35-yard field goal to bring the Eagles within seven points of the Bills.

Henery gets an "A" for his part, but that doesn't mean too much. It would be like giving a first grader a math test with one question: 2+2 =

It's all or nothing.

The return units didn't come up with anything special, so the grade has to drop a little.