PHILADELPHIA (AP) -If the Eagles have one advantage over the Cowboys in their playoff rematch, it’s the man in charge.
Andy Reid is undefeated in playoff openers, going 7-0 during his first 10 seasons as Philadelphia’s coach. On the other side, Wade Phillips has never won a playoff game. He’s 0-4 with Dallas, Buffalo and Denver.
So one coach wants to continue a streak and the other wants to end his when the two teams, both 11-5, meet in Dallas in an NFC wild-card playoff game Saturday night.
Phillips and his staff clearly outcoached Reid and his crew in a 24-0 victory last Sunday that gave Dallas the NFC East title and cost the Eagles a first-round bye.
Reid, as usual, took the blame for Philadelphia’s poor performance, even though he wasn’t the one dropping passes, giving up big plays or missing open receivers.
“I want to make this very clear. It starts with the head coach,” Reid said Thursday. “I had plenty of problems, the coaches had problems and so did the players. It’s not one more than the other. We’re all in this thing together. There are no excuses for what took place and we’ve tried to go back and make sure we worked on the things we didn’t do very well.
“They outsmarted us the last time. They did a better job than we did. That’s our challenge, from a coaching standpoint, to do a better job and we’re working on that.”
Reid has a tough task this week, convincing his team that it can go back to Dallas and win just six days after being thoroughly dominated. The Cowboys also won in Philadelphia, 20-16, on Nov. 8.
“Very seldom do you have an opportunity to play a team that just got after you a little bit a second time,” Reid said. “We have that opportunity to correct ourselves. That’s an approach I expect the guys to take and I think with the leadership on this team, that will take place.”
Of their seven playoff openers under Reid, this is only the second time the Eagles start on the road. They did so last year, beating Minnesota 26-14. Philadelphia then knocked off the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, before losing as a favorite at Arizona in the NFC championship game.
Overall, Reid is 10-7 in the playoffs. He’s guided the Eagles to five conference title games and one Super Bowl, a 24-21 loss to New England five years ago.
ffs. That’s what we’ve done over the years. When we were in big games, we played and coached well. We have to go back to that. That’s the challenge for this week.”
In some ways, getting whipped by the Cowboys last week may have been better for the Eagles from a motivational standpoint than a close loss. Players were angry, embarrassed and eager for a rematch.
Veteran running back Brian Westbrook addressed the team immediately after the game, stressing to younger players that’s it’s do-or-die in the playoffs.
“We didn’t do what we set out to do, to come in there and play hard and play physical and play strong for the whole game,” Westbrook said. “We didn’t do that. At some point, your leaders have to step up and say things. It doesn’t have to be every week. It doesn’t have to be rah-rah this, that and the other, but at some point, some parts of the season you have to step up and say things. I just wanted to make sure that we had the team’s attention and let them know how important this game was coming up.”
Win or lose, Reid isn’t going anywhere. He just signed a three-year contract extension through 2013.
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