— Andy Reid may have reached his lowest moment ever as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
His voice weakened with disappointment, his face haunted by reality, his words lacking any conviction, Reid appeared at his press conference to analyze his team's latest and most inexplicable collapse as a man who is physically and emotionally tortured to the point of no return.
He talked much slower and softer than usual, as if even his hair was in pain.
Sounding like a robot with an expiring battery, Reid spoke in monotones about trying to get this latest team he picked better, while having to know deep down that it will not happen fast enough to salvage his 14th and final season, which is now spinning out of control in super-slow motion, NFL Films-style.
The end of a coaching reign can be agonizing, particularly when it's lasted this long without the ultimate payoff after getting so darn close so many times.
Reid built a program that went to five conference championship games and a Super Bowl in an eight-season span. From a standpoint of wins and losses and sustained excellence, he's been the most successful coach in franchise history.
But now, on this day, at this moment, even his harshest critics — who have thought of him as nothing but a lucky fraud — have to feel his pain and appreciate, if only for a few seconds, his heartbreak and the depths of despair that come from having to accept that your best wasn't good enough.
Reid seemed resigned to his eventual resignation on Monday, his team just not good enough, his window to win a Super Bowl or two with this team slammed and painted shut by some bad decisions, bad breaks and father time.
"Listen," Reid said, "I'm going to go back. I've got time here [in the bye week] to look at things. I'm going to look at everything."
Everything about him on Monday suggested he already has, and that there is nothing he can do. It's terminal.
Fact is, Reid and his staff can make all the correct adjustments in the world with this team, but the best they're going to net is a wild card-round playoff victory and not the kind of "substantial improvement" required by owner Jeffrey Lurie for Reid to be welcomed back for Year 15.
While Reid deserves most of the blame for what's happening with this year's squad, losers of two games in a row on the final play, he hasn't had the best of luck, either.
Jason Peters, the best left tackle in football last year, twice tore an Achilles tendon in the offseason. He's almost certainly done for the year. His replacement, Demetress Bell, has the kind of footwork that would make Winston Justice look like a ballet dancer by comparison, not to mention the kind of lackluster motor that makes running back LeSean McCoy and quarterback Michael Vick near locks for Injured Reserve by midseason.
Bell won't be here next year, but the problem is that he's here now, while Justice is in Indianapolis, working alongside two other Eagles castoffs, Mike McGlynn and Penn State's A.Q. Shipley, who each were, and are, infinitely more qualified than Dallas Reynolds to step in for center Jason Kelce when he went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 2.
Almost every time the ball was snapped to Vick in Sunday's horrific overtime loss to the Detroit Lions, a Keystone Kops moment ensued, and Vick and McCoy absorbed a season's worth of punishment in 60 minutes as a result.
So there's that.
Then there's Vick himself, a proud and extremely tough leader and warrior, but ultimately too flawed to deliver this team to the Super Bowl. He turns it over too much and has already peaked after a sometimes spectacular but too-brief second career with the Eagles.
Vick on Sunday finished with 28 completions in 46 attempts for 311 yards and two TDs to go with two interceptions. His passer rating was an unspectacular 77.4, which is almost identical to his season rating of 77.7 and his career rating of 80.7.
Over his last 18 games, he has just four more touchdown passes (26) than interceptions (22).
They can't win with him — unless they have a dominant defense, which they don't.
