PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Andy Reid gave his team an earful and Brian Dawkins spoke up
after coaches left the room.

These are desperate times for the Philadelphia Eagles, who are dangerously
close to missing the playoffs for the third time in four years since going to
the Super Bowl.

“I just felt like I needed to say something to the guys and see if we can
all get on the same page and get this thing rolling,” Dawkins said after
Wednesday’s team meeting.

A 13-13 tie against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals (1-8-1) left everyone in a
bad mood this week. The Eagles (5-4-1) somehow have to find a way to fix their
problems or this underachieving group could be in for a major overhaul.

Fire Reid. Trade Donovan McNabb. Get rid of both. The heat’s on the coach
and the quarterback in Philadelphia. But there’s six games left to save the
season.

That’s part of the message Reid tried to give his team when he addressed
them before practice. Dawkins, the 13-year veteran, felt it was appropriate to
have a players-only chat afterward.

“He was very animated with what he was feeling,” Dawkins said of the
usually stoic Reid. “Hopefully guys felt what I felt. Hopefully everything got
through. We’ll see. Talking only goes so far. We’ll see if that goes over into
Sunday.”

Reid and McNabb are in their 10th seasons in Philadelphia. They’ve had quite
a bit of success, but not recently. Their collective resume includes six playoff
appearances, four trips to the NFC championship game and a loss to New England
in the 2005 Super Bowl.

But they haven’t won it all and it might be time for a fresh start for at
least one of them. The coach is more likely to outlast the QB because the team
drafted Kevin Kolb last year and started grooming him to replace McNabb.

Reid hardly ever reacts to public criticism, so it’s no surprise he isn’t
saying much now that people are calling for his job.

“I don’t get into all that,” he said. “I’m here to do my job. I know
people want us to win football games and we want to win and that’s the most
important thing. Anything that gets in the way of that, I ignore. We just have
to take care of business and get ourselves on the right track.”

McNabb came under fire more for his ignorance about the overtime rule than
his recent poor performances. He claims it doesn’t bother him when people
criticize him, but he doesn’t like it when the negativity is directed at Reid or
his teammates.

“It bothers me when it comes to any of my teammates or coaches,” he said.
“I think the way that I can try to eliminate that is just to go out and play
football and win games. We know that you’re not going to please everybody.
Everybody is going to have their own opinion about what is going on around here.
People think that change is the answer. Andy is a guy that I feel will be here a
long time. I expect to be here for a long time. The thing we are really focused
on here is just going out doing what we have to do to win.”

Despite their struggles, the Eagles remain in the NFC’s playoff picture.
They’re a half-game behind Washington, Dallas and Atlanta for the final
wild-card spot with games against the Redskins and Cowboys the last two weeks.

Those games against the division rivals won’t matter if Philadelphia doesn’t
start winning now. The Eagles have a tough matchup at Baltimore (6-4) on Sunday.
The Ravens are coming off a 30-10 loss at the New York Giants. Before their
dismal effort at Cincinnati, the Eagles lost 36-31 to the Giants.