Go ahead and exhale, Andy Reid. You didn’t cost the Eagles the game after all.
Reid nearly became a big-time goat Sunday night after he called a timeout just before Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes attempted a 54-yard field goal in the closing seconds. Generally, icing the kicker like that wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but Tynes missed the lengthy first attempt, meaning Reid let him off the hook by calling the timeout. Fortunately for the Eagles, Tynes’ second attempt came up short, and Philadelphia still managed to escape with a 19-17 victory.
“When you’re surrounded by 66,000 people that want to probably rip your throat out at the time, yes I did,” Reid said of whether he regretted the almost-costly timeout. “That’s about 20-fold what Custer felt.”
While the timeout is really moot because of Tynes’ failure to cash in on the second chance, the Eagles understand how close they came to letting the game slip away. In fact, if it was up to quarterback Michael Vick, coaches would do away with icing kickers altogether.
“I don’t believe in icing the kicker,” Vick said. “You give everything. You let them kick it, and if it’s good, it’s going to be good. If not, you can’t play games. I don’t know who started that, but we have to end that tradition.”
Vick’s teammate DeSean Jackson is breathing a sigh of relief as well, knowing that Philly escaped a disastrous fate.
“It was crazy,” Jackson said after the game. “Honestly, the first one when he missed, I was like, ‘ugh’ when Coach Reid called timeout. But the second one looked like it was straight in the middle, and I thought it was going to go in, but it came up a little bit short.”
Calling a timeout just prior to the snap on game-winning field-goal attempts is risky business. Reid might think long and hard the next time the opportunity presents itself.
Photo of the Day
Rookie hazing continues to get stranger and stranger.
Quote of the Day
I’ll do whatever it takes, whatever I need to do to help this team. So now, if I have to go kill someone on the court, I’ll kill someone on the court.
–Celtics center Darko Milicic, who is clearly a mad man
Tweet of the Day
Here we go.
The fans have spoken: 63% say Tim Tebow should replace Mark Sanchez as the Jets’ starting QB. Agree? Sound off: on.fb.me/PSQvfn
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 1, 2012
Video of the Day
That’s what happens when you try to be a hero.
