Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid tried to explain how the talented Eagles could fall to 3-5 for the season after Monday's 30-24 loss to the Chicago Bears.
"I've told you, it's the turnovers, it's penalties," Reid said during a press conference Tuesday. "I don't feel people are necessarily stopping us, that we're stopping ourselves, and we've got to take care of that. Right now that's what you can control, and so you go to work and make sure that you get that taken care of. And when we do those things, when we don't have the penalties, whether they're right or wrong, whether we agree with them or don't agree with them, or when we have turnovers, when we don't do those things, we're a pretty good football team. In fact, we're a really good football team."
Reid praised Chicago's play, but did not direct blame away from his own football team.
"As I mentioned last night, compliments to the Bears for the job they did, and obviously we've got room to improve here. There are things we need to work on and get better at, as coaches, starting with myself, and as players. The obvious are the turnovers and the penalties, we've got to take care of business there. Whether I agree with the penalties or don't agree with the penalties, there were some that came at crucial situations," said Reid.
"In that turnover category I put in the fake punt, which was my responsibility, I made the call," he continued. "They gave us what we thought they would give us and that was two uncovered players on the outside, and we just came up short on the throw. The last thing is getting off the field on third downs, and staying on the field on crucial third downs, ones that we needed. We had an opportunity, when it was all said and done, to have the ball in our hand at the end of the game with three-plus minutes to go, and we didn't take advantage of that. A touchdown wins the game and we didn't capitalize there like I wanted to."
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