WE LOST TO THE RAIDERS BECAUSE...

...we were thoroughly outcoached on the offensive side of the ball.

Granted, there were a few other contributing factors  (inability to cover the tight end, few dropped balls, mc nabb's inconsistency, inability to stop the run).

However we need to face facts and realize that our defense held an NFL offense to 13 points and therefore held up its part of the bargain.

Offense on the other hand...hear me out:

 Andy Reid's overall offensive philosophy  is flawed. He relies excessively on a unique version of the west coast offense that emphasizes vertical routes almost all the time, especially by the WRS, and primarily targets the tight end for the short completions. This is because of his over reliance on the big play.  In addition, he does not effectively employ the run game. The offensive philosophy has the following manifestations:

1) The vertical WR routes all need time to develop. So when we play against a team that blitzes a fair amount, or when the line is having a subpar day, needless to say, our offense is screwed because there is no time for WR routes to develop. Also, when we play against teams with a "soft shell"/cover 2 or two deep safeties predominantly, our offense goes to shit because we don't know how to take advantage of underneath routes consistently.

2) We either make big plays for quick scores or go three and out. Hence its more difficult for McNabb to get in a rhythm, the while offense cannot get into a rhythm, we are pretty poor with time of possession and too often send our defense back out there time and time again until they get gassed and start to give up  yards and scores.

3)  We eschew running the ball because well....its much less likely to result in a big play and therefore does not fit within the overall offensive philosophy.

4) We love the big play so much we don't want to go away from it for even a second, not even to call run plays to keep the defense honest and prevent them from just pinning their ears back and rushing the passer.

5) When there's a short completion, its most likely going to the tight end. I think all the NFL teams know this about our offense by now. Secret's been out on that for a while. We're not fooling anyone with that one.

6) We love the big play so much we won't even go away from the vertical routes long enough to exploit the holes in the defense. When a team sends extra rushers, there's usually a hole behind them. When a team sets its corners/safeties deep, there are usually underneath completions to be had. Just reference the playcalling of Sean Payton and Josh McDaniels as examples of this very simple football concept. Against the raiders today, there were holes behind the blitzing linebackers that  came on pretty much every third down, yet we kept trying to go deep on pretty much every one of those third downs.

7) We love the big play so much that even when we play against one of the worst run defenses in the league and have a good average on rushes, we just can't get away from those vertical routes long enough to try to take advantage of the defense's real weakness. This point was especially evident in the game today, and in last season's game against Cincy.

8) As long as the fat man stubbornly continues his over-reliance on this vertical variant of the west coast offense, ignoring all reason  and refusing to take what the defense gives us from time to time, we will never have an offense that can consistently come through in the clutch.