National Football League

Tim Kawakami: Eagles Reid the antithesis of Mike Singletary

Published Oct. 10, 2010 10:13 p.m. ET

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If he beats the Philadelphia Eagles tonight, Mike Singletary still could go almost anywhere and achieve almost anything with the 49ers.

Even at this strange and unsteady point in his strange and unsteady coaching career, if Singletary wins tonight, his tenure remains salvageable.

On the brink, needing help, but still salvageable.

If his 49ers win tonight, and they should, there's still (some) power in his vision and (traces of) promise in his presence.

If he wins. He has to win -- 1-4 in the weak NFC West is not an impossible deficit, but 0-5 in any league at any time is past the tipping point to a shipwreck.

And that's the essential Singletary/ 49ers quandary, isn't it?

If Singletary were worthy of sustained belief, the 49ers probably wouldn't be 0-4 now and wouldn't be faced with this desperate moment.

If Singletary were destined to last a decade or more here, if he were clearly on the road to constant playoff berths and 100 career victories, it wouldn't feel or look like this.

He wouldn't have had to change his offensive coordinator two weeks ago, and he wouldn't be dealing with last week's departure of safety Michael Lewis, the third player to leave the team since training camp.

He wouldn't need a victory tonight to temporarily avoid several months of irrelevance, darkness and eventual doom.

No, if Singletary were going to make this work, it wouldn't look like this.

It would look more like what Eagles coach Andy Reid has done, is doing and, quite frankly, probably will do for years after Singletary has moved on.

Obviously, rampaging, shout-from-the-heart Singletary isn't anything like the stolid Reid, and probably never aspired to be.

Singletary, for sure, is a far more interesting news-conference subject and sideline soloist than Reid could ever be.

But, that, too, is an explanation: Reid is a dry and detail-obsessed architect, a super-coordinator and tactician, a true man for the long run.

Reid hides his intentions, guards his words and pretends to be less cunning than he truly is. And when the football game is on the line, there's something more there than you thought there was.

It doesn't always work. Reid has had his failures, as have the Eagles in his time.

His players might not want to run through walls for Reid, but they usually know what they're doing when they hit the field, they often get better, and they usually win.

Reid had Donovan McNabb as his quarterback for 11 seasons, drafted Kevin Kolb as his future starter then added Michael Vick, too.

After McNabb was dispatched to Washington, it has been a recent mixture of injuries and clunky flip-flops. But through it all, the Eagles have always been stocked at quarterback. With Vick injured, they will have Kolb tonight.

Meanwhile, Singletary has stuck with Alex Smith, kept with Smith, and there is no other plan except Smith.

I don't have to add that Reid knew what to do with Brian Westbrook (9,791 yards from scrimmage as an Eagles back) and when to move on without him, while the 49ers seem to be at a loss with what to do with Westbrook, even after signing him.

To the heart of it: Singletary has a 13-16 career record, with zero playoff berths, while Reid, in his 13th season with the Eagles, is 110-69-1 with eight playoff berths and one trip to the Super Bowl.

He hasn't built the Eagles to prove a point. He builds them to win games and get to the playoffs.

For the Eagles, it's about having a plan, then a backup to that plan, and then two or three backups to both of the primary plans.

It isn't a brilliant, entertaining improvisation. It is following a system.

Singletary might beat Reid tonight, mainly because he has to, because he is fighting to avoid a five-game losing streak to start this season, fighting for his job and his career.

And if Singletary wins this one, he will have another do-or-die moment the next Sunday, and several more Sundays after that.

He might pull it off, and keep pulling it off. But the art of NFL coaching is to avoid having to, by keeping an even keel, and watching your opponent combust, eventually.

Read Tim Kawakami's Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami . Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442.

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