The Philadelphia Eagles Fire Their Defensive Coordinator, That Should Fix Things

The Eagles blew a ten point fourth quarter lead to the Lions on Sunday and lost in overtime. On Monday, head coach Andy Reid said that defensive coordinator Juan Castillo would still keep calling defensive plays. On Tuesday, Reid fired Castillo. The Eagles are 13th in the league, giving up only 20.8 points per game. But getting rid of Castillo should solve things, like Michael Vick's league leading 13 turnovers. Oh, maybe not.

Castillo had been with the Eagles since 1995, and until he was promoted to defensive coordinator before last season, he coached offensive line. How anyone is expected to make that jump successfully and smoothly is unclear. 

The Eagles defense really isn't the problem. It's that their offense gets tons of yards and then turns the ball over. They are averaging a second to worst 17.2 points per game. At the same time, Vick is on pace for nearly 5,000 yards of offense himself. So hey, fire the D-coordinator, because it's his fault that Vick keeps fumbling the ball away or throwing picks. He's had picks and fumbles returned for touchdowns, and last I checked, those aren't the defense's fault.

The Eagles squeaked out some early wins, but that's going to start happening less and less until they learn to keep the ball in their offense's hands. Having the secondary coach take over the defense should fix that.