PHILADELPHIA - Change appears to be inevitable for the Eagles, who take on the Carolina Panthers Monday night at Lincoln Financial Field (8:30, PHL 17, ESPN, WIP 94.1-FM).
For perspective, the Eagles (3-7) are favored to lose their seventh straight game. To a visiting Panthers team nursing a 2-8 record, believe it or not.
By owner Jeffrey Lurie's criteria, Eagles head coach Andy Reid is one loss from an unacceptable season that could trigger a wide-ranging organizational purge.
The vibe will get almost toxic if the Eagles and their lineup with five rookie starters, including quarterback Nick Foles, bomb against the Panthers.
Once again the Eagles' opposition has the edge at quarterback. In many respects Cam Newton is as dangerous as Robert Griffin III, who handed the Eagles a stinging 31-6 loss last weekend.
With a fan base enraged over the losing and ready to turn the page on Reid, now just three losses shy of 100, even loyalists wonder when, more than if, Lurie pulls the plug.
Consider tonight the calm before the storm.
If the Eagles fail miserably, there almost certainly will be fans calling for the firing of Reid, in his 14th season, and the hiring of ESPN analyst Jon Gruden.
Eagles players don't want to be part of an in-season head coaching change. At least not judging by the comments of guys who have done that.
Trent Edwards, Demetress Bell, Nnamdi Asomugha and Mat McBriar all played for interim head coaches. None of those changes, or the coaches who took over without the interim tag, did much good. It's been years since the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys reached the playoffs.
Edwards and Bell were on the Bills when head coach Dick Jauron was fired after a 3-6 start in 2009.
"I don't think anyone expected him to get released that soon," Bell said. "I think everyone kind of expected it to be at the end of the season. It was crazy. I don't think anything like that will happen around here. What have we got left, six games? I don't think anyone is thinking that. But we've just got to win these six games."
If the Eagles run the table they would finish 9-7. Considering the injuries, it would seem to satisfy Lurie's edict the team improve substantially this year. Then again, there's roughly only a 3 percent chance the Eagles could get that hot.
Asomugha played for five head coaches in eight seasons with the Raiders. He tried to keep himself away from the vibe.
"You don't look too deep into that," Asomugha said. "You focus on what you're doing as opposed to will my coach be here."
The Cowboys were torn by the firing of head coach Wade Phillips after a 1-7 start in 2010. Phillips was coming off of a contract extension following a season in which the Cowboys won a playoff game. It was a stressful time according to McBriar.
"You still never think you're going to lose your head coach," McBriar said. "And Wade, the players loved him. Still do. He's very close with the team. So that was shocking. The mentality of the team when you lose your head coach is like everyone's name could be on the chopping block. I don't know how many people feel secure about things in the NFL. But no one did back then. That was a weird time."
And so it is for Reid and the Eagles.
Team meetings haven't helped. The same could be said of a players-only meeting. Appeals to professionalism haven't worked. As one Eagles executive conceded, when it rains, it pours.
Truth be told, it hasn't begun to really, really pour.
"Parcells was always giving us different facts about the league," McBriar said of Bill Parcells, who did a tour with the Cowboys. "He would tell the team is you lose a head coach or get a new head coach you're looking at 30 percent turnover with the players. Or if you keep your head coach but you have a losing record it's like 20 percent turnover.
"Right now we're searching for answers. You've got to realize the situation. Losing teams don't stick together."