Juan Castillo is in the eye of the storm with the Eagles coaching staff. Photo by Pete Lerro.

Andy Reid’s personal saying that must motivate him when things are not going well on the gridiron, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…to blame everything on yourself.”

At least that is what it seems to be.

But really, what else can the guy say? It is his fault, it is his football team; Reid is responsible for everything aspect of what the Philadelphia Eagles put out there on the field and how well they play.

And it is part of the job to try and find some positives – even when his talented team has lost four of its first five games of the season and four in a row including last Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“There are some good things we can take out of this game, and I explained this to the team, when things are not looking very good in people’s eyes, I thought the effort was good,” Reid said at his Monday morning press conference. I thought as the game went on we continued to get better in most phases of the game. The thing that has to change, though, is the obvious, and that’s the turnovers. You eliminate the turnovers, you get better results, and you put yourself in a better position to win football games. You can’t give good football teams ten points off of turnovers, the field goal and then the obvious touchdown. And then field position also becomes a key. You want to make sure that they’re always driving long fields, in particular the way the kicking game is right now. With that, we’ll go back and we’ll work on those things and we will get better. It’s important that we maintain the intensity level that we had, in particular throughout that second half. I thought we did some good things there.”

It is becoming evident that Coach Reid is entering into an area of denial. When asked about a team that seems to lose its intensity as the game unfolds which losing a four-quarter lead three consecutive games would suggest he simply replied.

“Well, the intensity I thought was good through the game,” Reid said. “I thought we missed a few tackles, you know, probably in the first half that we didn’t miss in the second half, and that was probably the biggest difference.”

How bad it is getting when you are asked questions that hint his team has lost the desire to make the effort to win an NFL game.

“I don’t know if it’s pressing,” Reid said. “Do they want to win a game? Yeah, absolutely, the players want to win a game. So do the coaches and everybody else. But there’s a certain process you go through, and you go through it. I wouldn’t say a tipped ball is pressing, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t see that as a problem with the turnovers, I see other things.”

Reid is under siege as are all his coaches with rookie defensive coordinator Juan Castillo the one the Villagers want the most.

When asked if Castillo was still his guy, Reid simply replied, “Yes.”

Years ago, anything but a consistent effort throughout the game was unacceptable. Now, even with a lineup that is chocked with Pro Bowl Players, moral victories now seem okay to Reid.

“You obviously saw it work the second half very effectively,” Reid said. “We’ve just got to continue to work with it. Listen, anything new you’ve got to work with and work out the wrinkles and get it right. Players, they have to learn it, coaches have to learn it, particularly the new coaches. So it’s a joint effort there.”

The fans are becoming restless. At this point it is not enough to be good year-in and year-out.

Eagles fans want a Super Bowl title and nothing less will do. Reid was asked what his message is to those fans.

“Well listen, I completely understand. I understand that. The thing that myself, our coaches, and the players, we’re going to work our tail off to get it right. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re not backing up a leg, man. That’s our approach.”

Spinning Birds: Here are some notes about last week’s game supplied by the Eagles PR Department.

Rushing into the Record Books … QB Michael Vick posted his second-consecutive 300-yard passing game and the seventh of his career, throwing for 315 yards and two touchdowns. He now has 101 career touchdown passes … Vick also rushed for 90 yards, and now has 4,948 in his career, surpassing former Eagle Randall Cunningham (4,928) for the most in NFL history by a quarterback … Vick’s 53-yard rush in the third quarter was the second-longest of his career. He had a 58-yarder on 9/26/04 vs. Arizona.

McCoy’s McNuggets … RB LeSean McCoy rushed for 80 yards and his seventh touchdown of the season (five rushing, two receiving). He became the first Eagle ever to score a touchdown in each of the first five games of the season.

The Slot Machine … WR Jason Avant had a career-high nine receptions for 139 yards, marking his third-career 100-yard receiving game, and his first since 11/15/09 at SD. Avant became the third Eagle this season to eclipse 100 receiving yards in a game … Avant has had at least six catches in each of the last two games.

Offensive Quick Hits … WR Jeremy Maclin caught his third touchdown of the season. It was Maclin’s 17th-career touchdown and his tenth red-zone score … WR DeSean Jackson scored his second touchdown of the season on a 31-yard catch-and-run. Including postseason games, 20 of Jackson’s 28 career touchdowns have covered 30-plus yards … The Eagles netted 489 yards of total offense after compiling 513 last week. It was just the second time since 1950 that the Eagles amassed over 475 yards of total offense in back-to-back weeks. In 1953, they did so three straight weeks from 11/8 to 11/21.

Defensive Nuggets … LB Jamar Chaney registered his first-career interception … DT Cullen Jenkins notched his fifth sack of the season. He has at least one sack in four of the team’s five games. Since 2010, Jenkins has 12 sacks, tying Ndamukong Suh for the most among defensive tackles.