NEW ORLEANS — The Eagles will enter the Superdome Monday night in a panic, trying to rescue a season and an era with one 60-minute burst of diminishing competence. That could be why Jeffrey Lurie paid his criticism forward this time, because he expected such mediocrity.

Or was it the other way around? Did he miscalculate the risk of sounding like a talk-show caller? And did Lurie’s preseason behavior activate what so far has been an unacceptable season?

For every surface reason, business and football, the Eagles’ owner had the preseason right to stress that a second consecutive 8-8 season would all but cost Andy Reid a job. And from the highest office of an operation that for too long had smothered its customers with useless cliches if not outright falsehoods, the chilly breeze of clarity was refreshing.