In this, the Year of the Bailout, it seems the last Sunday in November was earmarked for Andy Reid.

Of course, November and December have become known as Reid's time. These are the months when his Eagles teams, having survived the early turbulence of their latest flight, somehow begin to make the pieces fit and smooth it all out for another playoff run, where the real heartbreak awaits. And so it would seem again this year.

But even those who know this story better than they know their own families had to be spun around by that little twist the Head Bird threw into Sunday's visit from the battered, luckless Redskins.

An onside kick to open the game?

An onside kick, against a 3-7 team whose average of 14.6 points per week ranks 29th in the NFL?

An onside kick, after winning the coin toss and deferring to the second half, instead of just taking the ball? While you're at it, why not just give Dave Akers a break and send Michael Vick in there to kick it?

Naturally, it couldn't have turned out worse for the Eagles. Not only did they fail to recover the kick, which caromed off one of their coverage guys for a penalty, but Washington's Quinton Ganther returned it 25 yards to the Eagle 24.

Four plays later, the offensively challenged Skins — 0-5 on the road, playing without Clinton Portis, without Ladell Betts, without Chris Cooley, without half their starting offensive line, without DeAngelo Hall and Albert Haynesworth on defense — were leading, 7-0.

"Very surprised," Donovan McNabb admitted, after he and the Eagles rescued their boss with a big fourth quarter to pull out a 27-24 victory at the Linc. "I knew about (the kick) a little bit ... We won the toss, you thought we'd take the ball.

"Maybe it was just a miscue, I don't know. But we were able to overcome it. Don't know how often we'll be able to do that, but ... we won. That's the most important thing."

Yeah, we all know that, Don. But if winning's the most important thing, then giving your team the best opportunity to win has to rank up there, too. At least that's what Andy says every time you guys lose ... that he has to do a better job of putting you guys in the right position to win, or some such mumbo-jumbo.

This isn't about 20-20 hindsight, either. Back in 2000, when Andy opened the season in Dallas with an onside kick that set the tone for a blowout victory, it was like sending a message.  Hey, we're not here to be walked on, just because we stunk last year and this is your party ...

And sure, no less a favored son than Buddy Ryan used to say you gotta roll the dice once in a while. "It's like going to the casino," Jeremiah Trotter echoed Sunday. "You only win as much as you gamble."

But this kick was an unnecessary gamble, delivering a shot of adrenaline to a struggling divisional opponent. A gamble that haunted the Eagles deep into the fourth quarter, until they finally climbed the mountain that (for them) is first-and-goal at the 1. And even then, they needed a two-point conversion to pull even, followed by another drive to the game-winning field goal, and one last stand from their own wounded defense.

All of which added up to the delicious irony of the day: the Eagles overcame not only some of their season-long problems but also a bad decision by their head coach, and pulled off their second fourth-quarter comeback in as many weeks.

"I appreciate the guys trying to prove you (the media) wrong on these comeback games, but I'd like to do it a little easier now," Reid said, having already uttered his mea culpa.

"I shoot myself in the foot for the onside kick," he said. "That's my responsibility. We are going to stay aggressive with things, but I want to make sure that when we stay aggressive, we execute and come up on the right side of it.

"(Washington) played a five-man line, and I thought we could sneak one in there. ... I was wrong. You see a five-man front, you want to take advantage of it. Although it looked that way, we didn't just pull it out of the sky."

No, you can't make this stuff up. And doesn't it just make you wonder what's in store for December?

jyoung@lnpnews.com