EVERYWHERE you saw LeSean McCoy yesterday, you saw running-backs coach Ted Williams - Velcroed to the rookie's side, explaining and advising on the way to the NovaCare cafeteria, going over something one more time during a break in practice.

The stakes are high, with Brian Westbrook, the Giant Killer, looking like a longshot to play Sunday when New York comes to visit the Eagles. Westbrook is recovering from a concussion suffered during Monday night's victory at Washington. It isn't as if McCoy hasn't played - his 72 touches in six games are more than the 55 Westbrook recorded for his entire rookie season in 2002 - but this is not Kansas City the Birds are facing.

This is the Giants team many experts believed began the season as the NFC East's team to beat, a team that got off to a 5-0 start before losing the past 2 weeks. A team that still ranks first in the league in defense (second against the pass, 15th against the run). A team expected to bring a fierce pass rush against Donovan McNabb, who has looked uncomfortable in the pocket the last few weeks against opponents' pressure.

A healthy Westbrook might very well tip the scales toward the Eagles on Sunday. He hasn't practiced and isn't scheduled to practice today, but coach Andy Reid told a pool reporter yesterday that Westbrook is feeling better and will try light aerobic activity today. That must mean his headache is gone and his neurological test results are closer to baseline, but it's all still a long way from the reality of Westbrook being able to run headlong into Justin Tuck in 2 days.

"Hopefully, he'll be playing. We need him," McCoy said yesterday.

The Eagles are also going to need McCoy, it would seem, and they are going to need him to be sharper and steadier than he was at Washington after Westbrook went down midway through the first quarter. McCoy gained just 37 yards on 14 carries against the Redskins. The holes weren't huge, but he tended to make the least of them, looking for cutbacks that weren't there instead of plowing ahead. Fifteen of McCoy's 30 receiving yards (five catches) came on one play. He whiffed on a safety-blitz block and got McNabb sacked.

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said yesterday that McCoy "is getting better every day, and he's learning every day." But Mornhinweg also said: "We ask an awful lot out of the halfback position here. We ask him to run with the football, obviously. Then, run pass routes and adjust to covers, and catch the football, and then block, and that's a whole plate right there. He's done a heck of a job up to date with those things, and he's made his share of mistakes, and he corrects it . . . at some point he'll have it down here, and I think he's real close to that."

His first three games, McCoy averaged almost 4.3 yards per carry, including that 20-carry, 84-yard performance against the woeful Chiefs. The last three games, he has averaged less than 2.6 yards per carry.

"I'm not sure man; we haven't really run the ball well lately," McCoy said yesterday. "I'm not sure the reason why . . . I think the more we run the ball, in different schemes, [the better it will go]. I think coach, man, has lately been trying to run the ball a little bit, trying to keep [defenses] honest a little bit."

But as Derek Sarley pointed out yesterday on Igglesblog (http://www.igglesblog.com/iggles_blog/2009/10/whats-wrong-with-shady-mccoy.html) with charts and graphs that I fully intend to get one of my kids to interpret for me someday, it's not so much that "we" haven't run the ball well lately. Westbrook, with limited chances, has run it just fine; McCoy has not.

Remember, one reason everyone was so excited about McCoy in the preseason and the early days of the season was that he is so similar to Westbrook in style. As Mornhinweg said yesterday, the game plan for the Giants shouldn't have to change that much, whether Westbrook plays or not. At least, theoretically.

Nontheoretically, McCoy had several Wildcat snaps Monday, snaps that were originally slated for Westbrook. The Redskins really packed the box against the Wildcat, as Reid noted afterward, and those seemed to be some of the times when McCoy opted to try to go around the defense instead of plunging forward for a yard or 2. Westbrook looks a little crisper off the direct snap.

"It's a little different, getting the ball snapped actually to you, not really getting to read your options, where to run, different holes," McCoy said.

McCoy agreed that overall, there just isn't as much room out there as he had in college.

"It's just a different style, I guess - the speed of the guys, the way they react in professional football," he said. "Sometimes you get away with [changing course in the backfield], other times you have to take what they give you."

Also, McCoy has been going hard since late July - remember, Westbrook didn't practice the first few weeks and didn't play in the preseason as he recovered from ankle surgery. If Shady were still at Pitt, his season would be winding down now.

"Physically, I feel fine. Mentally has been the toughest thing," he said. "Trying to grasp the whole offense, different weeks, different game plans. I'm just learning a lot."

If Westbrook can't go and McCoy starts, expect to see him share at least a little of the load with special-teams standout Eldra Buckley, a solid, powerful runner in the preseason. Mornhinweg was asked about McCoy and Buckley having to pass block, in comparison to Westbrook, who is among the league's smoothest and best.

"They are both very good, and they both have their assignments down, so what you're lacking just a little bit is experience," Mornhinweg said. "Of course, Brian Westbrook has so much experience that it's like riding a bike for him."

Overall, Mornhinweg wants to emphasize sustaining drives this week. As fans have undoubtedly noticed, the Birds have drifted into big play-or-nothing territory lately, a mode that is unlikely to produce results against a good secondary and excellent pass rush.

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