Inside the Eagles: Eagles' run-pass ratio remains an issue

The Eagles spent the short work week running from practice to meeting back to practice and, well, back to meeting again in the short span between Sunday's loss to the Bears and Thursday's game against Houston.

All that scurrying around at the NovaCare Complex was enough to make one think that Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg would formulate a game plan that favors the run.

Insert obligatory Eagles run-pass ratio joke here.

OK, so Reid and his offensive coordinator are unlikely to serve a steady stream of Power-I against the second-to-worst pass defense in the NFL. The Eagles pass to get ahead and then, only with a comfortable margin, do they attempt to drain the clock and run the football down a defense's esophagus.

It's worked pretty well to this point. The Eagles are 7-4 and have the No. 2-ranked offense in the NFL.

But if they fall behind early, as they did against Chicago, then even the best-laid run schemes will go awry. The Eagles actually intended to establish the run on their first two plays from scrimmage against the Bears.

"Coach was like, 'OK, we're going to smack them in the mouth,' " Eagles guard Todd Herremans said. "But as soon as we came out . . . after that first series and we didn't get the production that I wanted to on those first two plays I was thinking, 'Man, I hope we stick to it because I know that we can get it right.' "

Both runs were behind the left side of the offensive line - Herremans' side - but LeSean McCoy was dropped for a 1-yard loss and Eldra Buckley gained only 3 yards. Eight of the Eagles' next nine plays were pass plays as they fell behind, 7-3. And when Chicago surged ahead, 14-3, on the next series, Mornhinweg's play-calling was understandably pass-heavy.

By game's end, quarterback Michael Vick had dropped back to pass 51 times and handed off only 15 times. The fact that the Bears' safeties were playing as far back as Lake Michigan to limit long passes, however, suggested that maybe more plays on the ground would have pulled the secondary in.

"You see them back there and you know that you should be doing it to make up some ground," Herremans said.

Mornhinweg hears the constant grumbling from fans and critics that the Eagles need to run more. The numbers seem to suggest that the run-pass disparity is less than in years past, but actually - if you classify Vick's scrambles and sacks as pass plays - the ratio is 63-37.

"I don't really care - whatever it takes to win the game," Mornhinweg said. "I don't care if we throw 30 times in a row or rush it 15 in a row. I really don't."

Mornhinweg is more concerned with maximizing the carries, and for the most part his offense has done so. Eagles running backs average 4.8 yards a carry, which is fifth best in the NFL. Those numbers are slightly skewed by Jerome Harrison's 11 carries for 109 yards last month against the Redskins.

Surprisingly, Harrison had only one carry in the two games since then.

"That's my responsibility. I got to get him in there a little more," said Mornhinweg, who often gave the same response to inquiries a few season ago as to why Correll Buckhalter didn't see the ball more often.

But, for the most part, it is difficult to argue against Reid and Mornhinweg's pass-first philosophy in their West Coast offense. For instance, the Eagles' red-zone problems of late - 2 of 10 inside the 20-yard line over the last two games - have been attributed to not running the ball enough when, in fact, running the ball too often may be the cause.

The Eagles have driven inside the red zone 39 times this season and have scored 19 touchdowns. Of the plays inside the red zone that resulted in touchdowns, only 18 of 55 were runs. When the Eagles have been forced to kick field goals or haven't reached the end zone the 20 other times, the run-pass play-calling is much more balanced (25-35).

The sample is not a complete one and "every game is different," as Mornhinweg is apt to say, but the numbers suggest that it's better to pass than to run.

Read The Inquirer's Eagles blog, "Birds' Eye View,"

by Jeff McLane and Jonathan Tamari,

at www.phillynews.com/eagles

Subject: DeSean on relationship with Reid: "We're good."

Response from garcia7 at 5:52 a.m. Wednesday.

"After his first season I named DeSean LITTLE T.O. Looks like the shoe fits."