Eagles Notebook: Run game: Eagles' Reid sees the light, right?

ANDY REID really loves it when we ask him about offensive balance. He said so himself Monday.

"You guys are good about asking me about that every week. I'll tell you that you like to have balance. Does that necessarily mean it's a 50-50 balance? No, that's not what it necessarily means," Reid said, in response to a question. The question was along the lines of "Hey, do you finally get it, or was this an anomaly?" in the wake of the Eagles' victory over the Giants, in which they actually might have called as many runs as passes (close to 50-50, if you consider two of Michael Vick's six scampers as planned runs, which is how they looked to me).

"No. 1, you want to do what it takes to win, and then, 2, you want to make sure that you get your group in rhythm and that you keep the defense out of rhythm," Reid said. "So the best way to do that is to utilize all your different groupings on offense and give the defense different looks, and at the same time, be able to give your offensive line and your quarterback an opportunity, and [your] running back an opportunity to get themselves going."

Shorter answer: Reid sees he needs to try to run right now to get Vick in rhythm. But the Eagles do like to run against the Giants more than most teams; they feel they can wear down the New York defense, and they have four LeSean McCoy 100-yard outings in the last five meetings as evidence that they are right. It's also a good idea to keep Eli Manning on the sideline as long as possible.

After Sunday's game, left guard Evan Mathis said the Eagles really didn't make any big adjustments, in going from 12 carries for 19 yards in the first half to 24 for 172 in the second half; they just kept at it. Reid, though, said offensive line coach Howard Mudd and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg "made the necessary adjustments to get different runs in or change the blocking assignments."

It also seemed, as Cris Collinsworth pointed out on the NBC telecast, that when the Eagles started gashing the Giants a little inside, the New York defense started overreacting, leaving cutback lanes for McCoy, who lives on that sort of mistake. NBC showed a great replay of defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul hustling across the field in pursuit to the left, only to watch McCoy zip right past him to the now-wide-open right.

Other tidbits from Monday:

* Andy Reid said Michael Vick bruised a knee on a fourth-quarter slide - something Vick mentioned to reporters after the game - but Reid said Vick was fine Monday, "up and moving and doing good," and will practice Wednesday, when the Eagles begin preparations for their visit to Pittsburgh.

* Reid expects left tackle King Dunlap to practice Wednesday, but Reid did not commit to starting Dunlap in Pittsburgh Sunday. He said he wants to see how Dunlap looks, after 2 weeks off with a hamstring injury. Reid said replacement Demetress Bell "played a pretty good game." Reid said Bell looked bad a few times when he was expecting help from a chip block and didn't get it.

* Reid made special mention of long snapper Jon Dorenbos, who played in his 89th successive regular-season Eagles game despite having suffered a high ankle sprain at Arizona. Dorenbos even made the tackle on Mat McBriar's first punt.

* Former Eagles offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde tweeted Monday night, "Wheels up! Next stop, Philadelphia, and it's good to be back! Fly, Eagles, Fly!" Vandervelde has been released from the Bucs' practice squad and is joining the Eagles' practice squad, according to a league source. He probably will replace long snapper Kyle Nelson, now that Dorenbos is healthy, but the Eagles said they would have no comment until Tuesday.

* Brandon Hughes, once a Giants practice-squad player, took Nnamdi Asomugha's place on the corner for much of the second and third quarters, after Asomugha was poked in the eye. Hughes gave up some completions, but he stood out on two third-down plays, a third-and-3 breakup of a pass to Domenik Hixon right after Asomugha left the field, and the third-and-goal play when Hixon probably interfered with Hughes to prevent an interception in the end zone.

* Told that Vick said after the game he was not a fan of icing the kicker, as Reid did, negating Lawrence Tynes' first of two misses from 54 yards at the end, Reid said: "For about 1 minute there, I wasn't a fan of it myself, either. That was not a good thing."

* Reid said Colt Anderson (knee) should be able to practice Wednesday, which could be a fairly big deal, given the Eagles' awful kickoff coverage Sunday.

* Also ready to roll Wednesday, Reid said, will be LeSean McCoy, who "had a little tweak of his knee," Derek Landri (knee swelling), and Asomugha, who missed much of the second and third quarters Sunday.