in the 2nd half, only up by 3 points, we ran the ball 18 times (compared to 5 passes) and we scored on 2 of the 3 possessions (the final one being kneel downs).

so, when running the ball more than we passed it (and while only leading by 3 points) against one of the best defensive lines in football, we essentially scored on both of our drives AND kept the ball out of the giants offenses’ hands.

i’m not saying we become a power run team, but i DO think this game was VERY telling of what could be with a better balance when it comes to play calling. the execution was great, but who says we can’t execute in the run game like that if we give our big line a chance to get going and wear out the D-line?

As of the end of drive 6, while we had more called passes than runs, we were up 3 points (half time). Then in the second half, from your above stats, we passed 14 times and ran 23 times (excluding the kneel down on drive 10) and managed to stretch the lead while running, to 13 points. hmmm…..I say Run to win, and to break the other team’s resolve.

TAs for the 3rd downs, the real reason we did so much better was instead of having to convert 3rd and 10s with our inconsistent “pass on every down offense”, we were having to convert 3rd and 6 or less against the giants, on a consistent basis. You can look at stats from the beginning of football and they will tell you that your odds of converting drastically improve when you do that. Think about it…incomplete…incomplete…3rd and 10. run for 2 yards, run for 2 yards….3rd and 6. Its really a no-brainer. You always want to give yourself the best chance for success.

Note the run really started working on the 5th drive…if we hadn’t stuck with it through the first four it wouldn’t have been available when we needed it. No team in the NFL can just turn it on and run effectively whenever they feel like. You have to work on it to be good at it, we did that early and were rewarded late.

The lead really has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the offense chosen, because the offense doesn’t play defense. Its what kind of scoring the offense generates and what kind of yards of field position.

The Eagles scored 10 points in the first half, and should have had 16 points by the end of the first drive of the 3rd quarter while they were playing pass heavy offense. (It wasn’t the offense fault that two gimme field goals were blocked). They got a final 10 points in the last half on two run heavy drives to end the game.

The Eagles got 206 yards on 34 called passes (6.1 per) and 125 yards on 37 called runs (3.4 per). Obviously, continuous running is not going to produce the margin of victory at a 3.4 yards per carry clip.

“if we hadn’t stuck with it through the first four it wouldn’t have been available when we needed it. No team in the NFL can just turn it on and run effectively whenever they feel like. You have to work on it to be good at it, we did that early and were rewarded late.”

I’m not going to take the time to go into this now, but every assertion you make there is just total nonsense if you actually follow football. Suffice it to say, Westbrook did not rip off a 30 yard TD run because we “stuck with the run”. He did it because the defense played cover 0 with no deep safety. Any time a defense presents you with an opportunity like that, all you need is a 3 yard run, and it becomes a long TD because there is no one deep to stop the runner. And yes, you can just “turn on the run” and make it happen. The Giants have clearly showed that this year by playing run first. Their offense is normally effective from the jump and they don’t need 4 drives to “warm up”.

Hey, apparently I’m not the only one who thinks its a good thing to stick to the run early and have it pay off late. In fact, to quote one of the guys actually on the line executing the plays, Tra Thomas, "It’s hard to pass all the time,…If you keep pounding the rock, you might get three yards, then four yards, then no yards, but you might break the next one." This was directly in response to the perceived change in philosophy of Andy Reid’s play calling after the game against the Giants.

Its interesting how the players on the inside all felt there was a renewed commitment to the run, but everyone else not actually in the game, came up with a different conclusion after individual statistical analysis. Oh well!

To address your pass vs run yards per play stat as regards your criticism of continuous running, did you happen to catch the Panthers vs Buccaneers game? 299 rushing yards led to 38 points. I assume you realize football is about much more than stats and yards per attempt. If it were not, we should be one of the best teams in the league in terms of record right now. But we’re not. With regards to yards on offense we are one of the best teams in the league, especially passing yards, but you and I both know how inconsistent our passing offense is. There is no way we are the 5th best passing offense in the NFL. It was in fact it was an over-reliance on that pass that put us in our present predicament. I won’t repeat myself regarding all the different things running the ball impacts positively on. Read my other posts. All I know is for the first time in several weeks, the opposing team couldn’t say “okay now, if we just keep rushing McNabb, at some point we are bound to catch Andy in 5 straight passes”

Ultimately everyone has a different opinion regarding pass vs run. The NFL goes through cycles regarding offensive tendencies and how successful they are. There have been periods when the most successful teams have been those that could pass it all over the field. However, looking at the NFL today, its clear that the most successful teams are those that commit to the run and do it well.

Finally, correction…you really can’t just “turn on the run.” The Giants are successful because they made the commitment during the off season after evaluating their personnel, a 3 headed monster at RB including a bruising 265 pound tail back and an offensive line that had started the same 5 guys for over a full season. They made the decision to add a little known dude at the time named Madison Hedgecock. You should watch him play. May be the best blocking fullback in the NFL and is one of the big reasons they are so successful. You ever heard of running backs talk about how they need to have the rock in their hands to get a feel and a rhythm for running during the game? Ever heard of them talk about how they feel they get better with each carry, and as the game progresses? Well I have, from countless NFL backs.

Still don’t think 3rd and 6 is easier to convert than 3rd and 10? How about I issue a challenge to you…if we go back to calling 60:40 or 58:42 pass to run plays and that carries us deep into the playoffs, I will not type another word about the run game on this site.