But the process ends with the players on the field, and somewhere between Mornhinweg's
vision of what should happen and the players' execution, something has gone terribly wrong.
Earlier in the season, the
Eagles kept saying they were only a hair away from things clicking in stride.
Now, it's the halfway point, and instead of getting things right, that hair-thin line has grown to be the size of the Afro Julius Erving sported back in the day.
After a modest step forward in a 23-16 win against Minnesota, the Eagles' offense went right back into the nest in Sunday's 38-17 whipping at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys.
The offense is still disjointed; McNabb still looks disheveled, and the end zone still looks like the forbidden zone.
Training camp, four preseason games and eight regular-season games should have been enough time to come up with answers if any were to be found.
Yet, except for that 56-point
aberration against the Detroit
Lions in Week 3, this offense has been nothing like the high-scoring, dynamic unit everyone
predicted.
"In many of the important
statistics, we're just under or as good or even better than we have been last year or in 2004," Mornhinweg said. "The two problems that we've had are down in the red zone and sacks.
"Those have been our two problems. If you look at simply moving the ball, I think we're doing a reasonably good job there. Third downs, a reasonably good job. Yards per pass attempt, a reasonably good job."
In a classic case of statistics not telling the whole story, the Birds actually rank ninth in the NFL in total offense with 349.6 yards a game.
But in the infinitely more important category of scoring offense, the Eagles ranked 20th (19.5 points per game) - a level indicative of a team with a losing record.
"Normally, if you're good, you'll score points," Mornhinweg conceded. "If not, you're going to have trouble scoring points."
So simple, yet so true.
