Throwing it out there

HERE IS HOW Andy Reid/Marty Mornhinweg were different against the Giants: They stuck with the running game until near the end of the second quarter.

Here is how Reid/Mornhinweg were the same: They threw the ball to win.

In their first five drives of the game, the Eagles were able to run only 21 plays. In net yardage, those drives gained -1, 2, 0, -5 and 23 yards. The Eagles had a touchdown at that point thanks to the beneficence of the defense, but that's all they had. The time of possession was against them, 17:05 to 11:22. To that point, they called 12 runs and only nine passes.

And then they stopped running.

Beginning with their 2-minute drill at the end of the half and continuing from there, all through the third quarter and pretty far into the fourth quarter, they threw. On their next six possessions - you know, when they won the game with a touchdown and three field goals - they called passes on 32 out of 42 plays, which is 76 percent of the time.

They stopped running when it didn't work in the second quarter. Then they threw to win. Just saying.

- Rich Hofmann, as posted on his blog, The Idle Rich,

at go.philly.com/theidlerich

Celebration for the Kolbs

First, his wife, Whitney, gave birth to the couple's first child Saturday night. Daughter Kamryn weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces. Then, he was on the sideline as the Eagles knocked off the Giants to reach the NFC Championship Game.

The Eagles had a car service drive Kolb to the New York area after Kamryn was born.

"I was excited, because I knew I was going to get to stay with her and then come to the game," Kolb told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Coach [Andy] Reid said, 'You're not going to miss your child's birth, so go take care of that, keep me informed and we'll take care of business.' Sure enough, that's what happened, and I have two awesome things to celebrate." *

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