Rich Hofmann: Eagles rely on run game? Yeah, right

'IN THE PAST, when Donovan has been hurt, we tend to run the ball a little bit more," Brian Westbrook said yesterday. It is kind of true, but it kind of isn't. It is like everything about Donovan McNabb and the Eagles these days - that is, kind of complicated.

(Oh, and anybody holding a ticket on the Michael Vick/Jeff Garcia/Cliff Lee/Pedro Martinez quinella of Philadelphia sports this year, your Brinks truck awaits.)

We do not know whether McNabb and his broken rib will start Sunday against New Orleans or whether Kevin Kolb will start in his place. We do know that the Eagles aren't likely to make a public decision until they have to make it. We also know that McNabb stood yesterday and watched what had to have been the most unique collection of Eagles quarterbacks ever on the same practice field: McNabb, Kolb, Vick and Garcia.

(In second place, for an entirely different reason: Jim McMahon, Jeff Kemp, Brad Goebel and Pat Ryan, who all played in 1991.)

But back to the matter of the day - that is, whether or not Eagles coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg will dumb down the offense, trash a lot of the passing game and give the ball a ton to Westbrook and Shady McCoy.

An initial guess: Don't count on it.

There are two significant pieces of history here: in 2002, when Koy Detmer and then A.J. Feeley took over the team after McNabb broke his ankle, and in 2006, when Garcia took over after McNabb blew out his knee. The popular legend is that Reid called the games more conservatively for the backups and, as a result, won 11 out of 14 games with them. The most consistent criticism of Reid over the years has held up the play-by-plays of those games as incontrovertible evidence that McNabb has never been given such supportive play-calling, to his detriment.

It all sounds good. It just isn't entirely true.

Here is the complicated part. Because in both of those years when McNabb got hurt, the Eagles came out of the gate throwing like crazy (measured by first-half play-calling, before the score begins to dictate strategy). Then they reassessed, as they often do, often during the bye week, and went to more running. (In the case of 2006, the change was marked by Reid firing himself as the offense's play-caller.) Then McNabb got hurt and they stayed with the same reassessed play-calling for the backups, first Detmer/Feeley, then Garcia.