Bob Ford: Why do the Eagles pass? Because they can't run

Even though Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg rarely stand together on the sideline, they are closely linked by both the headphones over their ears and the spaces between their ears.

When Reid cleared his throat at his Monday news conference this week and said the offense's failings in the red zone were partly due to the scheme and partly due to the execution of plays, some took it as an oblique criticism of Mornhinweg's play-calling.

Not that there was anything out of the ordinary about Sunday's loss to San Diego, when 58 passes and 13 runs were called. If the Eagles are always pass-happy, maybe they were pass-delirious this time, but had Reid been making the selections, probably not that much would have been different.

"I've been asked a couple of times in these meetings if I ever go back and question what I called or asked for, and there are times that you do that," Reid said, "even [after] games that you're very successful. You're always analyzing yourself."

In the past, Reid and Mornhinweg have shared the play- calling at various times. Since last season, and all of this season, it has been Mornhinweg who makes the decision on the field, holds the play chart in front of his mouth, and relays the call to the speaker in Donovan McNabb's helmet. Reid checks the call on his own chart and then settles back, just like you, to see what happens.

Football at this level becomes a game of preparing for and guessing what the other guy's tendencies might be. The Eagles have shown some very specific tendencies this season. Only one team in the league - interestingly enough, the Chicago Bears - passes the ball more often in first-and-10 situations than the Eagles, for instance. (Bears, 62.6 percent; Eagles, 61.1 percent, according to the NFL Game Statistics and Information System.)

As Reid and Mornhinweg formulate their game plan, they compose the play-calling "script" for the start of the game, an outline of 15 to 20 plays designed to test the defense and perhaps to disguise the Eagles' true intentions.

In the first quarter against San Diego, the Eagles ran the ball on three of their first four first-and-10 opportunities. They didn't do it particularly well, but, against all their tendencies, they did it.