Reid, Eagles First in Flight

Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles seems to be the only NFL coach who fully understands modern football.

He’s also the one coach who isn’t afraid to put the ball in the air.

If you get a chance to see the Eagles in Kansas City today you will be watching the only 2005 pro club that plays the game exactly right.

You will, that is, if quarterback Donovan McNabb is sound enough physically to perform as he and his teammates regularly do for Reid.

In NFL Week 3, McNabb had to rebound from another illegal late hit to painfully remind a boisterous home crowd why the Eagles win so often. During McNabb’s big drives to beat Oakland, 23-20, Reid, the Philadelphia signal-caller, again made sure that the percentages were with his team on every play.

* The Eagles threw the ball about 60% of the time, as usual.

* They threw it on a majority of their first-down plays, as usual.

* Most of their passes were comparatively short ones to receivers running crossing patterns and the like.

* Many were thrown to backs -- as pioneered not long ago on Bill Walsh’s teams, which have been the model for Reid.

* There were short, medium-range and long threats on every Eagle play. And when the long one was there, McNabb took it.

* When their opponents felt sufficiently overwhelmed by pass plays to begin crowding in on McNabb, the Eagles simply switched to running plays and, to disguise their intentions as they normally do, ran out of the same passing formations they’d been using. Halfback Brian Westbrook’s 18-yard touchdown came on the third run in a sequence of four Eagle plays.

* To maximize their offensive game, the Eagles lined up often in one-back, three-receiver formations. On pass plays, therefore, there were five receivers (including a tight end and a back) for McNabb. On running plays, with the field spread by wide receivers and defensive backs, there was running room for Westbrook -- whose progress was never blocked by a blocking back.

All this may sound simple enough, but no other NFL teams play football this way. And accordingly, no other teams keep the percentages on their side so continuously as Reid does.

Most TV announcers don’t like this kind of football, favoring smash-mouth running plays, but nowhere in the rules does it say that the pros have to keep playing an old-fashioned game.

Too Many Late Hits

McNabb’s injuries to his chest area and upper body have stayed the Eagles from a faster start this fall. Almost surely, an uninjured McNabb would have had less trouble with Oakland last week and, earlier, would have outscored the Atlanta team that handed the 2-1 Eagles their only loss.

And such a prospect is, of course, why opponents don’t mind seeing quarterbacks on the ground -- other teams’ quarterbacks, to be sure.

The NFL is responsible for the well-being of its quarterbacks. League officials alone have the power to make very sure that their pass-play artists stay alive and well and delivering the big games that have made pro football the nation’s most popular sport.

Demonstrably, the $7,500 fine for the player who late-hit McNabb in Atlanta proved not to be sufficient to dissuade the Oakland player who late-hit him more flagrantly last week.

Well after McNabb was out of the play, the Raider linebacker who damaged him for the second time in three weeks, DeLawrence Grant, plowed full speed into his bruised and unprotected upper body with the iron-hard crown of his helmet.

If the first late hit brought only $7,500, this one was worth two or three times that.

Inexcusably, quarterbacks, among other NFL players, are still being slugged and slapped around well after the bell.

Surely, an NFL priority now is to find the right punishment for the predators who attack quarterbacks. If not, the game will be ruled not by artists -- some of the great artists of our day -- but by smash-mouth Neanderthals. It’s a mystery why game officials have to be told that.

Split Personality

The New England Patriots have developed a split personality this year, a bad case that might, finally, on top of their many injuries and their change of offensive coordinators, keep them from winning another Super Bowl title.

Much depends on how they decide to play the San Diego Chargers today. If they ground Tom Brady and if San Diego counters with its best plays -- Drew Brees’ passes -- it won’t be simple for the Patriots even on their home field.

New England, with injured safety Rodney Harrison missing from the defense of which he was the heart, is facing an uncertain and unpredictable future. For if the Week 3 Pittsburgh game were the model, the Patriots plan to wait a while each week -- perhaps into the fourth quarter -- to unveil their most famous, aggressive personality.

In their aggressive mode, they’ve repeatedly called on Brady to throw time after time and, hence, to win time after time, which he does more often than any peer.

In their other personality, the Patriots play like most NFL teams, running on first down even though they’re running into eight-man defensive fronts that make successful first-down ground plays rare. Then on second and third down they attempt to pass against defensive teams deployed to render successful pass plays difficult to impossible.

When the Patriots are in their running-play personality, they have as much trouble as any other running team, trouble of the kind that enabled Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to earn a 13-10 lead in the first 45 minutes last week.

When in the fourth quarter the Patriots reverted to their Super Bowl personality, Brady’s passes pulled them home, 23-20. As he so often does when the Patriots are attacking aggressively, he suddenly completed pass after pass.

One specific New England problem now is that its coaches might enjoy running so much that Brady gets less time than he needs to play catch-up profitably.

He had just enough time to win in Pittsburgh, where, in the fourth quarter, the turning point was Brady’s four consecutive passes starting the go-ahead drive. Three were first-down passes that confused the defense as first-down passes normally do. The other was a pass on second and two, which is an even better passing down than first down.

Next, on the Patriots’ winning touchdown drive, Brady started with three consecutive passes, each completed on first down. At the end, lining up defensively on their seven-yard line, the Steelers had no clue as to what was coming next from New England. Reverting again, the Patriots easily ran the ball over.

Big Ben, Brady Even

Roethlisberger played Brady to a standstill Sunday. In fact, he outplayed Brady when both were directing conservative teams in the first three quarters, coming up with the play of the day:

After the Patriots scored first, Roethlisberger, gathering his team on the Pittsburgh 15-yard line, was allowed to throw a first-down pass that went for a game-tying 85-yard touchdown when perfectly placed to wide receiver Hines Ward, who carried it in.

The Steelers, basically, are a one-personality running team. And in the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger was losing to Brady, 20-13, when he got his last chance -- a chance that took the Steelers out of their personality if Roethlisberger were to catch up with a 50-yard drive.

Big Ben had to throw the ball there for a team that doesn’t want to throw the ball and, over the years, has seldom passed well from behind. But he surprised New England with the game-tying drive.

With 1:23 left, Brady and kicker Adam Vinatieri, who for years have had to win in the last two minutes, did it again.

Roethlisberger lost because Brady had the ball last in a game in which that only happened, perhaps, because the game officials lost track of the time.

Brady and Roethlisberger are probably the NFL’s best two quarterbacks.

The whole difference between them in effectiveness is the personality, style and strategic approach of their teams.

As a Steeler, it’s tough on Roethlisberger to play from behind. His is a ground-play team that has to pass, somehow, to play catch-up.

Brady is used to that.

What Brady isn’t used to is directing a team that won’t pass when it should and when it did under last year’s offensive coaches -- that is, from start to finish.