It took 12 plays, covered 70 yards and chewed 7 minutes, 4 seconds off the clock.

The Eagles were flawless, and when Donovan McNabb rolled right and then flipped that shovel pass to Brian Westbrook, who ran into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown, my overwhelming

reaction was to be ticked off.

That's right I was irritated with Eagles coach Andy Reid.

Why? Because that drive was what the Birds should have been doing for the entire season.

That drive, the one that started last night's Thanksgiving contest and sent the Eagles on to a 48-20 stuffing of the Arizona Cardinals , was concrete proof that this offense can be effective working with a balance between pass and run.

Led by Westbrook's 22 carries for 110 yards, the Eagles had a season-high 40 rushes. In what might be a first during Reid's 10 years, the Eagles officially had more rushing attempts than pass attempts - OK, so the final three were taking knees to run out the clock.

Granted, the Cardinals are next-to-last in the league in scoring defense, but the Eagles put up a season-high 48 points after totaling 20 in their last two games.

They are now 3-0 in games when they rush the ball more than 30 times and 5-0 in games when they rush the ball more times than the opponent.

Maybe that is simply a coincidence, or maybe Reid put his stubbornness aside for once and accepted that running the ball can be a good thing.

"The run game worked," Reid said when asked if staying committed to the run loosened things up for the entire offense. "That was the thing that was important there, we were gaining good positive yards on it.

"Any time you can get that mix going, between the run and the pass, that's important and makes the defense have to play both and honor both. That helps you as an offense."

I'm probably being unfair, but Reid sure looked like a guy who had just choked down a pot of burnt turnips when he said that.

What might this season look like had Reid made this type of commitment to balance much earlier, before the Eagles' post-season chances were basically shot to hell?

Is it possible that some of those close losses would have gone the other way?

How many of those dreadful failures on third- and fourth-and-short might have succeeded had Reid not treated the running game like it carried malaria and let his beefy offensive line know he took rushing the ball seriously?

That first drive highlighted much of the unfulfilled potential that the Birds have been claiming was there:

* McNabb went 5-for-5 for 38 yards, completing passes to four players.

* Westbrook had four carries for 22 yards and caught the 5-yard TD reception.

* The Eagles had seven rushes for 32 yards, including newly activated fullback Kyle Eckel gaining 2 on a crucial third-and-1.

"We needed this game," said Westbrook. "It was a little vindication for my offensive line, my fullback. Wide receivers went downfield and made some plays, made some blocks. We did what we need to do to handle business.

Pass-to-run balance - what a marvelous concept, what a ridiculously simple way to make effective use of all of the weapons in this offense.

We found out the Birds' offensive line can indeed open holes up the middle when challenged to do so.

Give Westbrook enough rushes early to find a rhythm and he will make plays running out of the backfield as well as catching out of it.

Perhaps McNabb, who completed 27 of 39 passes for 260 yards with four touchdowns, can still play like a quality NFL quarterback if he's not throwing the ball 45 or 50 times, making mistakes virtually inevitable.

Putting him in a "better position to succeed" means not putting so much of the burden on his shoulders.

"We were able to do a lot of good things on the offensive side, running the ball as well as passing the ball, spreading the ball around, getting guys involved," McNabb said. "You see what

happens."

The sad irony for the Eagles, however, is that even if Reid has finally seen the worth in committing to both the pass and run, that revelation has likely come too late.

Even with the victory over the Cardinals, the Eagles (6-5-1) will likely still have to win their final four games and get help from somebody else to sneak into a wild-card spot.

It was a marvelous drive. It featured the kind of playcalling that could have changed the Eagles' season had it been done a little earlier when the straits weren't so dire. *

Send e-mail to

smallwj@phillynews.com.

For recent columns, go to

http://go.philly.com/smallwood.