But not in the way the team's frustrated followers were using those words to characterize the team's dismal performance in Sunday's 13-13 tie with the dreadful Cincinnati Bengals .

Reid said it was ridiculous to think he should have done anything but settle for a tie, rather than go for a desperately needed win when the Eagles had fourth and 1 at their own 22-yard line and punted late in overtime.

"I see that as half a game," he said, meaning half a win. "I absolutely feel that was the correct thing to do in punting the Football with a minute, 20-plus seconds left on your minus-22-yard line. It's pretty safe to say that's the correct decision, to punt the Football."

The issue was raised again later at his news conference, and Reid dug in his heels a little deeper.

"That's ridiculous, giving [the Bengals] an opportunity at minus-22," he said. "It doesn't make sense, I don't think. It shouldn't make sense to anybody."

Reid's decision to punt could prove correct if the Eagles somehow benefit from the tie and squeeze into the playoffs. A record of 10-5-1 is certainly better than 10-6, which may be the minimum mark an NFC team will need to grab a wild-card spot in the playoffs. Then again, 9-6-1 is not as good as 10-6.

But the real issue is that the Eagles stand at 5-4-1 with six games remaining, and only a blind loyalist can believe this team is capable of winning five of them if it cannot beat the Bengals.

"I look forward to the game when we put the offense, defense and special teams together," Reid said. "We will have tremendous success when we do that."

While Reid is waiting for that to happen, he might want to go over some rules with his players, especially the quarterback.

After one of the poorest performances of his career, in which he committed four turnovers, Donovan McNabb said he did not know an NFL game could end in a tie. If he had stopped there, McNabb could have been lumped in with several teammates who had said the same thing. But McNabb went on to say he would hate to see a tie in a playoff game or the Super Bowl. He doesn't have to worry. There are no ties in postseason games.

It is conceivable that McNabb's belief that there were no ties drained him of a sense of urgency during the overtime.

"I don't think that had any factor whatsoever to do with the outcome of this game or how they played in the overtime," Reid said. "I think that's absurd. Obviously, we play to win whether you think you have another overtime period or you don't, and you play your heart out to win it in that time. That's how we approached it. That's how the players approached it. Not knowing that rule, I don't think, had any effect on what we did out there."

Reid's addiction to the passing game was never more evident than it was against Cincinnati. On a cold day when the wind was a factor and McNabb was off target with many throws, the Eagles had 58 passes and only 18 runs against a team that went into the game ranked 25th against the run and 10th against the pass in the NFL. The Eagles had 18 third-down plays, passing on 17 of them and trying to throw on the remaining one. They converted on three of the plays.

The weather conditions and the Bengals' poor rushing defense suggested a more balanced game plan, but Reid defied logic.

"One of their weaknesses, we felt, was against the pass," he said. "Obviously, the pass game had to be a factor here and we wanted it to be a factor."

Reid went on to say that the Eagles were not as successful running the Football in the first half as they needed to be. In the first half, they ran five times for 5 yards, and Brian Westbrook had four carries. That was not good. Still, Reid was not discouraged by McNabb's first half, in which he completed 11 of 23 passes for 142 yards with two interceptions, a grim 31.4 passer rating. The quarterback kept on firing.

"Could we have dialed up more runs? Absolutely," Reid said.

As for McNabb? "He'll continue to fire and get it right," the coach said.

Bob Brookover offers his take

on the Eagles' predicament

on The Inquirer's Eagles blog,

Birds' Eye View, at http://go.philly.com/Eagles.

Eagles at Ravens Sunday at 1 p.m. (Fox29).

Line: Ravens by 11/2.

Inside It's been a November to forget for Donovan McNabb. D5.

Reviewing Sunday's tie. D5.

Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.