On one matter, Childress and Reid agree to disagree

Their history provides a natural story line. Two close friends who coached together for seven years, won big together, worked tirelessly together and, yes, even share a remarkably similar "flat-line" approach to their job. (Please, don't even mention their affinity for mustaches.)

Brad Childress and Andy Reid no doubt share a tight bond forged from their time together in Philadelphia, one that will be in focus today when the Vikings and Eagles meet in a first-round playoff game. Childress served as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under Reid in Philadelphia from 1999 to 2005 before taking over the Vikings.

While Childress has incorporated a definite Philly flavor to his regime in terms of approach and management principles, the two teams won't exactly be mirror images.

Childress and Reid both are disciples of the West Coast offense, but their offenses feature fundamental and philosophical differences. Childress' offense is predicated on the run, while Reid's adheres to a pass-first philosophy.

The numbers underscore the differences. The Vikings finished fifth in the NFL in rushing and 25th in passing this season, and running back Adrian Peterson won the rushing title. The Eagles were 22nd in rushing and sixth in passing.

The Vikings ran the ball 53 percent of their plays this season. The Eagles ran the ball 41 percent of the time and attempted 154 more passes than the Vikings.

Reid said this week that Childress has added his own "wrinkle" to the system. Though he loves a power running attack, Childress dismissed the notion that he was in the ear of Reid to run more when they worked together.

"[I would] just point out numbers," he said, smiling. "Remember this, statistics are ideas about numbers. That's what they are. You're always looking to change the ideas people may have about what you're presenting."

Artis Hicks has played for both Reid and Childress and said he didn't realize their differences in philosophy until he joined the Vikings in 2006.

"I had no idea because most times wherever a coordinator is, he tends to take on the tendencies of the head coach as far as his schematics and what they're doing," said Hicks, now a Vikings lineman.

"But Coach Reid, clearly he's a pass-first, run-second coach, and there is nothing wrong with that. But Coach Childress, he is the opposite. He wants to establish everything off the run, and that approach works, too. It's just different philosophies, and they've both been proven to work, so you can't take one over the other.

"It just depends what you're good at, what your personnel allows you to do, I guess. If you've got Adrian Peterson, I'm pretty sure you want to use that guy. You've got Donovan McNabb, pretty sure you want to use that guy. It just depends on personnel."

Which is true, of course. Peterson is off to one of the best starts in NFL history for a running back, which naturally makes him the focal point of the offense. The Eagles offense revolves around McNabb, a five-time Pro Bowl quarterback, and running back Brian Westbrook, whose specialty is his versatility.

Westbrook is a two-time 1,000-yard rusher, but he's equally dangerous as a receiver. He caught 54 passes this season -- more than any Vikings receiver -- after setting a team record with 90 receptions in 2007.

Same offense, different tack

"The thing about the West Coast offense is you can tinker with it and make your run-pass ratio however you like it," Vikings veteran safety Darren Sharper said. "But you always keep the integrity of the West Coast as far as a lot of formation changes, a lot of disguising of what you're trying to do as far as routes. But you're still doing the same stuff. We use a lot of short passes, but we might run the ball a little more effectively because we have Adrian Peterson. That's going to change it a little bit."

Some of it just boils down to philosophy. Since Childress took over in 2006, the Vikings offense has rushed for 6,786 yards, which ranks third in the NFL during that span. They are second in rushing attempts with 1,455. Philadelphia has finished in the top 10 in passing five consecutive seasons.

"I always banked on Brad for his knowledge in the run game," Reid said. "I would say he's one of the top guys knowledge-wise about being able to run the football. We talked about it, but to say he was in my ear to run it more, I wouldn't say that. I'd say that we were just doing the offense we were doing."

D-coordinators given room

When it comes to defense, Childress seems to have adopted Reid's model of giving his coordinator a certain amount of autonomy. Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is widely respected in NFL circles as one of the top defensive minds in the game largely because of his creative blitz schemes.

Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier cut his teeth as an NFL coach as a defensive backs coach under Johnson from 1999 to 2002. Frazier said Childress has allowed him the kind of authority to run his defense that is similar to Reid's relationship with Johnson.

"I remember talking to Jim a bunch of times about how we did things in Philadelphia just in comparison to other places," Frazier said. "He would tell me some stories about all the places he had been, and he said, 'I have the greatest job in the NFL. I have a head coach who allows me to do my job.' They always talk about the fact that Andy trusted his defensive coaches to handle that side of the ball, and he did what he did best. He was clearly the guy who was overseeing everything.

"To echo Jim, I feel like I have the greatest job in the NFL with Brad. He has trusted me from Day 1 to help in what we have to get done on defense. He's been implicit and very supportive all along."

Frazier said he has incorporated some of Johnson's principles into his Tampa-2 system. Both men love to bring pressure. The Eagles finished third in the NFL in sacks this season with 48. The Vikings were fourth with 45.

Johnson creates pressure by using a variety of blitzes while Frazier prefers, if possible, to get pressure from his front four. Childress jokingly referred to some of Johnson's blitzes as "retirement blitzes" because at age 67 and with 21 years of NFL coaching, he can get away with using unconventional schemes.

"If Leslie ran it here, you know they might say that's not sound with 10 guys on one side and one on the other," Childress said. "You know they might say, that guy's not very good. ... [Johnson] can do some things that are unique, if you will, and usually does."

Those differences will be on display today on both sides of the ball. And the similarities too, of course. Ultimately, Childress said, execution trumps everything else.

"They're always attacking scheme," he said. "They're not attacking me or I'm not attacking Andy. Both of us, I think, have to stay behind the white lines. We'll be attacking the players that are out there and the scheme they're playing."