TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals have been able to move the ball through the air with the greatest of ease.

Eleven games into the season, Arizona’s running game remains mostly a figment of the Cardinals’ imagination.

Arizona enters tonight’s game at Philadelphia with the No. 2 passing offense in the NFL. On the ground, the Cardinals rank 30th out of 32 teams.

Not exactly a balanced attack.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that we have to run the football,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said after the team’s practice on Tuesday. “I don’t like to throw it 53 times (actually 52) in a game like we did last time. ... All I can tell you is we’ll continue to work on it and hopefully we’ll improve.”

The Cardinals made an immediate improvement when Edgerrin James was benched in favor of rookie Tim Hightower after a woeful ground game in an Oct. 26 road loss to Carolina. The following week at St. Louis, Hightower gained 109 yards on 22 carries in his first NFL start, including a 30-yard touchdown run.

Since then, Hightower has gained 88 yards on 35 carries, an average of just 2.5 yards.

James mostly watches. The Cardinals declined James’ request that he be released, and since he lost his starting job he has only four carries for four yards.

Quarterback Kurt Warner said the Cardinals are so good at passing that they often stick with that at the expense of developing a running attack.

“I think it’s a Catch-22 because we’re good at that, and then when you try to run and things don’t go in your favor, you start questioning ‘Well, is it worth it, or should we just throw instead?’” Warner said.

When he was first hired before the 2007 season, Whisenhunt wanted to build a team around a power running game, but he has adjusted to use the talent at hand, specifically the arm of Warner and the presence of two of the game’s best receivers in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.

The coach said that a study of film of Sunday’s 37-29 loss to the New York Giants shows that the team was ever so close to making a big play on the ground.

“Had we come back to them, I have no doubt that they would have had some success,” Whisenhunt said, “but because we tripped, because we missed a block and they get one or two yards, your perception is you’re not doing well.”

Although Warner loves to throw the ball, his battered body from the Giants’ game is proof that it can’t be done every down.

“We know we have to run the ball better, especially against good football teams to at least just keep them honest,” Warner said. “I think the bottom line is we’re a throwing team, and that’s going to be the heavy part of what we do, but we have to complement that.”

Guard Deuce Lutui said the linemen will just keep plugging away.

“We just have to remain consistent and patient,” he said.

Without a running game, the Cardinals (7-4) still are on the brink of their first division title in more than three decades.

Hightower said overall success trumps any concerns he has about his recent struggles to gain yards.

“We haven’t given up on the running game but you’ve got to go with what’s working,” he said. “You’ve got to jump on the bandwagon and just roll with it.”