Reid, Vick have hand in defeat
Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Columnist Bob Ford writes about the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers and the Flyers.
Reid, Vick have hand in defeat
Bob Ford, Inquirer Sports Columnist
What the Eagles hoped would be an uplifting home opener against a struggling divisional rival turned into a multi-faceted nightmare Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
For the second straight week, the Eagles had to finish without quarterback Michael Vick. Against Atlanta, Vick left the game with a concussion, but he recovered quickly enough to start Sunday against the New York Giants. He didn’t finish, however.
The Eagles blew a fourth-quarter lead and lost 29-16 to the Giants, falling to 1-2 on the season.
Vick suffered a broken bone in his right (non-throwing) hand in the third quarter. He apparently sustained the injury on a quarterback sneak attempt. Not only weren’t the Eagles protecting Vick from banging his head into the line, they weren’t protecting him in any way.
Of course, that had been the case from the start of the game. On the first offensive series of the afternoon, the Eagles called a quarterback sneak on 3rd-and-1, sending Vick headfirst into the line.
The Eagles drove well on that first series, but it ended with an interception and the Giants then took early control with touchdowns on their next two possessions. Both scores highlighted deficiencies in the Eagles defense, with Casey Matthews unable to cover running back Brandon Jacobs out of the backfield on the first, and safety Kurt Coleman failing to bring down receiver Victor Cruz on the second.
Linebacking and tackling have been issues for a while for the Eagles and those departments helped put the Eagles in a 14-0 hole. Nate Allen replaced Coleman at free safety after that second score.
But while the first quarter went to the Giants, the Eagles came back in the second quarter to make it a 14-13 game at the half, sandwiching a pair of field goals around a 70-yard drive that was highlighted by an 11-yard LeSean McCoy touchdown run, his fifth TD of the season.
The Eagles took a 16-14 lead in the third period when the series on which Vick was hurt ended with a field goal. After a punt, Vick returned from the locker room where he had received X-rays and went back into the game. Maybe someone misread the X-ray results.
In any case, Vick drove the Eagles into Giants territory, but they stalled and Andy Reid elected to go for a 4th-and-1 at the Giants 43. If they missed on it, the Giants would have good field position in a game that required only a field goal to give them the lead. They missed, with LeSean McCoy losing three yards. It was a terrible decision by the head coach, but the defense didn't bail him out, either.
Eli Manning promptly took advantage of the good field position and took the Giants downfield for a go-ahead touchdown, scored when Cruz outleaped Nnamdi Asomugha and Jarrad Page. The Giants converted the two-point conversion and the Eagles were going to have to come back with Mike Kafka at quarterback.
That didn’t work. His first pass was an interception, the Giants drove for another touchdown and, yes, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong.
There weren’t many silver linings in the cloudy sky. The defense had been awful when really needed, Vick couldn’t stay healthy again, and Reid had gaffed on the only tough decision of the day.
Consolation? The home season has to get better. Can’t get much worse than this one.
Please get me on that sideline and give me a Reid challenge flag. When he goes for it on fourth down in the middle of the field after being unable to punch it in from the 1 inch line I will throw the flag at the coach and the punter can go in.
— NYPHILLYPHAN- The Eagles have LOST 5 out of their last 6 games.....Vick is so over rated ...and Vick is reverting back to his lousy Atlanta quarterback days.— frank105
- we have heard all week how great Mike Kafka is at quarterback.....2 picks and unable to rally the team for the 2nd week in a row....just how many wins does he have against the giants? none! VY is 3-0 against the giants with a 21 comeback victory against them to boot....Reid stop listening to the media hype on kafka....put VY in and let him do what u brought him to do.......he cant do no worst— ronniegee
- Yeah Andy read needs to be fired honesty, he should have played Vy instead of Kafka, and he should have punted on that 4th and 1, ran ronnie brown on the goaline play— Scorcher33
- gay york specializes in throat shoving— 1stamendment
- Weeks ago I said that Andy Reid would have to work extra hard to blow things this season. I see now that he is more than up to the task. Why can't this guy have a team ready on Sunday and then make bad in game decisions.— denny99
- Chill, people... they always have a few games like this early in the season. Reid's teams are always the best in the second half of the season. And yes, then they generally have another shitty effort at some point in the playoffs - but I'd take anyone's bet that says they won't make the playoffs this year.— sweetlew
- Reid's 4th down call was....dumb....dumb....dumb....dumb....dumb!!!!!
The failure to score inside the 2yd line shows why you do not have a defensive coach run the offense.— Edae - Trade For Ryan Clady! HE'll Fix the O-Line.— Ace-Philadelphia
- All in Dream Team!!!!!— Scope33
- Can't wait for next year, we will get them..........Philly sports teams motto........— STEPHEN1988
- The same people criticizing him for running are the same ones always whining he doesn't run enough. A feeding frenzy of weasels. Jump off the wagon now morons.— You are right
- It's not the fact that he ran the ball 4 times on the goal line, it's who they chose to run the ball and the play selected. I was happy to see them pay more attention to the running game. Also DeSean Jackson 4 catches in two games. I suspect he's finally figured out they are not going to give him a new contract so why get hurt when you need to negotiate with a new team in the off season. Did he get any yards after catch or did he just cover up on the two balls he caught.
— bigcityballer - To quote from The Replacements..."that what you do coach, you lose!"— Joe Lis lives
- The last two drafts we could have had Earl Thomas as a SS to replace the great BDawkins and we could have had Contanza or Cabini take your pick as we would have had great young talent for years to come on both sides of the ball, we got Brandon Graham and Danny Watkins both are bust. Not Graham's fault he is a tweener who should have been a 7th rd pick. Watkins will be 27 before he plays his first game. Andy Reid and Company thinks they are smarter than everyone else. How many 4th round or later guys are starting almost half of the starters. This team will win with FAs and we know that's not how you build championships.— eagles-fan-in-texas
