No OL Change; Vick Says He Didn't Sweat Bye
The Eagles reconvened from their bye week Monday, and though practice was closed, indications are nothing changed on the team's offensive line, which is a mild surprise, in the wake of a dreadful performance against the Lions in the last outing.
No OL Change; Vick Says He Didn't Sweat Bye
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
The Eagles reconvened from their bye week Monday, and though practice was closed, indications are nothing changed on the team's offensive line, which is a mild surprise, in the wake of a dreadful performance against the Lions in the last outing.
Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who remains the starter despite 13 turnovers in six games, said he never thought he might be replaced by rookie Nick Foles during Eagles coach Andy Reid's bye week review.
"It was never a time when I didn't know exactly if I was going to be the starter or not," said Vick, who said he neither expected nor got a call from Reid affirming he remained in that role. "Quite frankly, I know what I can do when I'm out there and I know what has to happen when I'm out there on the football field. That's just my approach now, to go out and get the job done, and we'll see what happens."
Vick was pressed on having certainly been aware of speculation during the bye.
"You just gotta stand tall," he said. "It's not the first time I've been in this situation. I understand the most important thing is for me to go out there and continue to do my job, and try to help this football team by winning games."
During the bye week, Vick said, he "thought about a lot of what-ifs -- what could have happened, what should have happened, what didnt happen. A lot of things you have no control over. You just gotta keep pushing in this game, keep pushing and keep playing."
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Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson got two phone calls Friday, one from Andy Reid and another from general manager Howie Roseman, telling Patterson the NFL had cleared him to start practicing.
Patterson said he's hoping to be game-ready in "a week and a half, maybe two weeks." The Eagles have three weeks to either add Patterson to the 53-man roster or put him on IR for the season. Unless he has a setback, Patterson seems very likely to play. He underwent surgery in January to untangle blood vessels in his brain that had caused a seizure.
Patterson said he did scout team work Monday.
"I'm just happy to put a helmet on, to not be out the whole season, to get to play with these guys," Patterson said.
No changes on the O-Line. i guess that's because they play so well together. Bell, soft, Mathis, lost without Peters. Reynolds, over matched. Watkins, back up at best. Herreman's solid guard, lousy tackle.— oldBird- GREAT POST OB!!! SO MUCH FOR THAT "solid" OFFENSIVE LINE THAT ZACH BERMAN WROTE ABOUT IN LATE AUGUST. FUNNY HOW LITTLE THESE PAID SCRIBES KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL. — bedpan
- OB, I THINK YOU WILL GET A GOOD LAUGH FROM THIS (I SURE DID). THIS IS HYSTERICAL!!!! FROM ONE OF THE PAID SCRIBES HERE ON THIS SITE WRITTEN ON SEPTEMBER 7TH: "Herremans and Mathis are rock-solid veterans and Watkins and Kelce, both in their second year, have Pro Bowl potential. After a year together, this foursome should be formidable." THIS IS JUST TOO FUNNY. — bedpan
- Paul, see if this makes sense to you. Bowles has to hold the Falcons to 16 or 17 points like Castillo did because Vick isn't going to score a lot of points.— mario1239
- There is a silver lining for Eagles Fans. Andy Reid is going to get fired. I dont say that to be mean or spiteful. I think Lurie understands Philly is a largely Football town, and he knows Andy Reid is not the coach for this town, Lurie gets it..... Maybe 5 or 6 seasons too late, but he gets it.— stardog
- If he gets it, it's about time. He's awfully slow in "getting it". He must have graduated from a special needs school when he was a kid. Reid should have been long gone. Maybe by now we'd have a couple of Lombardi's.
We'll see by the end of the season whether or not ol' Limp-Wrist got it.— essell - Just saw a sobering statistic. Only the Jaguars have scored fewer points than the Eagles. I would have thought Andy would make more changes than just firing Castillo.— dlscholt
- Vick says he has to "continue to do his job," that he knows what to do when he's out there, and there's a lot of things he has no control over. This guy's lost! He sounds exactly like coach Reid. "Continue to do his job?" -- when is he going to start. He knows what to do -- so do it! And a "lot of things he has no control over" -- well do the things well you do have control over -- like not heaving the ball down the field and try holding on to it. If I'm Reid, I give this guy just one more chance! But I guess Reid has decided to end his career with Vick at quarterback. I hope they both RIP!— Ron T
- You know...I didn't think the defense was a problem this year. They had some glaring issues but nobody is perfect. They were respectible enough to at least let Castillo keep his job, in my opinion.
It seems like Andy is working with blinders on. He isn't paying any attention to the real stats -- i.e. the offense is sputtering, special teams are a mess. Instead he made a change in one of the lines of business that seems to be operating just fine?
I don't understand this guy, and I never will.— sobjoe24 - More of can't play Bell, the mouth that does not even belong in the NFGL Mathias, Dallas (lucky to have a job), and Watkins (the fireman who is so far over his head and talent level that 6 hook and ladders tied together would not even get him to the taxi squad....will stay as a unit....Guess AR wants to see Michael permanently injured....What a joke this offensive (as in bad taste and no talent) line is....Just go AR and take these no talenters with you...— nuggett
- On TV a few days ago, McNabb said Reid will NOT pull Vick. McNabb said when he was pulled at halftime years ago in the Ravens game, that it was NOT Reid's decision to pull him...he implied it came from the front office....presumably Lurie.— Taser
- about the o-line,
small and fast swiss cheese is still swiss cheese.
— bloodymess - Castillo and the defense has not been the problem this year. It's easily the o-line and their inability to block ANYONE. When they don't block Vick is on his heels the whole game. When the offense doesn't click and run some drives the defense is on the field way too long. The -lone is the big problem and especially since Kerce and Peters/Dunlap went down. Reynolds is just not ready and whoever put Bell on the all-pro team before needs to have his head examined because he looks more like a traffic cop waving people on!— vietnamvet
- how about we run more screen plays!! if the opposing D line can come in whenever they please, let them over commit on screen plays, the birds stopped using them after Westbrook for some reason.. i say CALL the RIGHT plays nd maybe we can score points.. nd we do have the best back in the league.. Shady needs the ball more.— trimski1
- They don't need Mike Patterson back. They need Jason Peters back.— billym
- the defence is not a problem it the offence of line and for someone to say rip vivk and reid shame on you, with out protection what are you suppose to do. the man been hit how many times, you look at the game and tell me or reid what needs to change. offence and defence need a lot of work— aliha7
- With Andy Reid on the hot seat, he has to play Vick in order to try to keep his job. If they lose to Atlanta and New Orleans and are 3-5 going into the first Dallas game, do they start Foles? How bad does it have to get before Foles starts and it's wait until 2013 time? If the Eagles go 1-3 in the next four games or lose all four, I'd hope that they would start Foles the last six games and get him some experience going into next season (while dumping Vick in the offseason). If Reid decides to play Vick for the rest of the season no matter what (barring injury) and they go 8-8 or worse, then we are looking at tough times for 2013 with Foles having no experience. I'm not ready to write off the season but they probably have to go 7-3 or better the rest of the way to make the playoffs and probably looking at a loss this week and possibly the next which would mean they would pretty much have to run the table. I don't think 9-7 would be good enough for Reid to come back, but you never know how the Eagles can spin it.— sjuhawk416
- Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Andy...it tolls for thee!!!
(Same to you, Michael)— warreninrochester - No just get rid of Reid now!— lost eagle
- Of course he is not worried, just look at his amazing stats! 8 TD's with just 8 INTs. 9 fumbles, 5 lost. 13 turnovers! 77.7 quarter back rating. Completing 58% of his passes! 7 yards a pass! Do you think you can find a QB with stats like that just anywhere.— AreaMan
Proof positive that Andy Reid is dysfunctionally stubborn. In a logical world, King Dunlap returns to his guard position for Danny Watkins, who is terrible. Demetress Bell starts at left tackle.
He shouldn't have cut Jaiquan Jarrett or Brian Rolle. Sims is no better, and neither is Jason Williams. Bury them on the depth chart if you aren't happy with them.
DION LEWIS needs to get traded or released, opening a roster spot for another Tight End. Bryce Brown is the 2nd RB, period. TE Cooley was available, but the Redskins just scooped him up.
I used to make excuses for Andy Reid, because I honestly believed he had the 2004 team prepared to win that Super Bowl, but McBarf & Co. screwed it up. But now, I think he's at the end of his rope. We could trade Reid to the Chargers for a 2nd round pick...Gruden-style !— EmanuelP- The O-line has struggled about 80% of the time this season....QB is taking excessive hits....Mccoy has to run backwards to create his own running lanes...need some big hogs to blow people off the line of scrimmage!— Big Jeff
- For those who want Andy fired now, who do you promote? Marty? I doubt any big name coach is going to want to come in mid-season.
As far as the QB, Foles starts if 1) Vick is hurt, 2)they continue to lose and Andy thinks Vick is the main cause (TO's) or 3) they are out of the playoff picture and Jeff wants to see what the rookie can do so the next coach will have some game tape to look at.— John Klink 
I saw Vick went onto Legal Zoom.com to fill out his last will and testament- News Flash- the Lions have one of the best D-Lines in the league. The biggest problem is at QB and play calling.— John Dealoni
- Vick's too cocky for his own good now. He was humble when he got his first chance here and he performed great. Now he has a huge head and thinks he is much better then he is playing. He might be as good as he thinks he is but we haven't seen it this year and seems he doesn't really take any accountability for his turnovers and acts like this is something that will get fixed but it drags on and on. Bench him for a half and maybe he'll get the message— connorjr
- Can't wait for the last Reid press conference ever. It shouldn't be long now.— dasher
- Reid is determined to go down with Vick. I believe he is burned out, to be honest. If Foles starts, then we get what is best for the Birds- 25-30 touches a game for Shady. It's going to happen, I guess the only question is who becomes Foles' coaching mentor?— kjuggs77
