APP ONLY: The Eagles' final drive

I re-watched the Eagles' final drive for Man Up and have a couple thoughts on how things ended for Michael Vick and the Eagles.

1. Should Vick have spiked the ball?

I don't have a problem with him pressing on and calling a play. Let's look at the situation. After the completion to DeSean Jackson to start the drive, Vick threw incomplete to Brent Celek, and the Eagles called a timeout.

That was followed by an incompletion to LeSean McCoy. The team huddled again.

And then Vick hit Riley Cooper for 11 yards before choosing to call another play over spiking the ball.

In other words, the offense was not fatigued. It had just huddled a play earlier after an incompletion. And they had just called a timeout two plays earlier.

The offense was 27 yards away from the end zone and had less than a minute to score. Vick thought he had a chance to take a shot instead of killing the clock and huddling up. I don't see why that's being perceived by some as the wrong decision.

2. Did Vick make the wrong decision throwing to Cooper?

Don't have a problem with this one here. He could have dumped the ball off to McCoy, but Charles Woodson was in the vicinity and probably had a shot to bring McCoy down after a short gain. The Eagles would have then had to spike the ball and face a third down.

Vick did have Jeremy Maclin open in the middle of the field. Looking back, that probably would have been the best option. The Eagles would have spiked the ball inside the 10 and had three shots to go to the end zone with 40-plus seconds left.

But Vick saw Cooper with one-on-one coverage and took a shot. That's OK by me. The problem was not with the decision, but with the throw. Vick underthrew Cooper and didn't give him much of a chance.

3. How close were the Eagles to scoring on that final drive?

They were really close, but not necessarily on the play you're thinking of. If Jackson was playing at 100 percent, I think he might have scored on the first completion. Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop tripped him up, but if Jackson was running at full speed, I'm not sure Bishop would have gotten a hand on him. Out front, it looked like Jackson would have had one more man to beat, with Maclin blocking

Of course, there are a lot of What If... scenarios. The truth is, the better team won. And if the Eagles would have somehow come back at the end, it would have been a robbery.