Mike Check: Can Vick pick apart the Dallas D?
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Mike Check: Can Vick pick apart the Dallas D?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
After two of his worst performances of the season, Michael Vick and his injured ribs bounced back against the Jets, completing 15 of 22 passes for 274 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Vick's 107.0 QB rating was his second-highest of the season, and his 12.46 yards per attempt was his highest mark of 2011.
So what was different about Vick? And how will he perform against the Cowboys? Let's take a look, as always, starting with pass distribution.
| Targets | Catches | Yards | Drops | |
| Brent Celek | 6 | 5 | 156 | 0 |
| Jeremy Maclin | 4 | 3 | 57 | 0 |
| DeSean Jackson | 2 | 2 | 28 | 0 |
| Clay Harbor | 2 | 2 | 20 | 0 |
| LeSean McCoy | 2 | 2 | -5 | 0 |
| Riley Cooper | 1 | 1 | 18 | 0 |
| Jason Avant | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 18 | 15 | 274 | 0 |
I wrote about this yesterday, but the Eagles have been highly efficient on throws to Celek. The only incompletion to Celek against the Jets was on a failed shovel pass where Vick was initially looking for McCoy and then just wanted to get rid of the ball.
Maclin and Jackson didn't put up huge numbers, but did the little things to contribute. Jackson was only targeted twice. Maclin had a 22-yard catch wiped out because of a penalty.
Cooper gave great effort, breaking a tackle and picking up yards after the catch on his 18-yard reception.
Vick spiked the ball twice and threw the ball away twice, if you count the interception at the end of the first half as a throw-away. So, really, his completion percentage was even better than the 15-for-22 numbers indicate.
AGAINST THE BLITZ
Many (including me) were expecting Rex Ryan to send the house at Vick, but that wasn't the case. The Jets sent extra pressure on just nine of 24 dropbacks, or 37.5 percent of the time. A reminder, that for our purposes, a blitz is defined as sending five or more pass rushers at the quarterback.
Vick was 5-for-8 for 132 yards against the blitz, and he ran once. But maybe more impressively, Vick was 10-for-12 for 142 yards when the Jets didn't blitz last week, and he ran three times.
In other words, when the Jets didn't send extra pressure, he had plenty of time (the offensive line was outstanding), found his receivers, made good throws and allowed guys to make plays after the catch.
Here's the full breakdown:
| No. of Rushers | No. of Plays | Completions | Attemptes | Yards |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 142 |
| 5 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 126 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Even when the Jets did blitz, they usually only sent one extra defender. Ryan blitzed six or more just once on Sunday.
Looking back at the first matchup with the Cowboys, Rob Ryan blitzed Vick on 18 of 36 dropbacks, or 50 percent of the time. On eight of those occasions, he sent six or more rushers, which really gave Vick trouble. Vick was 1-for-4 for 8 yards and was sacked four times against six or more rushers.
When Rob Ryan didn't blitz, Vick picked the Cowboys apart, completing 13 of 16 passes for 176 yards. Like the Jets, the Cowboys were not able to pressure or disrupt Vick without sending extra pressure.
SUCCESS BY DISTANCE
Here's a chart of Vick's throws by distance. I used the same ranges that Football Outsiders uses so we'd have a point of reference. Short is 5 yards or less. Mid is 6 to 15 yards. Deep is 16 to 25 yards. And Bomb is more than 25 yards. These are measured from the line of scrimmage to the point where the ball is touched, hits the ground or goes out of bounds.
| Completions | Attempts | Yards | |
| Short | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Mid | 5 | 6 | 75 |
| Deep | 6 | 6 | 194 |
| Bomb | 0 | 2 | 0 |
How about those Deep throws? On passes that traveled between 16 and 25 yards from the line of scrimmage, Vick was 6-for-6 for 194 yards. Three of those went to Celek, two to Maclin and one to Jackson.
The Eagles didn't get much going with McCoy and the screen game.
In the first matchup with Dallas, 25 of Vick's 28 attempts were within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage (in the Short or Mid range). He was 3-for-3 on Deep passes and didn't attempt a Bomb pass.
OVERALL
Vick was outstanding against the Jets, a team that has built its reputation on defense and disrupting opposing quarterbacks. He made good decisions, was accurate and was effective when he ran.
In the first game against Dallas, Vick was nearly flawless, completing 21 of 28 passes for 279 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. It was only one of two games this season where he was not picked off.
In that game, Vick relied on the intermediate passing game. He was 7-for-9 for 94 yards on throws to Celek and 5-for-5 for 74 yards on throws to Avant.
Perhaps Rob Ryan will choose a more aggressive attack in this one after seeing his brother call off the blitz last week. If that happens, Vick will have to pick his spots to take shots deep and get rid of the ball quickly.
When looking at the Eagles' offense, there are reasons for optimism: All 11 starters are healthy, and this unit is coming off one of its best performances.
But it's been an up-and-down year. On Saturday, Vick and the Eagles will try to win three in a row for the first time all season.
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Are the Eagles capable? Yes. Will they? Remains to be seen. Dropped passes, turn overs, missed blocking assignments, PENALTIES! Those things need to be eliminated. Vick cannot do it all himself, and that's another aspect he needs to understand too.— PhillyFanSouth- Report: John Skelton will start over Kolb Saturday
Even Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt can no longer deny something strange is happening this season in Arizona, and it’s happening when John Skelton is at quarterback.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Skelton is expected to start over Kevin Kolb on Saturday in Cincinnati. Kolb was able to practice the last two days after suffering a concussion last week, and seemed ready to go. But Skelton has won five of six games in which he’s taken the majority of snaps.
It’s a quietly remarkable moment in a quietly remarkable Cardinals season. Arizona gave Kolb $21 million guaranteed in the offseason. Skelton was at Fordham this time two years ago. And now he’s getting the call over Kolb in a Week 16 game with playoff implications.
Six of Arizona’s seven wins have been fourth quarter comebacks. They need a ton of help to get to the playoffs, but we’re not ruling anything out after this wacky run. - Vick is King— cancerouscynic
- He holds onto the ball too long, he tries to force passes into coverage, and overall makes poor decisions far too often.. SUPERRRRRRRRRR BOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!— FABER
- I guess you did not see the Dallas game earlier this year? Oh thats right you morons don't have a clue. GO EAGLES GO MIKE VICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — Blessed8251
- He holds onto the ball too long, he tries to force passes into coverage, and overall makes poor decisions far too often.. SUPERRRRRRRRRR BOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!— FABER
- Don't put all the eggs in one basket = Mornhinweg's passing playcalls. Howard Mudd has the OL playig well, Peters is a BEAST and Shady is perhaps the best RB in football. I say, run over Rob Ryan's defense starting with DeMarcus Ware. PLAY DOWN HILL for 60 minutes.— Smashmouth
- While I agree with your game plan, we have to realize whom we're talking about. Andy and Marty like to drive us fans crazy. The last few games they called a balanced attack and it worked, we got 2 wins, now they'll get pass happy call 50 pass plays and 5 running plays and we'll lose. We fans will be back to pulling our hair out wondering why the heck they got away from the run game. I think Marty and Andy out think themselves. They'll say, We've been running the ball lately so Dallas will load up to stop the run so lets pass, pass and pass some more, that will fool them!
- What a lot of people aren't considering about Vick is that he's learning how to be a QB not just play QB. When he was with Atlanta he was an athlete playing the QB position. When he came to Philly he's learning how to read defenses, when to check down, recognize the blitz and where it's coming from and all those things. His first year here he relied mostly on his knowledge base from Atlanta, then he became the starter and had to learn the position as well as play the position. I'm not excusing the turnovers because he can make better decisions. Pressing and trying to do too much hurts more than it helps. In the past, he got lucky but defenses are much smarter now. Takes time guys and that's why we'll see Vick, Marty, Andy and Juan next season. They were given two years to produce a SB victory. We have a good core on both sides of the ball we'll be able to compete for a long time.
- Hey Vick.....Come Saturday, its going to be back in your HOLE! See ya next year LOSER!— MRD
- Go back in your momma basement loser. What can you do moron? — Blessed8251
- LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL — charmaine
- I hope this season can be salvaged and the Eagles make the playoffs this year. I'm sick of waiting. I'd like to see the Eagles sneak in and knock out teams like the Falcons, Saints and Packers, and then blow out one of the AFC teams I hate like the Steelers or Patriots in the Super Bowl. I'm tired of hearing about how great the Packers, Steelers and Patriots are. I'd love to see all of them get their comeuppance from an 8-8 Eagles team.— jimqk
- its not just the eagles but play in this league is incredibly week to week. we will likely know in the first 5 minutes if the eagles have it or not saturday. i also wonder how they will react if the jets beat the giants. i must say i am quite impressed with the development of the offensive line. is that mudd or peters or both? not sure. likely wont matter with vick as a qb but the o-line has a chance to be dominant for a few years. especially if they would actually run the ball consistently. every offensive lineman wants to blast off the ball and try to maul as opposed to taking two steps back and protecting. lets see!!— thequickbrianfox
- also, in my humble opinion (not that that is worth a dime).... you do a great job, Sheil! your weekly, logical analysis is the type of thought-provoking analysis that contributes to our understanding of the last game and helps highlight things to look for in the next game. thank you!— thequickbrianfox
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