Mike Check: Vick's issues vs. the Giants
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Mike Check: Vick's issues vs. the Giants
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
For the second straight week, Michael Vick started at quarterback for the Eagles, but did not finish.
When he was in the game, Vick completed 16 of 23 passes for 176 yards and an interception. His 73.8 QB rating was Vick's lowest in any game since becoming the Eagles' starter last season.
So how much of the blame for Sunday's loss falls on the quarterback? Why did he struggle? Were the numbers more or less indicative of his performance?
We're answering those questions and others once again this week. As always, let's start with the pass distribution:
| Targets | Catches | Yards | Drops | |
| Jeremy Maclin | 7 | 5 | 69 | 0 |
| DeSean Jackson | 4 | 2 | 30 | 1 |
| Jason Avant | 4 | 3 | 28 | 0 |
| Clay Harbor | 1 | 1 | 17 | 0 |
| Owen Schmitt | 1 | 1 | 13 | 0 |
| LeSean McCoy | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Steve Smith | 3 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| Brent Celek | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 23 | 16 | 176 | 2 |
In two games against the Giants last year, Maclin was the Eagles' most-targeted receiver with 23 balls thrown his way. That was the case again here, as Vick looked for him seven times, completing five for 69 yards.
Jackson failed to get going for the second straight game. More on that later, but by my count, he's dropped four balls in three games so far this season.
Harbor made his first grab, and it was good for 17 yards on 3rd-and-2. He played 32 snaps, which is the second-highest number of his career, according to Pro Football Focus. The only time Harbor played more snaps in a game was the Week 17 game against the Cowboys last season when the starters sat.
Schmitt wowed the crowd with his hurdle on the 13-yard catch and run. McCoy, meanwhile, has not done much as a receiver. He's averaging just 5.4 yards per catch and 16.3 receiving yards per game.
Vick only looked in Celek's direction once. And Smith, of course, had the costly drop, which turned into an interception.
AGAINST THE BLITZ
The Giants blitzed Vick on 10 of 26 dropbacks, or 38.5 percent of the time. That's pretty close to the Week 1 (42.9 percent) and Week 2 (38.7 percent) numbers.
Against the blitz, Vick completed 6 of 10 passes for 35 yards. On non-blitz throws, he was 10-for-13 for 141 yards.
Here's a breakdown of how many rushers the Giants sent, along with Vick's performance:
| No. of Rushers | No. of Plays | Comp. | Att. | Yards |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 36 |
| 4 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 105 |
| 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 21 |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 14 |
The first item that stands out here is that the Giants didn't send 7 or 8 rushers on any single play. We saw them bring the house the previous week against Sam Bradford and the Rams, but they held off against Vick. Perhaps because the Eagles have better downfield weapons?
Against the blitz, Vick got rid of the football. He did not take off and run and he did not get sacked once when the Giants blitzed. That was the case in Week 2 also against the Falcons. That tells me he's making quick decisions and is recognizing what he's seeing before the snap.
The next step is to burn teams when they blitz. So far this season, he's only averaging 5.38 yards per attempt against the blitz. Against the Giants, that number was only 3.5. When teams rush only three or four defenders, he's averaging 8.79 yards per attempt.
Last year, in the fourth-quarter comeback, Vick was 3-for-6 for 88 yards against the blitz. He needs to start connecting on big plays when opponents send extra pressure. Of course, that requires good pass protection too.
THIRD DOWN, RED ZONE
As a team, the Eagles were 7-for-15 on third down. Vick had the ball in his hands for 10 of those plays and converted four of them. He was 3-for-6 for 29 yards on third down. Two of the first downs were with his legs.
On the season, Vick is 12-for-19 for 137 yards, a touchdown and an interception on third down. He's been sacked three times and also has seven carries for 45 yards. To be fair to Vick, his receivers did not help him on third down in this one. Jackson and Smith both had drops on third down, or Vick's numbers would look better.
The Eagles scored a touchdown on just one of their five trips to the red zone. The first trip ended with the interception. On the second trip, the Eagles had three chances from inside the 3-yard line. Vick passed twice. One was a dumpoff to McCoy, but he was dropped for a loss. And Jason Pierre-Paul tipped Vick's other pass intended for Smith.
McCoy scored from 11 yards out on the Eagles' only red-zone score.
The fourth red-zone trip is a little misleading. The Eagles only had one play from the 20, and Vick fumbled the snap at the end of the first half. They ended up settling for the field goal.
And we all know what happened on the final red-zone trip. Two runs with Schmitt, two runs with Vick and no touchdown. It should be noted that Vick made a nice play, escaping the pocket and finding Avant for 14 yards to set up those attempts though.
Overall, Vick was 3-for-5 for 21 yards in the red zone.
The Eagles are 19th in offensive red-zone efficiency, having scored touchdowns on 42.9 percent of their trips.
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 | 8 | 10 | 52 |
| Mid | 5 | 7 | 66 |
| Deep | 3 | 6 | 58 |
| Bomb | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The first thing that stands out here is the zero Bomb attempts. That's rare for a team that has Jackson's speed and Vick's arm. But for the second week in a row, Vick did not attempt a single pass attempt that traveled more than 25 yards from the line of scrimmage.
On the bright side, he's 6-for-9 on throws in the Deep range the last two weeks. Against the Giants, those completions went to Harbor, Jackson and Maclin.
I'm surprised the Eagles did not take a shot deep to Jackson early in the game. Even if he's covered and it's incomplete, why not scare the defense a little? They did that consistently in 2010.
I'm not too concerned with Jackson's overall lack of production the last two weeks though. In 2010, he had a three-game stretch with receiving yard totals of 19, 24 and 34, respectively. He still finished the season with 1,056 yards. Jackson's nature is to explode in certain weeks. I think that will still happen, but it'd be nice to see the Eagles take some more shots with him.
OVERALL
This was not Vick's finest performance. He and the offense just seemed out of rhythm for much of the game. Vick had a couple fumbled snaps and also had the ball knocked out of his hands on a designed run. The interception wasn't his fault, but Vick also got away with a potential pick that Giants linebacker Michael Boley dropped.
There were some other ill-advised throws too. On one, late in the first, it looked like Vick had plenty of room to run but instead threw across his body, incomplete and into traffic to Maclin. Based on the TV marker, it looked like he might have been across the line of scrimmage too.
Vick had some good moments too. He made a good throw in a tight space to Jackson for 17 yards in the first. And he hit Maclin for 24 yards in the second. Against the blitz, he got rid of the ball quickly to Avant for a gain of 6.
But overall, it was an uneven performance. Not just for Vick, but for the entire offense. Penalties and missed assignments from the offensive line. Failures to convert by the running backs in short yardage (coaches take blame on this one too). And drpped passes from the wide receivers.
As I mentioned above, the Eagles need to hit on more shots downfield. That's what the offense is based on. And they especially need to hit big plays against the blitz. There's a fine line between getting rid of the ball quickly and still making the defenses pay.
One final note that is encouraging: In the past two weeks, when teams did not blitz, Vick was 21-for-29 (72 percent) for 292 yards, averaging 10.07 yards per attempt. In other words, when he has time and teams don't blitz, Vick is throwing the football well.
We'll see if Vick is healthy enough to go in Week 4. If not, this post will likely focus on Vince Young next Wednesday, and I'll need a new name for it. Vince-Anity? OK, that's terrible. Suggestions are welcome...
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Comment removed.- Right. Because the best way to get a raise is to perform poorly. You must work in the government.
— jasvic - I don't know where you work and I feel sorry for those that must work with you. However, where I work, you don't get a raise for doing a poor job. What has Jackson done this season to indicate that he deserves to be paid like a top 3 receiver? What has he ever done to deserve that?
If he's lucky, he won't get a new contract and the Eagles will franchise him. Then, they'll have to pay him the average of the top 3 receiver salaries, which, he doesn't deserve. He's barely top 10.— mknphotos - How about Young Guns? Forever Young has been done to death, but it's a possibility. Con-vinced? Vinception? The Young and the Restless? Ok, those are bad, but I still like Young Guns.— syxtoez
- This comment has been deleted.— Tom Man
- The line is built to be light and fast. They WILL be pushed around in a physical battle. That's why I was wondering why they tried to go with a power running game on the goal line. Play to your freakin' strength!
- I want Kafka to start, only so you can call this segment "Kafka's musings" or "Kafka's Body of Work."— rfrance05
- "Young out to dry" No?
"Stepping in the Cow Young" No?
"Too Young 4 U" No?
"Young-Tied" No?
OK, how bout:
"In-Vince-able"
"Wincing with Vince"
"Yo, Vinny's got game"
Stop me if I'm getting warm...
— Dave Kane - Vick played better then you think Shiel. That was a bs interception and he only played 3 quarters basically. If that was a TD by Steve Smith instead of an int,like it should have been, Vick's qb rating probably goes up into the 90.0 range. If Vick can stay healthy this team will score a lot of points.— brannigan73
- Comment removed.
- Looks like Vick will start, so you don't need a column name just yet. But when you do, here are my suggestions:
1) If Young plays well, "Young Love"
2) Given how inconsistently our offensive line has been playing, "The Young and the Restless..."— Birdman in Bearland - The offense moved the ball well except in the red zone. Throw away allt he charts we watched the game. They dominated. First drive ended with an interception. After the Giants took the lead the Eagles ate up the clock with some long drives until the ill fated 4th and 1 in the 4th quarter. They only punted two times. Vick did not have a bad game.— retzlaff
- Why do Jeff McClane and Les Bowen still cover the Eagles? THose two combined bring scratch to the table. Kapadia ftw— SilliBilli
- Why do Jeff McClane and Les Bowen still cover the Eagles? THose two combined bring scratch to the table. Kapadia ftw— SilliBilli
So I guess you will become a beat writer now Sheil! Congrats!
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