Mike check: Vick's performance vs. Packers
Did the Packers confuse Michael Vick with their blitz just as the Giants and Vikings did? The numbers might surprise you.
Mike check: Vick's performance vs. Packers
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Michael Vick completed 20 of 36 passes for 292 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the Eagles' playoff loss to the Packers.
At times, he was very good. And at times, he struggled. But the performance against Green Bay was much different than the performances against the Vikings and Giants (for three-plus quarters) late in the season.
Here's the final breakdown of how he played.
As always, let's start with pass distribution.
| Targets | Catches | Yards | YAC | Drops | |
| Jason Avant | 9 | 7 | 93 | 22 | 1 |
| Jeremy Maclin | 7 | 3 | 73 | 39 | 1 |
| LeSean McCoy | 7 | 4 | 36 | 28 | 0 |
| DeSean Jackson | 4 | 2 | 47 | 40 | 1 |
| Brent Celek | 4 | 2 | 25 | 10 | 0 |
| Riley Cooper | 4 | 2 | 18 | 3 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 35 |
20 |
292 |
142 |
3 |
During the regular season, Avant averaged 4.75 targets per game, but it's only mildly surprising that Vick looked to him more than any other receiver. As I wrote before the game, the Packers were vulnerable in the middle of the field in their Week 17 game against the Bears. In that game, Chicago's slot receiver, Rashied Davis, got the most targets. Avant had a strong game, catching seven balls for 93 yards to lead all receivers. The numbers could have been even better, but Avant wasn't able to come up with a ball that was thrown slightly behind him on a third down in the third quarter. Earlier, Vick threw way behind him. In other words, he was open on all nine targets.
Maclin had a very nice YAC game. The Eagles were successful in attacking the middle of the field on crossing routes. Maclin had the 44-yard gain in the first half. He had a drop on a slant, and also had a chance on a deep ball, but couldn't wrestle it away from cornerback Sam Shields.
I've heard people complain that the Eagles didn't run enough screens, but they actually tried three of them. They were just not successful. McCoy fumbled on one, picked up 5 on another, and the third was incomplete. I asked McCoy last week if teams had been better prepared for the screen game late in the season. He said he didn't think so, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Defenses clearly saw something on tape that alerted them to when the Eagles were running screens. You could just see it late in the season in the way opponents reacted.
Jackson was clearly not at 100 percent after the early injury. Vick looked for him on a deep ball, but Jackson didn't have a step. He had a drop in the red zone, and Jackson's first reception didn't come until there were less than nine minutes left in the game. I still say he had a good chance of scoring on that 29-yard catch on the final drive had he been healthy.
Celek and Cooper each had a pair of catches. Overall, six receivers were targeted. No targets for Jerome Harrison, Owen Schmitt, Clay Harbor or Chad Hall.
THE BLITZ, PRESSURE, SHOTGUN, ETC.
As has been the case for weeks (months?), this is the section that tells us the most about how Vick played.
The Packers blitzed on 17 of 44 dropbacks (38.6 percent). That's actualy quite a bit less than the Vikings (53.4 percent) and the Giants (48.9 percent) in Weeks 15 and 16, respectively.
Now, keep in mind what I'm defining as a blitz here. I'm counting any play where the Packers rushed more than four players. The Packers often had several players in the box and disguised who they blitzed and who they dropped back. But if they ended up only rushing four, I didn't count it as a blitz.
Now comes the interesting part. Vick actually performed well when Green Bay blitzed. He was 7-for-13 for 144 yards against the blitz. He was sacked twice had runs of 11 yards and 2 yards also.
I wrote last week that the Eagles needed to hit on big plays against the blitz, and they did that. Vick completed passes of 18, 44, 19, 19 and 28 yards on plays where the Packers blitzed. He averaged 11.07 yards per attempt; against the Vikings, Vick averaged just 5.8 yards per attempt against the blitz. On throws to Jackson, Maclin and Avant against the blitz, Vick was 7-for-10 for 144 yards.
Many want to blame the offensive line, but the truth is the protection held up pretty well for Vick. Were there lapses? Sure. He was sacked three times. But overall, he had time to sit in the pocket and find receivers, who did an excellent job of finding openings and running shorter routes.
The game-plan was actually pretty good. Vick operated almost exlusively out of the shotgun, and the Eagles stayed away from play-action, which takes a longer time to develop. When it came to recognizing the pressure and making quick decisions, rather than fleeing the pocket, I thought Vick's performance was night and day when compared to the Vikings game.
The Eagles had three drops, and Vick missed throws. He threw behind Avant twice, and he grounded one to Celek after rolling to his right. Even on the last throw - the interception intended for Cooper - the problem was with the execution of the pass, not the decision.
THIRD DOWN, RED ZONE
As a team, the Eagles were 5-for-13 on third down. On 12 of those occasions Vick had the ball in his hands. He was 5-for-7 for 44 yards on third down. The nicest throw was the one over the middle to Avant for 21 yards on 3rd-and-14. Vick was sacked once on third down and ran four times for 18 yards.
Strangely, Vick didn't throw to Jackson or Maclin at all on third down. Four of his attempts went to Avant, two to Cooper and one to McCoy. Against Minnesota, he targeted Jackson more than any other receiver on third down and was 0-for-5 on those throws.
The Eagles got just 10 points on three red-zone trips. The Packers got 21. In many ways, that was the difference in the game.
On their first trip inside the Green Bay 20, Jackson had a costly drop on second down, and the Eagles ended up settling for a field goal. On the second trip, McCoy was unable to convert a 3rd-and-1 as Clay Matthews beat Winston Justice and brought him down short of the first. And on the third trip, Vick ran in for the touchdown.
Overall, Vick was 2-for-4 for 18 yards in the red zone. He was sacked once and carried three times for 3 yards and a score.
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 | 11 |
19 | 141 |
| Mid | 6 |
8 |
62 |
| Deep | 3 |
5 |
89 |
| Bomb | 0 |
3 |
0 |
On the surface, it looks like Vick dumped the ball off a lot, but that's not really the case. He hit the receivers often on short patterns that allowed them to run after the catch. Six of the 11 short completions were to Jackson, Maclin and Avant. And that was a good way to counter the Packers' pass rush.
Vick hit three deep balls - two to Avant and one to Maclin. He attempted three bombs, but didn't connect on any of them. Jackson did not have a catch that was made more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.
OVERALL
There were several factors that led to the Eagles scoring just 16 points (not necessarily in this order):
* David Akers' two missed field goals.
* Three drops by receivers.
* Missed throws by Vick.
* Jackson's early injury.
* Penalties.
And one that we sometimes forget to mention: the Packers.
Green Bay finished the regular season having allowed 15.1 points per game. That wasn't just good; that was elite. Only the Steelers allowed fewer. Opponents averaged a QB rating of 65.3 against Green Bay; that was tops in the league.
The Packers have an elite pass rusher in Matthews and an elite blitzer in Charles Woodson. Their cornerbacks on the outside are very good, and they were well-coached. In the regular season, Green Bay had six games against playoff teams. Only the Eagles and Patriots scored more than 17 points in those matchups.
This is not meant to be an excuse for Vick and the Eagles' offense. It's more to show that they could not afford all the mistakes I mentioned in the bullet points above and still win the game. The coaching staff might be taking heat, but really, the gameplan was sound. The execution was not.
Do Vick and the offense need to work on improving against the blitz? Yes. No question about it. They struggled in that respect against Dallas, the Giants and Minnesota.
But there were signs against the Packers that Vick is capable of improving and adjusting. That has to be encouraging to the coaching staff and the fans.
The offseason could be tricky in terms of Vick being able to spend quality time with the coaches and working to improve his game, but I still expect him to be back in 2011 (assuming there's football). And if he shows early next season that he's able to burn teams that blitz him, some offensive coordinator on one of the Eagles' opponents will come up with another wrinkle to confuse him. And Vick will have to show he can adjust to that.
He turns 31 in June, but Vick's commitment and ability to show he can beat those new wrinkles will determine how the final chapters of his book as a quarterback in the NFL are written.
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He finally played against a real football team when they played the Packers. Enough said.— oneway- You don't consider teams like the Cowboys, Giants, Washington, Detroit, and Jacksonville real teams? But hey, like Phil Nuggets points out, Vick *is* the starting qb in the Pro Bowl. That's much more important than winning playoff games. — MaC130
- So the Packers were the only real football team? The others were imaginary? You poor Kolb trolls are so sad. LOL. — mlr710
nfc starting probowl qb. enough said- I kept saying during the game to keep going to Avant, until the Packers adjust. Not sure they ever did. The screens were not well executed by the Eagles for some reason...the reason might have been
Woodson. Andy's opening scheme was flawed, as there were no surprises, no adjustments, and the Packers seemed to know what was coming.— retzlaff - MaC130 -- i said that probowls are better then winning games? exactly. talking out of your rare end i see. cant people just give vick some respect for making the probowl? if this was kolb, we wouldnt here the end of it. bottomline: vick is better then kolb. end of story.
Comment removed.- Phil Nuggets--I said that Kolb is better than Vick? Exactly. Talking out of your "rare end" I see.
Making the Pro Bowl really isn't that big of a deal unless you are actually the player or a family member of his--what good does it do the Eagles that he made the Pro Bowl? Did it help them win that Packers game or go deep into the playoffs? No, it didn't. So why do you keep going on and on about it? Next time try responding to the content of my post, which is that your boy Vick is not that great when he isn't playing against awful teams like Washington, Detroit, Dallas, etc.
— MaC130 - Comment removed.
- wrong philly mike. a probowl means that he is one of the elite players at his respective position. the only thing i beleive is that vick is better then kolb and the numbers prove it. and trust me you dummy, just because vick is black means nothing me. dude is just better then kolb. and the numbers once again, PROVES it, idiot.
- mac130 -- the packers have a good defense and vick had 292 yards and 30 running yards. are those bad numbers?? exactly. AND vick out played rodgers that game. you just dont like him, and that is fine. but realize that he is better then most qb's and once again, the numbers prove it.
- 39 yards on that last drive when the Pack is in prevent, so that basically gives him 250 yards for the game--*decent*,neither great nor bad. You still haven't responded to the content of my post, which is that he doesn't beat good teams. You just go on and on saying he's great.
Your comment to fmMD also shows that you have no interest in thinking about the game logically, b/c if you want to say Akers cost the Eagles six points that would've won the game, I can easily come back and say that James Jones dropped a sure TD for GB in the first half, which would've given the Packers 28 points overall instead of 21, which would have rendered those two Akers field goals moot had he made them. But you don't want to look at the game that way; you just want to say we should think of Vick as "elite" when he got us the same results that Donovan did: an early exit.— MaC130 - When does this become Vick beating a good team, how about the Eagles beating good teams. That's the problem one man can not beat a team himself. Good teams have had their way with our weak o line, and our wideouts struggle to get separation when playing good corners. This man is the only reason we even had a shot because them team was not a good team at all.
- Over his career, Michael Vick has a poor record in games played in outdoor stadia, north of Florida, in the months of December and January. Whether it is the cold or that his style of play leaves him quite battered by week 13, it does not bode well for Philadelphia trying to go deep in the postseason.— Dragon76
- All this talk would be irrelevant if Akers makes those very makable field goals.— fmMD
- Except for his career of work and the fact that all top QBs have to overcome bad days by kickers sometimes and the fact that Vick under threw the receiver when it counted most. — JonKap
- fmMD -- so true
- The top teams in the NFL would destroy Vick in the playoffs. They are smart, thats why they win. They know you can hammer him and rough him up. They know he holds the ball out on runs and would strip it. They know you can bait him into interceptions. Vick fans are going off a few flashy games and regular season wins rather than Vick's career of work. And no one on the Eagles staff changed him, he reverted to his old self in the crunch like always.— JonKap
- Can Kolbs family please stop posting he will not be a starter in phill no mater what you say so pack for Buffalo,
Bye bye you are not a fan you are a troll.— Blessed8251 - If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that the Eagles were going to go 10-7 and Vick would make the Pro Bowl, I would have said it would be another wasted season treading water. Now that it happened, I think its another wasted season treading water. As much as Reid wants to sell that he is a genius that turned Vick around, Vick is only slightly better than he was in Atlanta which can be attributed to him not being allowed to smoke dope and drink as part of his probation. This way he is more attentive and alert for practice and film study and more on top of what is going on.— jtj06
- Don't let the line off the hook. Plus folks let the wideouts off the hook too. Nobody talks about how DJax gives up on plays, but when Vick missed him on the deep route DJax was not running at full speed.
- Comment removed.
- Actually, they played two quality teams. Green Bay and the team no one wants to mention because Kolb was QB. The Falcons who Kolb beat and will beat Green Bay with Rodgers who is an over rated QB. "You arew what you're record says you are," Biull Parcwells. and he hasn't done anything yet. Luckily he played philly in the first round.
Easy win. Some fans in Philly only care about what the color of the quarterback is, not whether we win or lose. This is called racism. No one cares about the pro bowl, dummy. The only one that counts is the SUPERBOWL. Get it?— marioP - marioP -- whats wrong with you people? i couldnt careless if vick was white or black, i just want to win. im talking about vick's talent. he is one of the better qbs in the league and the numbers show it. and ya'll are right, probowls dont equal superbowl victories. but that is besides the point that im making. im saying that we have a qb who is a starter in the probowl which means he is one of the best at his postion which means that we can focus on other areas of concern like the oline and defense. if you put this loss on just vicks shoulders, you dont know the game. we are lucky to have a qb like vick. yes, i know he isnt tom brady or peyton manning but who is? kolb definitely isnt the answer. so we play vick who is by far our best option at that position. peroid. we have many problems on this team, and to me, vick isnt one of them. he is the least of our worries. but for some reason, people think that a tom brady will fall out of the sky and into eagles green. appreciate what we have now.
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