Mike check: Vick's performance vs. Packers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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