What happened on Vick's 3 interceptions?
The first half Thursday night was one to forget for Michael Vick.
What happened on Vick's 3 interceptions?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
The first half Thursday night was one to forget for Michael Vick.
The Eagles' starting quarterback completed 5 of 12 passes for 47 yards. Vick also completed three passes to Steelers defenders for a quarterback rating of 13.7.
So what happened on the interceptions? Here's a quick look at each after having re-watched them:
Interception No. 1: The Steelers showed six men in the box before the ball was snapped. One of the defenders dropped back, but Pittsburgh blitzed, sending the other five at Vick. Fullback Owen Schmitt stayed in to block and did a good job. Vick had plenty of time, but he went with his first read, looking to squeeze the ball into Riley Cooper between the Steelers' cornerback and safety down the left sideline. Vick made a bad decision and a bad throw.
Interception No. 2: The Eagles went with a slow-developing play-action pass, and the Steelers only rushed three defenders. LeSean McCoy and Brent Celek stayed in to block. Schmitt went out in his route. That meant the Eagles had three potential receivers against eight Steelers defenders in coverage. Not a very favorable matchup there. Vick was looking for Chad Hall, who was blanketed. Just a bad decision. He had plenty of time.
Interception No. 3: The Steelers showed six defenders at the line of scrimmage. Four of them rushed, and two dropped back. But safety Ryan Clark then blitzed from Vick’s left side. McCoy stayed in to block, but saw Clark late and didn't pick him up. Vick got away, scrambled, but had nowhere to go with the ball. He decided to lob one to Celek and it was deflected before Troy Polamalu made the interception.
MORE OBSERVATIONS:
+ The Eagles looked for DeSean Jackson deep on their first offensive play, and Vick targeted him on the first two plays. Jackson went to the sideline before the rest of the first-team offense.
+ McCoy was 8-for-10 on 3rd-and-short last year. He converted a 3rd-and-1 with an 8-yard carry tonight.
+ With 11:06 left in the first half, the Eagles' offense had been on the field for just 3:03. The Steelers had drives of 7:36 and 8:15 in the first half.
+ Did you notice who lined up at right tackle with the second team? Offseason acquisition Evan Mathis. Could he be a potential option if Ryan Harris and Winston Justice remain sidelined?
+ The first Dream Team mention came at 8:08 p.m., before the game had even started.
+ How did Jason Babin not draw a penalty for hitting Ben Roethlisberger late? He hit him low too.
+ It looked like Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie played inside, not Joselio Hanson, when the Eagles were in their nickel package.
+ The Eagles plan on rotating their defensive linemen every four snaps or so. The first team was Jason Babin, Anthony Hargrove, Cullen Jenkins and Trent Cole. The second team was a surprise, with Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, Derek Landri, Cedric Thornton and Darryl Tapp. Te'o-Nesheim later left the game with a hamstring injury.
+ Jenkins got called for a facemask early, but got good pressure on Roethlisberger from the interior.
+ On the Steelers' first TD, the Eagles rushed six, blitzing Rodgers-Cromartie and Nate Allen. Tapp rushed from the inside. The pressure didn’t get there, and Asante Samuel got beat on the outside. The Eagles were in their dime package and had four corners and one linebacker (Jamar Chaney) on the field.
+ On another play, the Eagles sent Allen and Chaney. Roethlisberger beat the six-man blitz with a dumpoff to Mewelde Moore for 24 yards.
+ On Roethlisberger's touchdown to Hines Ward, the Eagles rushed four and played zone coverage. It looked like Ward was Allen's responsibility.
+ Here were some instant reactions from our chatters: Andy Reid didn't have the Eagles prepared; Juan Castillo is overmatched; the wide-9 is horrible; they should have kept Kevin Kolb; and Casey Matthews stinks. Other than that, the people were happy with the Eagles' performance.
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I think this just shows that Vick needs to continue to work on reading the blitzes and dumping the ball off. In all fairness to him, the quick dump passes were pretty closed off since pretty much every play there was a tremendous scrum at the line of scrimmage. Just too much traffic for a short pass.
This is Vick's weak spot, playing against the high-pressure defense, and the Steelers are probably the best blitzers in the league. And they always disguise their blitzes. A really good test for Vick. If he could've broken the Steelers blitzes and lit them up, I would've said, Indie here we come. The fact that he didn't do well against the best just means he has more work to do. That's all. There's still time before the season starts. A whole lot of football left to play.— bluetooth2kus- Sheil, you have to remind the readers that defenders dropped an inordinate amount of potential Vick ints last year. I think there were about 5 in the Detroit game alone. He should be good for about 15 this year if things go as normal and he throws the same as last year. If he has bad luck to counter last year's run of good luck and the defenders start catching everything, he might hit 20.— jtj06
- Carlos2-You say Andy Reid will not have a white QB. Maybe he know something you will never know. That QBs that can run and throw are now the thing to have. Donovan was great and now Mike. Kolb, Garcia, Kafka can't play, Andy know it.— Tyrone7
- Garcia went to a play-off game with the Bucs after he left
here, and had great year.
What did MaGoo do in DC, where he was babied, and the offense
"dumb down" for him, NOTHING???
He will do nothing in Minny.
How come when I think Tomlin is much more cerebral
coach than fat boy, which he is, that's football,
but if I say Garcia was much more intelligent then Vick
or MaGoo, they were blessed with more skill that is RACIST??
You see the double standard???— mikey48 - If they would have kept Kevin Clutch Kolb, they would be SB favorites.— lonewolf100
- PRESEASON! meaningless. Good to get a loss so they can go back and examine their weaknesses and question their assumptions. Remember Spurrier, people!!— reb
Comment removed.- Wake me Up when the "GAME"S COUNT"....all is well...— daryl b
- Babin didn't hit the QB low, though he did hit him late. Babin aimed, and hit, the QB's hip, as was clear on the replay.
On Vick's first INT he wasn't trying to squeeze the ball in-between the safety and the CB -- he never saw the safety at all. He was trying to float the ball over the CB, as Riley beat him right off the line (the CB didn't touch him as he got a clean release), and ran right by him.— critias - Overreact much?— Elbarad
- Let's pretend for a minute the linebackers and safeties start playing lights out, and the offensive line comes together. Here are the obstacles I see. Mike Vick is short. He has trouble reading defenses in part because he can't see over all that chaos at the line. Riley Cooper is not looking all that promising. Jackson can be shut down. He'll get some big plays, but some teams will shut him out. Avant is good, but doesn't get much separation. This is a passing team that's not all that good at passing.
Only way I see to help this passing game is to run the ball tough. Vick can murder people with play action, and play action lets Jackson get deep. Other than Avant and McCoy, they really don't have the essential tools for a west coast passing attack. Against good safeties -- Pittsburgh is a convenient example -- the Eagles can't get deep for their big plays.— armchairGM - In the year the Eagles went to the Super Bowl didn't they lose every pre-season game. I know a few of those 12-4 Eagles conference game teams went 0-4 or 1-3 in the pre-season. You can't win or lose in the pre-season all you hope is that no one gets hurt and you try to elevate some second and all of the third string guys. I think the year Detroit Lions went overfeated (0-16) they won every pre-season game.— cbrock9
- THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Get a grip people. It's preseason & they just started practicing together 3 weeks ago.— Mabus - sale of Eagles jerseys on national level went down with stocks yesterday— camasbud
- They must have Vick walking on egg shells.— balove1977
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