What to expect from Vince Young
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What to expect from Vince Young
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
With Michael Vick reportedly out again, Vince Young gets his second consecutive start for the Eagles against the Patriots.
Below is a breakdown of how the Giants attacked Young in his first start, along with what to expect in today's matchup.
Let's start with pass distribution:
| Targets | Catches | Yards | |
| DeSean Jackson | 8 | 6 | 88 |
| Riley Cooper | 12 | 5 | 75 |
| Brent Celek | 6 | 6 | 60 |
| Steve Smith | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| Jason Avant | 2 | 1 | 13 |
| LeSean McCoy | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Clay Harbor | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Owen Schmitt | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 36 | 23 | 258 |
As I've mentioned multiple times, Jackson could have had an even bigger game. Young underthrew him on the first interception, and Jackson's taunting penalty negated a 50-yard completion. But overall, Young was 6-for-8 for 88 yards to Jackson. According to Football Outsiders, the Patriots are dead last in the NFL at covering No. 1 wide receivers, and starting left cornerback Devin McCourty is out. In other words, Jackson should have his chances to make plays.
Young was obviously comfortable with Cooper, targeting him a game-high 12 times. Early on, the two couldn't get on the same page. Young was 0-for-5 to Cooper in the first half, but 5-for-7 for 75 yards to him in the second half. The pair will look to carry over that chemistry to today's game.
Young completed all six passes thrown Celek's way for 60 yards. And Smith had the 14-yard touchdown, even though he only played seven snaps.
AGAINST THE BLITZ
The Giants blitzed Vick on 15 of 38 dropbacks, or 39.5 percent of the time. On those plays, he was 7-for-13 for 54 yards (4.15 YPA). He was also sacked once and had a 5-yard run.
On plays where the Giants didn't send extra pressure, Young was 16-for-23 for 204 yards (8.87 YPA).
Here's the full breakdown:
| No. of Rushers | No. of Plays | Completions | Attempts | Yards |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 69 |
| 4 | 19 | 12 | 19 | 135 |
| 5 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 39 |
| 6 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
As you can see, Young was excellent when the Giants didn't send extra pressure, as the offensive line did an outstanding job in pass protection.
On the final drive, Young beat a 7-man blitz by getting rid of the ball quickly for 10 yards on third down to Jackson.
With the Patriots banged up in the secondary and the Eagles' offensive line playing well, it'll be interesting to see how much New England blitzes Young today.
THIRD DOWN, RED ZONE
Young was outstanding on third down, completing 9 of 12 passes for 107 yards. He was sacked once, but also ran for a first down. On the final 18-play drive, the Eagles were 6-for-6 on third down, and Young was 4-for-4 for 42 yards, completing two passes to Cooper, one to Harbor and one to Jackson. Overall, the Eagles were 9-for-17 on third down.
The box score shows the Eagles being 2-for-5 in the red zone, but it was really 2-for-4, when you consider Young took a knee to run out the clock on the final trip inside the Giants' 20.
But it's imperative that the Birds get in the end zone, rather than settle for field goals, with Tom Brady on the other sideline. Young was 3-for-6 for 32 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in the red zone. On the pick, he tried to let Cooper make a play, but the Eagles' second-year receiver didn't know the ball was coming, and it was intercepted. The Eagles aren't going to be able to overcome mistakes like that today.
The Birds' offense ranks 26th in the red zone, scoring touchdowns 44.4 percent of the time. The Patriots' defense ranks 16th, allowing touchdowns 50 percent of the time.
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 | 12 | 57 |
| Mid | 10 | 20 | 151 |
| Deep | 1 | 2 | 18 |
| Bomb | 1 | 2 | 32 |
Young misfired on the first throw to McCoy, throwing the ball at his feet, but after that, he was good on the Short throws.
The numbers are slightly skewed because of Jackson's taunting penalty. But Young underthrew him three times: once on the early interception; again on the 32-yard completion that Jackson made a nice play on; and also on the 50-yard completion that was negated.
The Patriots have allowed 51 pass plays of 20+ yards, most in the NFL. Young and Jackson must connect on those opportunities for huge plays today.
OVERALL
The good news is that Young got more comfortable as the game went on. In the first half, he was just 8-for-18 for 89 yards, including a stretch where he completed just one of eight attempts.
But in the second half, he was 15-for-18 for 169 yards.
Young did not try to do too much. He took off and ran just twice on designed pass plays, getting sacked once and picking up 5 yards another time. He did not try to keep a lot of plays alive with his legs and got rid of the football quickly when necessary. Young also gave his receivers chances to make plays, even if they weren't open. That worked sometimes, and backfired in other instances.
The bad news is he was off-target on quite a few throws and left yards/points on the field. That's probably to be expected, considering it was Young's first start of the season, but he needs to be sharper, especially early on, today.
Young threw three interceptions, but really only the first one could be categorized as a bad pass, as he underthrew Jackson. He gave Cooper a chance to make a play on the red-zone pick, and the third INT went off Harbor's helmet. The Patriots are second in the league with 15 interceptions. Young and his supporting cast have to take care of the football to give the Eagles a shot against New England.
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VY is a poor QB based on historical data. I expect him, like Vick, to revert to these numbers.— 2ndNlong- 2ndnlong, too bad you didn't cite an example. I have been all over VY's record and he has been a better than average qb with an excellent win record. Example - he is now 3-0 against the Giants, there are none better. He also seems to be great when the game is on the line. — Jimjar
- The most important historical data indicates he's a winner. Even last game when it didn't look pretty, he won in the end. Give some, a lot, of credit to the D. But, Vince was clutch and the rest of the O didn't self-destruct with drops or fumbles on the last drive.
- Did anyone notice the PI that caused the Clay Harbor INT?? His arm was yanked down before the ball got there. Kind of hard to catch a bullet with 1 hand.— Mugwumps88
- These are unquesationed facts. Michael Vick is 5'11 3/4". Vince Young is 6'5". Mike Vick is 206 lbs. Vince Young is 237 pounds. ike Vick has the fourth slowest release among quarterbacks in the NFL. Vince Young has the ten fastest release.
Vince Young is taller, bigger, stronger, more durable and more accurate than Mike Vick. That's why Reid is playing Young abaisnt the good teams.. However put Vck back in against Seattle and release Young at the end of the year. Would you buy a car from Reid or Banner?— mario1239 - stop laughing Arthur Blank(our $40M WUSS isn't sandbanging kit)Dungy, Reid, Banner, & Laurie are the smartest NFL heads that exist. Aftr todays game Jeff Fisher will probably be laughing also. Can't wait for FATTY ARBUCKLE'S post game interview----sigh, clear throat, cough,move shifty eyes around the room, far@,sigh,times yours-,say I'm not getting into that, its my fault and responsibility to get things right, clear throat, we're going to work hard for the Seattle game because we know what we have to do, jump up and exit quickly when questions start getting to him. — jwatson
- the numbers are interesting Sheil, I would look for Pats to have 7 men on line of scrimage during passing downs and force VY to figure out who is coming at him, instead of concentrating on his receivers.
This game will be decided by the eagles offensive line, and if they can give VY some confidence to look down field. The birds must score 30 plus points, because Brady will move the ball and score.— camasbud - Young makes the plays when it counts and keeps the offense on the field longer that way the defense don't get tired down the stretch.— Late Nate
- VY will have a good game.— Clt Philly Fan
- VY, Vick, it doesn't matter. The difference in this 4-6 team being 7-3 is the DEFENSE. 10 point lead in Atlanta, 20 point lead against SF, fourth quarter lead against John Skelton.— phillyboy4life
- Vince Young is the ugliest QB I have ever seen....watching him throw and run is nauseating...but he wins!— DavezMental.Com
- If they do not stop Brady it won't matter.— jjthree
- Young gets rid of the ball and doesn't take the hits that Vick does that idiots will blame on the O line. You know, the same ones that blame the defense when the QB turns it over 3-4 times per game.— Sidewinder7
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