Disaster strikes Eagles in season-opening loss to Packers

THE FINAL SCORE.

There, we did it. We found one thing close to what most people expected to see coming into yesterday's 27-20 season-opening Eagles loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Birds weren't supposed to be quite as good as the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers, and indeed they weren't, a verdict that remained at least a bit uncertain until Andy Reid sent in a Michael Vick run up the middle from the shotgun that Green Bay pounced all over on fourth-and-1 from the Packers' 42, the first play after the 2-minute warning and the last Eagles' snap of the afternoon.

But seldom has a plucky comeback from 17 points down to lose a close game to a favored opponent seemed less satisfying. The Eagles, who entered the day with their injury ledger completely clean, lost starting fullback Leonard Weaver for the year to an ACL tear early in an absolute disaster of a second quarter, 15 minutes that might have changed the course of the season.

Later in the second, center Jamaal Jackson, who'd worked so hard to come back from last year's ACL injury, left the game with a biceps tear that almost certainly will sideline him for the rest of 2010. Then, still before halftime, quarterback Kevin Kolb and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley suffered concussions, even though both initially - and incredibly - were allowed to return to the game.

It seems unlikely that Kolb or Bradley will play next week at Detroit, though Reid did not speculate.

The opening of the Kolb era, a little more than 5 months after the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb to Washington, could hardly have gone worse. The Eagles were wearing their classic kelly green uniforms as part of the celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1960 NFL Championship team, but offensively they spent the first half looking more like the Eagles of the late '60s.

The fourth-year quarterback was under pressure most of the first half, often forcing passes to an ordinary-looking DeSean Jackson, who didn't catch any of them, and Kolb couldn't make a play that would have backed the Packers off.

Then Vick, his 30-year-old backup, came in and turned the tables in the second half, so completely that you can be sure some elements of the fan base will be clamoring for Vick to take over the job now, whether Kolb recovers quickly or not.

The money postgame quote came from Vick - the quote that will set the talk-show phone lines humming today:

"I still feel like I can play at a high level. I feel like if I had been out there for four quarters, maybe we would have had a chance to win the game," Vick said, after completing 16 of 24 passes for 175 yards, a touchdown, and a 101.9 passer rating. He also ran 11 times for 103 yards, including a 31-yard scramble, making him the third quarterback in NFL history to rush for more than 4,000 yards, along with Randall Cunningham and Steve Young.

In fairness, the question, from Daily News columnist Sam Donnellon, was couched along the lines of whether Vick felt he'd taken a step toward becoming a starting NFL quarterback again in his most extensive action since 2006, looking, perhaps, to that day when some other team will trade for him. Vick was saying he thought he proved his effectiveness, his value. Vick was not asked if he thought he should be starting ahead of Kolb. But he said what he said, and it sounded like it sounded, and off to the races we surely will go.

"Yes," Reid said, when asked the inevitable question, of whether Kolb will remain the starting quarterback if he is healthy enough to go. Could Reid forsee any way Vick might become the starting quarterback this season, ahead of a healthy Kolb?

"I think Michael did a phenomenal job today," said Reid, who seemed exasperated. "He brought the team back, he kept his poise, and he had some big runs, and he made some big throws. I'm happy as heck for Michael. I'm not looking to the future, I'm trying to get [the offense] fixed so that we can win some football games here."

And that, by the way, was not exactly "no."

Overall, Reid said he "was proud of the way the guys finished. It came right down to that last drive, and 1 more yard and we're still moving that thing, putting it in [the end zone] and playing some overtime."

On the fourth-down play, the Packers seemed to be sending everyone, and didn't seem at all uncertain about where Vick was headed, after his flat-footed start way back in the shotgun. Linebacker Clay Matthews, who finished with a game-high seven tackles and two sacks, easily muscled inside tight end Brent Celek and met Vick as he reached the line.

"I tried to take an inside step. Then I thought he was going outside, but he went inside, and he made a good play on me," Celek said. "I take full responsibility for that one. If I do what I'm supposed to do, then we get that."

The bad karma began for the Eagles' offense on its very first snap, when, shockingly enough, a Reid trick play blew up in his face. Vick, in the game as a wideout, failed to toe the line of scrimmage. Five-yard penalty.

There was a glimmer of hope after Joselio Hanson intercepted a Rodgers pass and ran it back to the Eagles' 47. Kolb (and Vick, getting quite a bit of work even with Kolb healthy) then moved the Birds within range for a 45-yard David Akers field goal that represented the only points scored in the first quarter.

After that, the sky started falling.

First, Weaver's knee went backward while the Pro Bowl fullback was leaning forward, on a play that began with 12:06 left in the first half. Then Jackson left with his elbow injury. Then, on third-and-14 from his 18, Kolb scrambled left. You could tell before the collision that Kolb had no idea Matthews was closing in fast from behind. As Kolb stepped over the line of scrimmage, Matthews crunched him, driving Kolb into the Linc turf.

Medical people were giving Kolb concussion tests on the sideline. His injury was first announced as a "jaw." Kolb actually returned to the game for the final first-half series - a really questionable decision by the Eagles - throwing a pass into triple coverage that should have been intercepted, then two completions, the final one a deflection caught by center Mike McGlynn for a 1-yard gain.

"He just had a distraught look on his face" after the hit, Vick said of Kolb, who completed five of 10 passes for 24 yards and a 56.2 passer rating. "I got concerned, but seeing him throw the ball on the sidelines, he was throwing strong, so I figured he was going back in. On the next possession, he said he wasn't seeing things clearly, so he opted to come out, and that was probably the smart thing to do. Health is very important in this game."

Bradley also returned briefly, even though he had staggered around on the field before falling, in the wake of taking teammate Ernie Sims' knee to his head.

"Our doctors and our trainer were on it," Reid said. "The bottom line is, we ended up taking him out."

The Eagles' defense, impressive early, came apart at the seams once Omar Gaither replaced Bradley. After Vick stirred the stadium to life, improvising for a nine-play, 60-yard touchdown drive that ended with LeSean McCoy bursting up the middle for the final 12 yards, making it 20-10 in favor of the Packers with 4:24 left in the third, the Birds gave up a 51-yard kickoff return, then allowed Green Bay to restore its 17-point margin with ease. It took only four plays, ending when Greg Jennings breezed past Ellis Hobbs to catch a 32-yard touchdown pass.

Vick brought the Eagles back again, 79 yards in nine plays, hitting Jeremy Maclin with a 17-yard touchdown pass. Then, when rookie free safety Nate Allen picked off a bad Rodgers overthrow, the Eagles got the ball at midfield. Vick took them to the Packers' 5, then scrambled and opted to throw into a crowd at the back of the end zone when it looked like he could have run it in easily. Akers' 24-yard field goal with 5:43 left set the final score.

As offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg noted afterward, "There's not much to evaluate," from Kolb's half of work. "I'm not sure that we helped him to be able to show his stuff. We had penalties, and we were just out of sync."

Asked how Kolb seemed on the sideline after the hit, before going back in, Mornhinweg said: "I'm not going to get into what went on on the sidelines."

"I feel bad for the guy," Maclin said of Kolb, a close friend. "He was more excited than anybody to go out there and play. Nobody wants to compare him to McNabb, but he wants to come out and prove that he's the guy and he's going to take us where we need to go. We still have faith in him. Hopefully, he can get healthy and ready."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

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