Eagles stuck in Vicksand in loss to Steelers

PITTSBURGH - Nobody playing on the Eagles' defense had to issue any game-day corrections of what they said in a magazine article, so the Michael Vick GQ controversy doesn't really explain what happened to the Eagles' starters in a 24-14, surprisingly onesided preseason loss to the host Steelers last night.

"We all stunk," Eagles coach Andy Reid eloquently summed up, as always, avoiding laying any specific blame. "During the preseason, we're working through things. We're learning as we go."

It sure didn't help that the Eagles' quarterback, perhaps their most consistent player in this training camp, seemed to have his head elsewhere while getting picked off twice in his first eight attempts. Vick was 3-for-8 after the second pick, a throw behind Chad Hall that Vick forced into coverage. He had passed for 24 yards and a 6.2 passer rating.

"No, because he wasn't the only one," Reid said, when asked about the controversy affecting Vick.

"I was forcing throws that I wouldn't normally [force]. I take sole responsibility for not getting things done tonight," Vick said.

Asked about whether the GQ business affected him, Vick replied: "Not at all. Once I was in the game, the issue was just pressing to put points on the board."

With the Steelers dominating the clock, Vick said he got too caught up in knowing he had only the first half to work with.

"I let that get the best of me, and I don't know why," he said. "You just can't press the issue the way I did tonight and make bad decisions."

This was not Vick's worst preseason outing as an Eagle. A year ago tomorrow in Cincinnati, he completed one of five passes for 6 yards and two picks in relief of Kevin Kolb. Vick's passer rating for that one was 0.0, which we'll go out on a limb and suggest will stand as his all-time low. The difference is, a year ago, nobody much cared.

Vick eventually threw a third interception last night, on a play in which he dodged in and out of sacks, trying to keep a drive alive on third-and-10 in the final 2 minutes of the first half. That one was deflected to Troy Polamalu, who seemed likely to dance through lackadaisical Eagles forever until Vick came in low and hard and took him down. Vick's final numbers: 5-for-12, 47 yards, no touchdowns, three picks, 13.5 passer rating. The Eagles trailed, 21-0, at halftime, with Steelers backup QB Byron Leftwich engineering the final touchdown drive, after the last Vick pick, Leftwich working against the Eagles' first-team defense.

In case you were outside pruning bushes all day yesterday, Vick was called upon to explain his statements in a GQ article, in which he said that he initially didn't want to be the third-string quarterback in Philadelphia before he signed in 2009, that he thought Buffalo or Cincinnati might offer better situations. Vick mentioned advisers convincing him of the Eagles' merits, and he included NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. This ignited a media firestorm, when Vick's words were interpreted as an admission that Goodell advised him not to sign with the Bills or Bengals. Vick had to say yesterday that wasn't the case, the NFL had to say that wasn't the case, and the author of the story, Will Leitch, eventually issued a statement as well, saying he didn't really mean to say Goodell engineered Vick's signing with Philadelphia.

For what it's worth, the Buffalo News reported the Bills never made an offer to Vick in 2009.

Presumably, this controversy will die pretty quickly, but it might give a hint of what lies ahead for Vick and the Eagles, as they prepare for what looks to be a season in the spotlight. Lotsa scrutiny.

Seemed almost quaint to recall that 24 hours earlier, the biggest worry most Eagles fans had regarding Vick was how King Dunlap was going to protect his blind side in Pittsburgh. Turned out, Dunlap was the least of the Eagles' worries. Since the Birds' first-team offense was on the field for only 6 minutes, 57 seconds, while the Steelers ground out 23:03 of first-half possession time, King had few opportunities to get beat.

The Eagles' defensive tackles and linebackers sure did, though. They are the run-stoppers in the "wide-nine" line technique, which pretty much takes the defensive ends out of the running game. Looked as if the Eagles' defensive tackles and linebackers didn't get the memo, before camp broke off a day early at Lehigh.

"It's a process," strongside linebacker Jamar Chaney said. "We just ain't gonna be what everybody wants right now . . . You watch the film from last week on their defense, Washington drove up and down the field on them [winning, 16-7]. They came out this week and made an example of us."

"Let's not fool ourselves. We've been running this defense for 3 weeks," safety Kurt Coleman said. "It's still new to a lot of us . . . It's going to take some time."

The Steelers rushed 22 times for 93 yards in the first half, which helped Pittsburgh convert nine of 12 third-down situations. Ben Roethlisberger mostly shrugged off or rolled away from pass-rush pressure, completing eight of 12 passes for 125 yards and a pair of touchdowns, rolling up a 140.6 passer rating.

"We had 'em in third-and-long situations, and we just couldn't get off the field," Coleman said. "I think that's just a lot of mental errors for us, which is easily correctable."

NFL teams don't normally game-plan preseason games, but the Steelers were all over anything having to do with DeSean Jackson, who made his preseason debut after an 11-day training camp holdout.

Jackson caught two of three passes thrown his way, for 8 yards. Actually, he had a 9-yard catch and a minus-1-yard catch. With Jason Avant going down early with a bruised knee, Vick tried to force the ball to guys such as Hall and Riley Cooper, except for the time he got picked off trying to force it to Brent Celek.

"It felt good, just trying to get back in the swing of things, still," Jackson said.

Still, Jeremy Maclin can't get ready to roll fast enough.

Vick's disconnected performance, you have to assume, was an aberration. What went on with the defense was more troubling. Free safety Nate Allen looked lost. On one Roethlisberger TD pass, he blitzed, leaping on the pump fake, while Asante Samuel bit on the pump in coverage, leaving Antonio Brown wide open for one of the easiest touchdowns he will ever score.

Trent Cole got some pass-rush pressure, but it was hard to say anyone on the front seven played well. Defensive tackles Mike Patterson (seizure) and Antonio Dixon (back) stayed home, and you could tell.

Evan Mathis was the second-team right tackle, worth keeping an eye on . . . Vince Young started the third quarter strong, ended with an awful interception thrown straight to Lawrence Timmons. Young's final numbers were 5-for-8, 34 yards, one pick, 32.3 passer rating . . . Ex-Pitt star Dion Lewis lost a fumble in his return to Pittsburgh . . . DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim suffered a hamstring injury . . . Trent Cole left with a bursa problem in his elbow, Andy Reid said.