1. The

people who believe that nothing Vick can do will change the notion that the Eagles franchise stained itself forever by hiring a convicted dog killer who also was a dogfighting kingpin. That all of the rhetorical gymnastics the Eagles performed in an attempt to rationalize this move were an embarrassment. That the love-the-sinner/hate-the-sin pep rallies over which Vick has presided were more public relations strategy than anything else, that his return to polite society has always been about PR. About 15 percent of people.

2. The people who see this in terms of a cynical, cold calculation and nothing more. That the uproar surrounding Vick's arrival was less than expected, and the Eagles will get a draft choice when they trade him at the end of the season, regardless of what he does from here out. A simple, smart, bloodless transaction. About 15 percent of people.

3. The people who believe that this will be a complete failure if Vick cannot help them win games - and he really has not, the 34-yard run against the Bears notwithstanding. That Vick has lost a step and that Eagles coach Andy Reid has just put his fan base through hell for, well, what? Certainly they had to have expected more than this. About 35 percent of people.

4. The people who are, essentially, the flip side of No. 3. You could really combine the two, because, together, they do form the strong majority view. That is: that Vick can still redeem himself, and Reid, if he actually can do something that tangibly helps the Eagles win a game. That this was always a complex, emotional issue - I'm still not 100 percent sure how I feel about some of the elements of the decision, even months later - but that it was always a football decision above all else, and that football will be the ultimate determinant, and that Vick still has time to salvage this thing. About 35 percent of people.

Yesterday, Reid was asked whether the long run against the Bears justified the signing. Reid went for the joke in reply.

"If he had scored, it would have been," the coach said. "He did a nice job with that. We'll see how things go here down the road."

Which is the main point, it would seem. There is still time here, and that needs to be acknowledged. It is going very slowly, though, and that needs to be acknowledged as well.

Some of it is that Vick has looked both rusty and slow at times. Some of it is likely Donovan McNabb's reluctance, stated or unstated, to turn this into a Vickathon. Earlier in the year, and especially when Kevin Kolb was starting at quarterback after McNabb suffered the broken rib, it looked as if Vick and the Wildcat formation, in all of its various flavors, would be a significant offensive addition.

But several things have happened since McNabb's return. The traditional Wildcat - snapping the ball directly to a running back or wide receiver - has largely disappeared. The suspicion is that the Eagles didn't want to expose DeSean Jackson to injury, despite its success, and that they figured rookie LeSean McCoy already had enough to worry about without this stuff. The suspicion also is that McNabb preferred less of an emphasis - which also would explain why the Vick plays have decreased to only a couple per game. (Besides, they just haven't worked very well.)

Talking about Vick's run after Sunday night's game, you got a decent sense of McNabb's overall ambivalence.

"There are different things we are able to do out of the package," McNabb said. "I think everybody was kind of thinking that we were going to make it, like, 20 percent of the offense, and they were looking for some miracle-type plays to happen. We're just slowly developing into it. Most importantly, we're trying to perfect our base offense."

The blocking up front was stupendous on Vick's big run. It has not always been thus, and he just doesn't seem to outrun trouble as he did in the old days. The miracle thing is not likely happening - and there is often a kind of disjointed confusion when Vick enters and exits the game. Sunday night's penalty du jour was for too many men in the huddle, with McNabb leaving the huddle too slowly after Vick came into the game.

As it stands today, the whole thing has not been worth the aggravation. But there is time, and there has been a glimmer. For about the last 5 years, these have been the weeks when the Eagles as a team have defined themselves. It is the same thing with Michael Vick. Now, we'll see. *

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