Bob Ford: Time for Vick to make a difference

With apologies to Mark Twain, it appears the Eagles went to Texas last weekend with great expectations for a successful road trip, but produced only great expectorations.

If the citizens of Cowboys Nation are really upset that an Eagles publicist spit on the famous star logo emblazoned at midfield, how did they feel about what the Eagles left on that same field, which was a good deal more solid?

As a diversion for the empty hours until tomorrow's rematch, Loogiegate has been amusing enough, but won't mean spit once the game finally arrives and the Eagles try to erase their Sunday skid mark from the artificial turf.

Those hoping the Eagles will alter their game plan significantly for the wild-card playoff in Cowboys Stadium are probably going to be disappointed, even though the 24-0 thrashing in the regular-season finale seemed to call for some rethinking.

Andy Reid was asked after practice yesterday if he thought the offense would try to control the clock a bit more, perhaps attempt to grind out a few long drives against a Dallas defense predicated on stopping the home run ball. That would be beneficial in a couple of potential ways: It might actually lead to some points, and it would keep the Cowboys off the field.

Reid wasn't impressed by the suggestion, and implied by his answer that the Eagles would keep looking for the big plays that have been their specialty this season. You can't blame him. The team set a franchise record for points scored, even if you wouldn't have guessed that last Sunday.

"You have to do what you think is best to score. You try any way you possibly can after you've done the studying on that," Reid said. "It's not basketball where you can go into a four-corner stall or that type of thing. That doesn't work in football. That's what we're about. We're going to be who we are and do what we do and the same way on both sides of the ball and special teams."

If Donovan McNabb finds DeSean Jackson way downfield tomorrow night, then it's a solid plan. If not, it's the end of the season. Expecting Reid to look at the same puzzle a week later and see a different solution is underestimating the confidence the coach has in his players, not to mention the unshaken confidence he has in his original analysis.

In Reid's defense, football teams do not remake themselves in January. What you have seen is what you will get. In the Eagles' case, however, there is one exception that can be made - and should be made. The exception's name is Michael Vick.

The only real change-up the Eagles can throw, the only page of the playbook that can worry the Cowboys, is one they haven't seen yet. And, seriously, isn't it about time Vick does something aside from standing around like a wax statute of Clyde Barrow?

If all of the bad publicity and all of the up-until-now wasted practice time is ever going to be worth something, Andy, this would be a pretty good spot to prove it.

Forget the talk that tomorrow's game could be the last for McNabb in an Eagles' uniform if they lose. It will be the last for Vick. The team holds his option for a second year, but he wants to be a starter, and some team will come up with a good draft pick in order to shake him loose.

At the moment, what have the Eagles gotten in return for harboring an ex-con who, in the words of Inquirer colleague Annette John-Hall, had gone from "electrifying to electrocuting"? Not so much.

Vick was on the field for five or six plays a game most of the time. He had a nice, 34-yard run against the Chicago Bears, and a 43-yard completion against the Atlanta Falcons that was mostly the work of receiver Reggie Brown on a badly underthrown ball.

He ran and passed for short touchdowns in showcase work against Atlanta and ran for another against the New York Giants. Mostly, however, he either handed the ball off or kept the ball and was quickly knocked down. Take away the two plays that ended in decent gains, and he ran or passed the ball 35 times for a total of 104 unmemorable yards.

Somewhere along the way, the Eagles stopped saying things like, "We've just scratched the surface of what we can do," and started saying things like, "We'll see how it goes." Either it became apparent that Vick left some speed in the exercise yard at Leavenworth, and hadn't gained any passing accuracy, either, or his game-changing gifts were merely being reserved for a grand unveiling in a crucial game.

Well, consider this one crucial. After running through a variety of plays in practice yesterday, Vick said the thigh bruise that caused him to miss two games was healed.

"It's still a little sore, really," Vick said, "but this is the playoffs, man."

Things change in the playoffs. If Andy Reid took the most recent game film to heart, he would do some changing, too, and let Vick repay his debt to the team.

Unless this whole thing was just spitting in the wind all along.