Ashley Fox: Vick to teammates: Think Super Bowl

Gauntlet, meet the ground.

"I told Andy [Reid] the other day, we have a great chance of winning this thing," Michael Vick told the Eagles' website Wednesday morning. He was not talking about winning the division, either.

And, apparently, Vick wasn't just speaking for himself.

Although they are only 4-3 after losing a game they had won against Tennessee, this Eagles team does not lack confidence. They are young, and they are cocky, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially with the meat of their schedule still ahead of them after this weekend's bye.

The NFC is wide open. The Eagles see that. They are one game out of the NFC East lead, with five division games left to play, including two against the 5-2 New York Giants. The Eagles have already beat one of the NFC leaders, the 5-2 Atlanta Falcons, and with Vick in at quarterback they almost came back to beat another in the season opener, the 4-3 Green Bay Packers.

Last year's NFC title-game contenders, New Orleans and Minnesota, are struggling. Dallas is done. Seattle isn't that scary. Chicago and Green Bay have looked good but not dominant. Washington doesn't have enough weapons.

The Eagles are flawed, for sure. Their secondary, which got blown up by Titans receiver Kenny Britt, is an issue. They've had way too many penalties. They haven't pressured the quarterback enough. And they've endured their fair share of serious injuries to key players.

But the Eagles do have dynamic young playmakers on offense and a highly motivated quarterback.

"I completely agree with [Vick]," Todd Herremans told me on Wednesday while en route to King of Prussia. "I know it probably doesn't seem like that on the outside looking in, but that's the confidence we have in the locker room. We know how good we are and how good we can be. When everything comes together, it's going to be scary."

Therein lies the key. When everything comes together. Some years, usually because of injuries, it doesn't come together. It most certainly won't come together if the team doesn't develop a killer instinct to close out games when they've got an opponent down. The Eagles should be 5-2 because they had Tennessee on the ropes before fumbling at the goal line.

It was a bad loss because it should have been a W against what looks like a playoff team. During the second half of the season, wins are going to be hard to come by, especially with Indianapolis, Chicago, Washington, Minnesota, and the Giants on the schedule. (By the time the Eagles play Dallas in December, the Cowboys will look like a junior-varsity team.)

The sting from the Titans loss isn't the worst thing, Herremans said. It taught the young players that they have to play for 60 minutes, not 45. They might have talent, but they cannot take off any plays or take anything for granted.

"It's kind of good to have that little bitterness all through the bye week, so you can't enjoy it as much," Herremans said.

Herremans also said he liked that Vick said publicly that he thinks the Eagles are a Super Bowl contender. It is not just the New York Jets now who are talking about a title.

"You try not to draw any more unnecessary attention on yourself, but he's speaking on behalf of the team," Herremans said. "Everybody in the locker room feels that way.

"I just think we have so many different options that we can attack teams with in different ways - on the ground, through the air, misdirection, speed, power. I think we have a good balance of all that. When it does come together, I think it'll be scary good, not scary bad."

We will wait and see. This I do know to be true: There is no one hungrier or with more to prove this season than Michael Vick. The man needs to get paid next year. Each win ups the ante. He needs to get, and then stay, healthy.

Even then, Vick can't do it alone.

The attitude is there, though, and Vick's confidence is infectious. His teammates will follow him, and if they can come together, as Herremans said, this very well could be a playoff team. Six more wins should do it.

But the Super Bowl? That is asking an awful lot.

"That's just my feeling," Vick told the website. "I know the type of team we have. I know the players that we have, and I know what we have to face. And, I know it's going to be tough, but that's the great part of it. We're not going through anything nobody else has gone through who's played this game. I look at it as a challenge, and I think it's going to be a dynamic year for us."