For Birds, it starts and ends with Vick

ST. LOUIS - School was back in session on Sunday in the Edward Jones Dome, and there was plenty to learn about the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles, lessons both large and small.

Some of what was gleaned from the 31-13 opening win over the St. Louis Rams will have to be updated for later editions of this season's textbook. Some of the bad stuff will get fixed. Some of the good stuff will get figured out by the opposition. Guys will develop. Guys will get hurt. It is truly a work in progress, with progress being the weekly key to the whole thing.

Of all the lessons presented on the large, plastic field on Sunday, however, the biggest one for the Eagles was the one that everyone knew before the game ever started: Everything is still all about Michael Vick.

Not absolutely everything on the entire team, but everything that will decide if the Eagles are just a good team once more - 10 wins and a second-round playoff loss, whoopee! - or if they are finally that very special team for which the organization and the city have been waiting.

The defense will have to be better than last year's, of course. The special teams will have to be reliable. DeSean Jackson will have to get a new contract before he tires of his good soldier role.

And the patched-together offensive line will have to keep the quarterback from getting killed, because, just to review the lesson plan, it's all about Michael Vick.

There were some moments yesterday when the day could have turned out much differently for the Eagles. St. Louis running back Steve Jackson felt a pull in his right quadriceps muscle as he went for 47 yards on the Rams' opening play of the game. He carried the ball just once more, and the St. Louis offense was never the same.

The moment that might have mattered most, though, was the one in which Vick decided the Rams were just a little too happy with their blitzes and needed to be reminded of the possible consequences.

"In the second quarter, I started to break out of the pocket a little bit. They were blitzing a little too much, and I wanted to calm them down by taking advantage of it, and I was able to do that," Vick said. "At some point, they have to be cognizant that we have great backs and that I can break the pocket sometimes myself. They have to pick and choose their spots."

Vick was sacked twice in the first half and pressured early and often. He began to look for his chances to make the Rams pay. Otherwise, he would have had more unpleasant moments like the one when former teammate Quintin Mikell slammed him from the blind side and caused a fumble with the Eagles in scoring position.

Once Vick began to run, the Rams didn't commit as many players to the line of scrimmage, and, with more time, he began to pick off sizable completions with his receivers. Suddenly, the offensive line - which has been together less than a week - had a much easier time of it.

"It's a rough thing for teams to decide whether to blitz Michael," said center Jason Kelce. "It's either going to be a good play or he's going to burn you."

"It helps us out. It keeps them back because they don't want to bring it and then miss," said left tackle Jason Peters. "You might get to him, but he might pick up 50 or 60, too."

Vick had 51 of the 70 Eagles rushing yards in the first half. He would finish with 98 rushing yards on the day, eclipsed in the second half by LeSean McCoy, who battered away at a dispirited, beaten St. Louis team. McCoy was great, but when the game was still in doubt, it was Vick who turned it toward the Eagles.

"They brought the heat early, and then Michael started making them miss and was running down the field, and they had to adjust," said left guard Evan Mathis.

"Sometimes they brought more than we could block, and Michael got hit a couple times," said right guard Kyle DeVan. "Once that happened, he took over and became the athlete he is."

The only problem, naturally, is that when Vick is running down the field, or when he is standing amid the chaos of an onrushing blitz, the entire Eagles season is literally in the balance. Every team would be hurt by losing its starting quarterback. That's a given. But the Eagles would be decimated.

"I'm choosing my spots a little and trying not to take unnecessary hits," said Vick, who actually slid away from a tackle a few times on Sunday, quite uncharacteristically. "I got knocked around a little bit today, but I've always been accustomed to taking hits. I played running back when I was young. It may look bad, but I really don't feel it. I'm thankful I've got a body that's built for that. At the same time, I don't want to take too many."

So, that was the first day of school. The Eagles are not perfect, not a "dream" by any means. They have some significant issues to work out. They also have a quarterback who is capable of covering many of their flaws.

Each week, there will be a new lesson, or new twists on the old ones, but the most important question that will be asked at the end of every chapter will remain the same: Is Michael Vick still healthy?

Maybe that's boring, and nothing more than rote memorization, but the only thing the weekly answer to that question will mean is everything.