Vick: Don't blame Reid for Eagles' woes

THE CRUSH of reporters waiting for Michael Vick was so ungainly, Mike Kafka abandoned his own locker stall next to Vick's and set up camp down the row, where Chad Hall's nameplate hangs, Kafka just trying to keep himself from being jostled or trampled.

It can't be much fun to be Vick right now, to face those cameras and microphones and attempt to explain how a team with the Eagles' marquee talent is 1-4, to answer questions about your coach's job, as you prepare for maybe one last chance to blow some warmth into the embers of your season this weekend at Washington.

But as he reminded us yesterday, Vick has been in tougher spots, has settled into less comfortable surroundings than a carpeted stall bristling with microphones and uncomfortable questions. While Vick's locker might not be the happiest spot on earth right now, it is not a federal prison cell.

"Keep leadin'," Vick said, when asked yesterday what a leader does in such a situation. "The minute that you waver or you start pointing fingers or you start doing things that's outside the norm, that's when other guys start to do the same thing. It's all about standing tall. That's what I've done in a lot of situations in my life. This situation's not that hard to do."

That quote emerged during Vick's main media session, before practice. Reporters knew there'd been a players-only meeting yesterday morning, called by wideout Jason Avant, but they knew few specifics. When asked then about Reid, Vick called the coach "very competent, very smart," and said the Eagles "stand by him to the end. That's our coach."

By the time Vick reappeared after practice, the media crush had thinned and the remaining reporters had heard that rallying around Reid and the coaching staff had been a main topic of the meeting. Vick wouldn't confirm that, but he mounted an extended, passionate defense of the Eagles' 13th-year head coach.

"That hurts all of us," Vick said, when asked about Reid speculation. "That's our coach; he's one of the best in the business, and that's the bottom line. You look at what we're able to do, from an offensive standpoint, you look at how guys respond. Coach Reid - he can't go out there and hold on to the ball for us. Coach Reid can't go out there and make the throws I need to make. The coach can put us in a good position, but we've got to make the plays, on offense, defense and special teams."

Players often say they aren't aware of media reports, but Vick acknowledged that isn't the case with the "Fire Reid" chorus.

"I've heard it. I try not to - I feel like I'm in the same boat with coach," Vick said.

It was Reid who scrapped the plan to make Kevin Kolb Donovan McNabb's successor last year, and Reid who drove the organization toward trading Kolb and giving Vick a 5-year, $80 million contract.

"We're going to fight for him every minute here. But I know it's not coach's fault. It's not coach's fault . . . Coach can't get out there and do it, he can only give us the recipe for victory. And that's what we get. It's the little things that's killing the game. It's not on coach," Vick said.

"I know the game of football. I've been around the game for a long time. I know intricacies, ins and outs. It's not coach. Bottom line. Put that heat on the players. You put it on us. Don't put it on him."

Vick said the Eagles' sloppy play is not a good reflection of their coaching right now.

"I hurt more for our fans and for this organization than even for myself, because I know I'm the guy lining up behind the center [who bears responsibility]," Vick said. "And I'm pretty sure every guy in this locker room feels the same way. You know how we've been coached, how we prepare each and every week . . . what we want to accomplish for our coach, and what we think he deserves.

"We're just going to keep fightin', man, I'll tell you that. Ain't gonna be no lettin' up. Everybody going to get 110 percent effort out of us, and it'll turn around. We're just waiting on the Lord to turn it around for us."

Earlier, Vick was called upon once more to try to explain how the Eagles can have the NFL's third-ranked offense - behind only the Patriots and the Saints - and have that undercut with 15 turnovers in five games.

"We've been very productive, but at the same time, we've beat ourselves, so we've just got to cut it out," he said. "We're pressing, because we know how good we are [and the results don't match the talent]. That's what the bottom line is. We know how good we can become. I think we can turn it around, and every guy in this locker room had better have that mind-set, that we can turn it around."

When Avant was asked about the meeting, he said: "That's the team-only stuff, that's the players' stuff. I won't comment on that, because that's in-house, but we definitely support our coach on every side. This is a Philadelphia Eagles thing. The players have to come up and do their part."

The NFL Network's Albert Breer reported that Avant told players they don't want to be responsible for getting a coach fired.

Middle linebacker Jamar Chaney said the meeting reinforced positive themes.

"Everybody was calm," Chaney said. "You don't want to get heated right now; it ain't no time to panic. We know what we're capable of doing, and we're not going to panic. We've had a few bad games, four bad games, but at the end of the day, we don't think those four teams are better than us. They won the games . . . We just have to go out there and do a better job of playing the whole game, on offense and defense . . . When it's all said and done, we don't think no team can beat us, but we've been doing a good job of beating ourselves lately, and we've got to stop doing that."

Chaney said he thought the meeting reinforced the "sense of urgency for practice today" as the Eagles prepare to head for Washington. While five teams have made the playoffs after starting 1-4, under the current playoff format adopted in 1990, no 1-5 teams have made the postseason.