MUST BE DREAMING: TEMPLE IS 9-2?
Michael Vick was on the field for six plays in the preseason game against Jacksonville. Here are the situations and the results:
* Ball on Philadelphia 27. 14:49 left in first quarter. Second and 10. Donovan McNabb lines up wide right, Vick lines up in shotgun. Three-wide receiver formation with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Kevin Curtis. Jackson lined up in backfield along with LeSean McCoy. Vick completes shovel pass to McCoy for gain of 4 yards.
* Ball on Philadelphia 33. 12:18 left in first quarter. First and 10. McNabb out of game. Vick in shotgun. Fakes handoff to McCoy and runs left where he is stopped by DE Derrick Harvey after gain of 1 yard.
* Ball on Philadelphia 45. 10:32 left in first quarter. Second and 8. Vick lines up in left slot. DeSean Jackson lined up wide left and Kevin Curtis wide right. McNabb faked a quick pass to Vick and handed the ball off to McCoy, who gained 6 yards. But play was wiped out by holding penalty on Brent Celek.
* Ball on Jacksonville 27. 7:40 left in first quarter. First and 10. McNabb out. Vick lines up in shotgun. Four wide receivers. Curtis and Jason Avant on left side and Hank Baskett and Jackson on right side. Vick completes 13-yard pass to Baskett at Jacksonville 13.
* Ball on Philadelphia 28. 3:00 left in first quarter. Second and 10. McNabb out. Vick lines up in shotgun. Four-wide receiver set with Maclin, Jackson, Curtis and Avant. Vick completes quick screen to Jackson on right side, but Curtis missed his block on CB Sean Considine and play went for no gain.
* Ball on Philadelphia 20. 12:36 left in second quarter. Second and 15. McNabb lines up wide left. Maclin and Jackson also in game, along with McCoy. Vick completes pass to McCoy for 2-yard gain.
"It was great to finally get out there and get my feet wet and get a feel for the game again," Vick said in a postgame news conference. "It felt the same, it was almost like riding a bike, you never forget to do it."
Vick was pleased with the feeling of playing in an NFL game again. "Right now, I'm humble," Vick said. "I just want to learn and improve my skills as a quarterback. I sat on sidelines today and thought about how many different things we can do. It was almost scary … I can do it all. I did it before and I can do it again. When I get myself into tip-top shape, the sky's the limit."
Vick was received warmly by the fans at the Linc. "I can’t explain the feeling," Vick said. "It was unbelievable, the way that I was embraced and the warm welcome. It was awesome. It was an awesome feeling."
Coach Andy Reid also was pleased with the reception his controversial quarterback received. "I thought he reacted well [to his first appearance]," Reid said. "I didn’t see anything negative. People were excited to see him back in there."
Asked during the game about how Vick was used, McNabb said: “We got it out there so people now have to gameplan for it. We tried some different things out. Did it throw some things off? Maybe. But this is what the preseason is for, for us to clean things up and throw some different things out there that we may or may not run during the year. Again, it kind of goes back to getting back to the fundamentals and cleaning that up.”
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
