Vick or Young for Patriots?
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Vick or Young for Patriots?
Jeff McLane
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- So who will quarterback the Eagles next week against the Patriots?
Will it be Vince Young, who engineered an 18-play, 80-yard fourth quarter drive that gave the Eagles a 17-10 win over the New York Giants Sunday night?
Or will it be regular starter Michael Vick, who missed the game because of two broken ribs?
If he's healthy it will be Vick. But what if he isn't 100 percent and can still function and play? Does Young's clutch performance -- albeit after three erratic quarters -- give the Eagles the luxury of not hurrying him back?
"I'd rather just take it day by day," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Mike's a good player. I'm pretty fortunate I have three good quarterbacks. We're lucky that way. We'll just see how things go with Mike. I'm not going to put him a bad position, that's for sure."
Young's outing -- he completed 23 of 36 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns to go with three interceptions -- does not make it mandatory for the Eagles to rush Vick back, an Eagles source said. Still, the team was optimistic that Vick would have the opportunity to be back by Sunday's home game against New England.
Vick's status after he broke two ribs last week against the Cardinals was up in the air all last week, but the team knew by Wednesday that he would not be able to play. He was listed as questionable on the Friday injury report even though he didn't practice all week. By Saturday, however, he was downgraded to out and did not travel with the team on Saturday.
Vick was described as being very sore and not completely out of the woods in terms of his recovery. If he can't go, Young has the chance to build off his fourth quarter performance Sunday night.
"I had a couple of jitters," Young said about not starting in exactly a year. "It's been a while. Overall, I started to calm and just let the game come to me."
The 4-6 Eagles cleared one hurdle in beating the Giants, but each week will present another challenge. The Patriots are still among one of the best teams in the AFC, although their defense has struggled, especially the pass D.
Vote: Grade the Eagles' performance Poll: Are you confident in Young after Sunday's win?
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After the win last night,somehow I knew that by morning one of these "reporters" would try to start a qb controversy.— charmaine- Vince Young should be the starter next week. Let Mike Vick heal properly. Vince has earned the chance to compete again.— reveugene
- Definitely Young.— banned
- Vick has never started a game against the Patriots. Young has lost to them once. Young's career record is 31-18. Vick's is 51-40-1— banned
- No question about it...VINCE YOUNG next week. Let Vick heal. Eagles will keep Young on their roster next year, and then unload Vick after 2012 to avoid paying him the full $100 million. Reid will coach one more year, and Lurie will get a new coaching staff for 2013, after another non-playoff year in 2012.— misterhman
- Jeff,
You wrote: "The Patriots are still among one of the best teams in the NFC". The Patriots are not in the NFC. They are in the AFC.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-eagles/Vick-or-Young-for-Patriots.html#ixzz1eLsrFd1A
Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else— hallman61 - Kolb got hurt and Vick took his job....now Vick got hurt...Vince Young should take Vick's job.— frank105
- VY looked ugly at times last night but, then again, he hadn't played in a real game for a year; that 4th Q drive made up for a lot of ugliness though. That has been his trademark in college and at Tennessee...maybe he just has that clutch ability to win, no matter what. Wouldnt that be a cool development?— chesapeake
- VY had one fantastic drive to end the game. Before that he was dreadful. Always nice to have a 50/50 run pass split (like the Eagles had on the last drive) and not be blitzed, two luxuries Vick never has. Vick is obviously better than Young and anyone who disagrees a) doesn't know anything about football and b) has a terrible memory. You think Belichick with a full week to prepare for Young won't make him look bad? Give me a break.— atlvickfan
- You seriously overestimate how good Vick is or underestimate Young. Look at their career statistics and there's not much of a difference.
Vick - 56% winning percentage,80qbr, 56% comp %, 104/69 TD/INT, 1.65 TO per game (YUK!), 11 Game winning drives.
Young - 65% winning percentage, 76qbr, 58% comp %, 44/46 TD/INT, 1.7 TO per game (YUK!), 13 Game Winning drives.
I see two athletic qb's who have consistently put up pedestrian passer stats. One make $20 million/year and chokes in 4th qtrs. The other makes $4 million/year and wins two thirds of his starts. Numbers don't lie and if you really are an Atlanta fan all you have to do is look back at Vick's 2006 season, one of the worst ever for a qb that ended with him flipping you fans off.— philliesphan79 - I don't think he was expecting anyone to actually think about what he said and your post still has his head spinning. By the time he figures out that your are correct tomorrows paper will be in print and he'll be posting another ignorant comment in a different place. So thanks for trying, good post and at least know that the thinking man agrees with you. Oh..and Vick has about 40 million reasons to keep playing like he's Superman. Don't let the 100 million fool you people, he'll be lucky to see 40 or 50 of it and he owed about 36 of it to creditors and Arthur Blanc. Rich people usually do get what they want.
- I want the QB that can lead a comeback in the 4th quarter - VINCE YOUNG. If Vick played the Giants would have won the game because a panicky Vick can't pull it together late in the game.— edwahil
- Do us a favor and put Mike on the bench until he finds what he lost the first 10 games he played last season. Because since then he's stunk and you just gave him 100 million reasons to not give a rats arse and figure it out. Way to go Banner.
- I like what someone else wrote, Vick for the 1st 3 quarters then Young for the 4th. Why not?? Do what we need to do— micconway
- Why not use VY and Vick together for a few plays? I thought they would try it at least once this season, I mean Vick motioned out to WR, in the backfield with VY, option plays w/2 TE, pick your poison, Shady, Vick, VY, Action Jackson? So many possibilities with these special athletes, why not put them all on the field together once ina while?— TrueValues
