Vick Can’t Win It All By Himself, He Will Need Help

More than any of the other major sports, football is a team sport.  In the game of football, players are on the field for one or two of the three team units, offense, defense and special teams.  You can win or lose the game in any of those areas.

Vickmania has taken over but the Eagles entire football team had a hand in winning that game.  When Michael Vick and the offense come back to earth and don’t play the perfect game, the other units of the team will have to play better.

I’ve said it many times before and I will say it again, “teams win Super Bowls, not individual players”.  Despite the unbelievable level which Vick is playing at, the Birds are not going to reach their goal unless everybody on the team does their job.

Yes, the Eagles offense were the main reason the Birds won on Monday night and Vick was the catalyst but he didn’t make the offense function by himself.  They broke quite a few records for scoring and looked unstoppable, but we know they’re not, at least not yet.

I know Vick is getting most or nearly all the credit as he should but it was DeSean Jackson not Vick, who outran LaRon Landry and pulled in that 88-yard pass.  Vick put it out there and Jackson went and got it.   The offensive line gave him the time to do his thing.

It was a nice call by Reid and Mornhinweg to start out the game.

The shuffle pass to LeSean McCoy was a great call and it continues to leave defenses with their mouths open as Eagles running backs waltz into the end zone.  First it was Brian Westbrook, now it’s McCoy.  Will the coordinators have as a good of a game calling the plays against the Giants?

Jeremy Maclin made a great catch on that deep pass.  Yes, he did screen off Dante Hall when the ball was in the air, but that’s just good football.

Maclin is learning to use his size and strength.  The young wide receiver has some sure hands and he finds a way to come down with the football.

Jason Avant was able to somehow pull in that pass near the sideline which was reviewed.

We could easily be saying that those would have been great catches but they weren’t able to hang on to them.

There were also quite a few times when Vick had all day to make those throws.  That touchdown pass to Avant was ridiculous.  You knew the Skins had folded up their tents after that one.  Big Albert Haynesworth got knocked on the ground and just stayed there.

I don’t expect the offensive line to play every game as well as they did on Monday Night but they can’t be human turnstiles, either.

The defense on the other hand played well for most of the game but they gave up 28 points against a Redskins offense which isn’t a very talented unit.  I heard that somebody said something about their weapons lacking explosiveness to the point where you could take them on an airplane with no problem.

The defense did come up with three picks which aided the blowout but giving up 28 points to that Washington group is nothing to write home about.  That performance will get them beat against some of the teams they have remaining on their schedule.

Dimitri Patterson played an outstanding game, but he can’t give up the deep ball like he did on the play to Anthony Armstrong.  Stewart Bradley can’t fall down on coverage and let the a tight end like Fred Davis be running all by himself.

Big plays will kill any defense and if you don’t believe it, ask the Redskins defense.

The special teams didn’t do anything particularly special on Monday Night, but they almost did some which could have been disastrous.

In the second quarter the Birds had given up those two quick scores, when kick returner Jorrick Calvin had the ball pulled out of his hands on the kick off return. If the Skins had recovered that football, who knows what would have happened in that football game.

Calvin was able to recover the ball, but the Birds were on the verge of letting the Redskins back into that game.

That’s why Vick grabbed Calvin as they passed each other on the field.  Vick knows that he’s not going to win anything by himself.