Michael Vick Struggles As Eagles Offense Comes Up Short, Again

What a disgrace. Seriously, there’s really nothing else to write. The Eagles offense laid another egg Sunday, this time against the lowly Arizona Cardinals.

People will point to the two 80+ yard drives the defense gave up to some guy named John Skelton, and rightfully so, but the fact of the matter is the Eagles lost this game because the offense, and Mike Vick in particular, failed miserably.

The frustrating part (and please tell me if you’ve heard this one before), is they moved the ball well when keeping it on the ground with LeSean McCoy. Shady was his usual elusive self, but for some reason the dynamic duo of Andy and Marty decided to only give him the ball 14 times via the rush. He averaged his usual 5.8 yard per carry and scored yet another touchdown, but when the team needed to move the ball in the fourth quarter, the play calls focused yet again on the passing game.

When Vick is hitting his receivers and making plays, it’s one thing. But he looked awful today and should have been picked off four times.  So why does Reid continue to call for throws as much as he does? After the game he gave his usual, “I have to do better “ spiel,  so we are left to ponder the true reason. But nothing can logically explain the lack of run calls by this offense.

Vick was 16/34 for 128 yards. He threw two picks and looked lost all day. And it certainly didn’t help that the DeSean-less receivers had fans longing for the days of Charles Johnson and Torrence Small with some of the drops and bonehead plays they produced.

Again, all the more reason to run the ball. McCoy gives this team it’s best chance at winning, as evidenced when he carried the ball a total of 63 times during a two game winning streak that now seems a lifetime ago. But now we are back to the same old, same old, and with it a 3-6 record which all but shuts the door on any chance of making the playoffs.  If someone told me back in late July that the Eagles would be THREE and SIX after nine football games, I would have been disappointed.  But to be in this position is absolutely unfathomable.

One of the biggest areas of weakness today for the Eagles came on third down. They finished the game 3-15 and rarely found ways to move the sticks. Alarmingly, they only had four passing first downs the entire game. A lot of this falls squarely on the shoulders of Vick. He’s the guy making the big bucks, so he must come through in critical situations.

With the exception of the Dallas game we haven’t seen much of the Michael Vick that captivated fans with breathtaking performances last year. Actually, since the Eagles huge comeback win at Giants stadium last December, Vick has been mostly pedestrian, and at times downright awful.

Listen, I give the guy a lot of credit for coming out of prison and recapturing his career. But an elite quarterback doesn’t perform the way he has for most of the season. What exactly was last year, anyway? Was that the real Mike Vick, and the guy we are seeing now is just a quarterback who’s going through a prolonged slump?

Or was last year’s version a guy who was playing for one more huge contract and now that he’s got his money he’s slipped back into the old habits that made him so inconsistent in the past? Honestly, the latter seems to be more on point right now. And if this offense is ever going to get back to where it was before, Michael Vick needs to right the ship.

As I stated earlier, it’s obvious that Andy Reid will continue to be stubborn and throw the ball more than he probably should. If that’s going to continue to be the case (and let’s be honest it will be), the play of the quarterback can’t continue at this level.

Overall, this was just a terrible all around game for the offense. Desean Jackson’s antics and eventual suspension didn’t help matters, but he’s been mostly invisible this year anyway, so he probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The bottom line is the Eagles should be a running team. It’s the only way they can sustain drives.

When you look around the league and see teams like the Houston Texans winning football games by revolving their offense around their stud running back, it makes you wonder why the Eagles don’t do the same. I’ve been saying all year that LeSean McCoy is one of top three running backs in the entire league. Many others have said the same exact thing.

Yet when the fourth quarter rolls around and the Eagles are looking for a way to keep drives alive, they are content on airing it out instead of giving it to the one guy who has proven he can get the job done. We’ve seen enough of Andy Reid to know he’s not going to change at this stage of the game.  The Eagles will continue to throw the ball, and the offense will continue to struggle. It didn’t have to be this way.

A more balanced attack today and this team would be 4-5 and only two games out of the division with a huge game at the Meadowlands on the horizon. Instead, they will battle Washington for third place in a division they should be running away with. Many people will blame the defense for not stopping the Cardinals in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game. But the bottom line is the offense came up short yet again, and this time it all but sealed the Eagles fate.