Eagles-Redskins: Quick Reactions From Week 10 Win

— Where do we start with Mike Vick? This was one of the most phenomenal showings by a quarterback in the history of the league. A combined six touchdowns (four throwing and two rushing), 413 yards, and his sixth-straight game with a passer rating over 90. Is there really any doubt now who should be the quarterback of this team moving forward?

— Overall, it was not a great night running the ball for LeSean McCoy (11 carries for 43 yards), but his five catches for 51 yards and a touchdown made up for that. McCoy has the makings of becoming one of the best weapons in the league, if he’s not already.

— I said I loved the trade when it first went down, and then I spent the past couple of weeks lobbying for him to see more action, and now I couldn’t be happier to see Jerome Harrison finally get a shot and make the best of it. Harrison carried the ball 11 times for 109 yards including a 50-yard touchdown run and one reception for 15 yards.

— Owen Schmitt continues to be the unsung hero of this offense. The guy does nothing but do his job and it’s really showing in the Eagles’ yards-per-carry average, which last I checked is tops in the league. But can we please get him at least one carry before the year is out?

— Brent Celek was, once again, dreadful. He managed to bring in two catches for eight yards and dropped a ball he should have caught despite being hit. To say he’s having a down year would be an understatement and the team is starting to take notice. Officially, Clay Harbor was the guy who got the start against the Redskins and not Celek.

— Speaking of Harbor, he wasn’t much better than Celek. In fact, statistically-speaking, he was worse as he hauled in a grand total of zero catches. He did, however, have a great block on Brian Orakpo that allowed Vick to hit DeSean Jackson on that 88-yard strike.

— Speaking of Jackson, he got into it a little bit with safety LaRon Landry before the game. It nearly started an all-out 106-man rumble, but Jackson ended things quickly by blowing past Landry on the team’s first play from scrimmage. The ‘Skins did the best they could to take Jackson out of the game after that, however, and he only had one catch for 10 yards afterwards.

— Jeremy Maclin, although he continues to play scared, keeps making big plays. He caught a 48-yard touchdown pass from Vick that was badly under-thrown just nine seconds into the second quarter to bump the score to 35-0. He did a great job of not letting DeAngelo Hall into his body, made a play on the ball, and stay in bounds.

— Believe it or not, Jason Avant’s touchdown reception against the ‘Skins was his first of the season. He’s done a good job of making plays on third down this season and seems as sure-handed as ever, but he just hasn’t gotten the same amount of targets with Vick running the show.

— As a whole, the offensive line did a pretty decent job. They allowed Vick to get sacked once, but didn’t have any big-time breakdowns and did a good job of keeping him clean. Even Nick Cole, whom I’ve harped on often this season, had a decent game. He still shows extreme laziness and the footwork of an 80-year old woman, but overall wasn’t bad.

— Here’s where things take a turn for the worse. The defense, as a whole, was not nearly as good as it would seem coming away from such a big win. In fact, were it not for the offensive explosion, this could have been a game the Eagles’ defense easily lost for them.

— Trent Cole, once again, was unable to notch a sack and disappeared for extended periods of time. For all the talking he did leading up to this game, he didn’t do a good job of backing it up.

— Juqua Parker and Trevor Laws both racked up another sack for the season, moving their total to five and three respectively. Laws has been good in relief this season, and Parker has done a great job moving from starter to backup and back to starter.

— Antonio Dixon continues to be too much for offensive linemen to handle. He didn’t do a great job of reacting once he got into the backfield, but he spent the entire game behind the line of scrimmage. If he can get better at keeping his head up and reading the play at the same time, Dixon has the potential to be a very, very good player.

— Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley seemed to play well against the run in that they ate of some blockers, but appeared to get no help out of their linebackers. It all starts with the guys up front, but the guys behind them are supposed to be the actual play-makers and there wasn’t a whole lot of that tonight.

— Sticking with the linebackers, they were all unimpressive yet again. Moise Fokou continues to be the most impressive of the group and Ernie Sims missed a sack and later hurt himself, and Stewart Bradley got plowed over by Fred Davis en route to a 71-yard reception. Both guys must play better moving forward or it could be time for a change.

— Outside of getting burnt by Anthony Armstrong one time, Dimitri Patterson had a very good game that included two interceptions and one touchdown. They say players don’t lose their spots due to injury, but Ellis Hobbs might be on the outside looking in at this point.

— There wasn’t a whole lot out of Asante Samuel, but that could be because McNabb and the Redskins avoided him like the plague.

— Kurt Coleman, making his first NFL start in place of the injured Nate Allen, notched an interception after Santana Moss knocked the ball into the air after a pass went right off his hands. Overall, Coleman had a good game but did get run over a few times, as well. He isn’t going to take Allen’s spot, but it’s good to know he can fill in when needed from now on.

— Quintin Mikell had one of his worst games of the season. He looked slow, he missed tackles, and outside of a pressure of McNabb, I can’t think of an impact play he had.

— It’s going to get lost in a 59-28 win, but the defense did not play very well as a unit. They gave up 295 yards and two touchdowns to McNabb. Yes, they also had three picks, but Patterson’s pick-six was the only one they earned. The other two bounced off receivers’ hands and into their waiting arms. Big plays were aplenty for McNabb and the ‘Skins through the air.

— On top of the lousy performance defending the pass, the defense also gave up 89 yards and two touchdowns on the ground to Keiland Williams. Yeah, if you’ve never heard of him I’m sure you’re not alone. If they can’t stop that guy running behind the Redskins’ patch-work offensive line, how are they going to stop Ahmad Bradshaw or Brandon Jacobs?

— I’m still on the “Fire Sean McDermott” band-wagon. He lacks a killer’s instinct and it infects the entire defense. The way he starts playing soft once they get a lead is enough to drive me crazy. On paper, this defense should be much more effective than what it is. He will lose this team at least one more game this season.

— If anyone knows Andy Reid personally, can they please ask him why in the world Vick was in the game so long? With a 31-point lead, there was nothing good that could have come from keeping Vick in just to hand the ball off. This is coming from a reluctant Kolb fan (for lack of a better word), but I’m pretty sure he can be counted on to hand the ball off, huh?

— Outside of kicking a ton of extra points and booting a couple touchbacks, David Akers’ 48-yard field goal in that rain might have been his most impressive of the season.

— Sav Rocca had four punts for an unimpressive average of 38.3 yards per punt. But when we take into account the long of 53 and four punts inside the 20, it starts looking a whole lot better.

— The coverage teams had only one break-down. Call it progress.

— Do you think the NFL would let the Eagles take about 20 points off this total and use it towards next week’s game against the Giants? It’s worth checking into. This seems like a great opportunity for this team to lay an egg with so much on the line. But I’m thinking with 20 free points they should pull it out easily.