Giants knock out Vick, beat Birds
With each week that passes, it becomes more and more evident that the Chip Kelly experiment cannot work without stability at the quarterback position.
Mike Vick was backing taking snaps from Jason Kelce yesterday against the Giants, but he wasn’t close to 100 percent. He threw an interception on the Eagles’ first offensive possession and eventually left the game after re-aggravating a nagging hamstring injury. He came up limping after absorbing a vicious hit right before halftime.
“I felt good going in. I felt like I did everything that I was supposed to do to reassure myself that I could go out and play,” Vick said. “But there’s just nothing like actually being in the moment and having to move and having to react. When I did that, that’s when I pulled it again. I felt the pop.”
Vick’s teammates slapped the quarterback’s pads and Matt Barkley threw on his helmet. The rookie fumbled a snap and threw an interception, but he also made some nice throws. If he’s not in Kelly’s future plans, at least the coach is getting a good look. Either way, expect the cries for Heisman hopeful Marcus Mariota to intensify.
“I thought I made some good throws. I made some poor decisions,” said Barkley, who finished 17-of-26 for 178 yards. “I think it’s the little things that I have to hunker down on from here on out. Learning and getting game experience is under my belt, it’s just something to learn from. I will probably be thinking about a couple of those plays running through my head all night long.”
The alarming part of the afternoon, one that resulted in a 15-7 loss — the 10th straight home loss for the Eagles — was that the offense failed to generate any points. The lone touchdown came when special teamer Najee Goode recovered a botched snap and took it in for six points.
The run game stalled, with LeSean McCoy being held to 48 yards on 15 carries, and wide receivers couldn’t get open. Kelly’s ballyhooed, high-octane offense has mustered no offensive touchdowns in its last eight quarters.
“You’re going to look at every single play and say how can we make that better,” Kelly said. “How can we execute that a little bit better? That’s what we as a coaching staff will do as we look at the tape and put a plan together. But we know where we are right now and we understand what our situation is right now.”