PHILADELPHIA – You can debate whether or not
Michael Vick taking center stage at the Super Bowl
would have been a nightmare for the NFL. But
there's no question that the Eagles coming to
town for Super Bowl XLV would have been an
unpleasant sight for Cowboys fans.
Philadelphia's dream and Vick's storybook season
ended with a rather pedestrian-looking
interception Sunday night as the Green Bay
Packers held on for a 21-16 playoff win at Lincoln
Financial Field.
Mark it down. No home team with a winning
record won a first-round playoff game over the
weekend.
Vick tried to rally the Eagles to victory, marching
them into scoring position with no timeouts
before, in his own words, getting greedy.
After hitting rookie Riley Cooper with a big third-
down catch to advance to the Packers' 27 with 44
seconds to go, Vick went for Cooper again in the
end zone.
His pass came up short and Cooper failed to
contest cornerback Tramon Williams for the ball.
"To be at the 27-yard line and make the decision I
made, it's something I definitely have to work
on," said Vick. "I got greedy. I could have thrown
to the back. It's a bad way to go out, but I went
out swinging."
The Eagles were hoping to advance to play
Chicago where, on Nov. 28, Vick looked
vulnerable for the first time in this comeback
season. In seven games prior to that, he had 11
touchdown passes and no interceptions. The
Eagles' only two losses in that stretch were one
game that Vick didn't start and another in which
he failed to finish.
But starting in Chicago, Vick was intercepted at
least once in each of his final six games. The
Eagles went 3-3. Vick got beat up and the Eagles
became very beatable.
Now they are done.
Vick finished with 292 yards passing Sunday as
he threw for one touchdown and ran for another.
He was outplayed by Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers
(three TD passes, no interceptions), but probably
not by the level that the numbers would suggest.
The Packers had the superior defense as
anticipated. The Packers also had the better
running game which came as the surprise of the
day. It would have ranked as the surprise of the
weekend if not for what took place in Seattle.
Rookie sixth-round pick James Starks, who ran
for 101 yards all season (73 in one game), carried
23 times for 123 yards. That kept Rodgers from
having to do it all himself against the Eagles. The
unexpected presence of a running attack will
make Green Bay a factor Saturday night in
Atlanta.
If a failure to match the Packers' run game was
damaging, so was an unlikely disadvantage at
kicker. David Akers, who holds the NFL record in
making 19 consecutive playoff field goals, missed
two Sunday.
It was a cold and windy afternoon, but no one,
least of all coach Andy Reid, expected to see
Akers miss wide right at both ends of the field
from 41 and 34 yards.
"We can all count," Reid said. "Those points
would have helped."
The Eagles' failure to advance does not come as a
surprise if you go back to the start of the season.
Philadelphia lost its last two games to Dallas,
including the wild-card weekend game, a year
ago. That set in motion the exit of Donovan
McNabb and the expected beginning of the Kevin
Kolb Era.
Vick, in the second year of his comeback from
prison, intervened. While making what appears
to be a genuine comeback off the field, Vick made
himself part of the MVP discussion opposite Tom
Brady less than a month ago when he helped
guide the Eagles to essentially an NFC East-
winning comeback in New York.
Vick was essential to his team's revival, but his
status as a free agent leaves Eagles' fans guessing
as to his future relevance here.
"I don't even know what's going to happen next
year or where I'm going to be, so I can't even
say we're going to have the opportunity to do it
next year. But I enjoyed this season," Vick said. "I
still feel like I can play at a high level for the next
couple of years. Still have a lot of work to do,
though, and I'm conscious of that."
But on the coming-back-from-bad-
decisions scale, for Michael Vick, this one doesn't
even rank.
Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/011011dnspocowlishawcol.4c6a9b.html
Michael Vick taking center stage at the Super Bowl
would have been a nightmare for the NFL. But
there's no question that the Eagles coming to
town for Super Bowl XLV would have been an
unpleasant sight for Cowboys fans.
Philadelphia's dream and Vick's storybook season
ended with a rather pedestrian-looking
interception Sunday night as the Green Bay
Packers held on for a 21-16 playoff win at Lincoln
Financial Field.
Mark it down. No home team with a winning
record won a first-round playoff game over the
weekend.
Vick tried to rally the Eagles to victory, marching
them into scoring position with no timeouts
before, in his own words, getting greedy.
After hitting rookie Riley Cooper with a big third-
down catch to advance to the Packers' 27 with 44
seconds to go, Vick went for Cooper again in the
end zone.
His pass came up short and Cooper failed to
contest cornerback Tramon Williams for the ball.
"To be at the 27-yard line and make the decision I
made, it's something I definitely have to work
on," said Vick. "I got greedy. I could have thrown
to the back. It's a bad way to go out, but I went
out swinging."
The Eagles were hoping to advance to play
Chicago where, on Nov. 28, Vick looked
vulnerable for the first time in this comeback
season. In seven games prior to that, he had 11
touchdown passes and no interceptions. The
Eagles' only two losses in that stretch were one
game that Vick didn't start and another in which
he failed to finish.
But starting in Chicago, Vick was intercepted at
least once in each of his final six games. The
Eagles went 3-3. Vick got beat up and the Eagles
became very beatable.
Now they are done.
Vick finished with 292 yards passing Sunday as
he threw for one touchdown and ran for another.
He was outplayed by Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers
(three TD passes, no interceptions), but probably
not by the level that the numbers would suggest.
The Packers had the superior defense as
anticipated. The Packers also had the better
running game which came as the surprise of the
day. It would have ranked as the surprise of the
weekend if not for what took place in Seattle.
Rookie sixth-round pick James Starks, who ran
for 101 yards all season (73 in one game), carried
23 times for 123 yards. That kept Rodgers from
having to do it all himself against the Eagles. The
unexpected presence of a running attack will
make Green Bay a factor Saturday night in
Atlanta.
If a failure to match the Packers' run game was
damaging, so was an unlikely disadvantage at
kicker. David Akers, who holds the NFL record in
making 19 consecutive playoff field goals, missed
two Sunday.
It was a cold and windy afternoon, but no one,
least of all coach Andy Reid, expected to see
Akers miss wide right at both ends of the field
from 41 and 34 yards.
"We can all count," Reid said. "Those points
would have helped."
The Eagles' failure to advance does not come as a
surprise if you go back to the start of the season.
Philadelphia lost its last two games to Dallas,
including the wild-card weekend game, a year
ago. That set in motion the exit of Donovan
McNabb and the expected beginning of the Kevin
Kolb Era.
Vick, in the second year of his comeback from
prison, intervened. While making what appears
to be a genuine comeback off the field, Vick made
himself part of the MVP discussion opposite Tom
Brady less than a month ago when he helped
guide the Eagles to essentially an NFC East-
winning comeback in New York.
Vick was essential to his team's revival, but his
status as a free agent leaves Eagles' fans guessing
as to his future relevance here.
"I don't even know what's going to happen next
year or where I'm going to be, so I can't even
say we're going to have the opportunity to do it
next year. But I enjoyed this season," Vick said. "I
still feel like I can play at a high level for the next
couple of years. Still have a lot of work to do,
though, and I'm conscious of that."
But on the coming-back-from-bad-
decisions scale, for Michael Vick, this one doesn't
even rank.
Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/011011dnspocowlishawcol.4c6a9b.html
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