For most of the game, Mike Vick’s offensive line protection was brilliant, allowing Vick to direct touchdown drives of 88, 72, 72 and 60 yards…two of the drives in the first half went for 11 plays and used up seven minutes apiece…Things got a little dicey in the second half when RT Winston Justice went out with a knee sprain, and the Texans “D” started dialing up pressure from the middle… But in the end, Vick and his offensive game plan held up for two final winning drives.
It was as gritty a game as I had expected. I knew the Texans (5-7) would lay it all on the line. They brought the house against Vick and nearly pulled off a come-from-behind victory of their own.
But remarkably, the Eagles (now 8-4) held serve with one sustained drive after another, and Vick holding his ground in the pocket like the ghost of Bart Starr, taking body blows from a fierce Houston rush that got dialed up late as the Texans’ doomsday clock began ticking.
Philly fans are more used to isolated big plays winning games like this. Usually, games defined by sustained drives and red zone efficiency were the kind of games the Eagles lost.
So it was quite a night for yours truly, who for the first time in ages had a sense of quiet confidence in the outcome of an Eagles game, even when the Texans had rallied to take the lead at 24-20 in the 3rd. It was a case of method overcoming madness.
Just look at this scoring chart of the game; it is atypical of how the Eagles’ chart usually looks in a W box-score:
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter:
EAGLES…. TD 7:56 11 PLAYS, 88 YARDS……LeSean McCoy 1-yd pass from Mike Vick
Texans…… FG 4:55 7 plays, 39 yards……….Neil Rackers, 48-yard field goal
2nd Quarter
EAGLES… TD 14:30 11 PLAYS, 72 YARDS…..LeSean McCoy 4-yd Run
EAGLES… FG 9:35 7 PLAYS, 51 YARDS…..David Akers, 36-yard field goal
Texans… TD 5:38 8 plays, 80 yards……….Jacoby Jones 8-yd pass from Matt Schaub
EAGLES… FG 0:21 7 PLAYS, 14 YARDS…..David Akers, 22-yard field goal
3rd Quarter
Texans… TD 8:49 11 plays, 79 yards………Arian Foster 13-yd pass from Mat Schaub
Texans…. TD 0:50 13 plays, 86 yards………Arian Foster 3-yd Run
4th Quarter
EAGLES… TD 13:04 6 PLAYS, 60 YARDS…..Mike Vick 2-yd Run
EAGLES… TD 4:18 8 PLAYS, 72 YARDS…..Owen Schmitt 5-yd pass from Mike Vick
Amazing to me is the call-and-response format of this scoring chart, with the Texans’ comeback bridge right in the middle of the opening and closing choruses of the Michael Vick Revival Show.
—Observations from the Armchair
“On Thursday, as he has all season, Vick showed the confidence he once lacked in his own ability to make plays as they come. Vick forced nothing, and drove the Eagles to two fourth quarter touchdowns. He now seems aware, as neither he nor any young player in NFL history has ever been aware, that he is athletically superior to the point that he need never accelerate his rhythm in order to make a play, even under intense defensive pressure. That helps a lot when the team trails and the opposing defense pins its ears back and comes after Vick.” — Matt Trueblood, Bleacher Report
More game observations:
After he coolly picked apart Houston in the early going, the Texans brought the 2nd-half heat and flushed Vick out of the pocket as often as possible. Vick responded by gouging the defense with a 13-yard run the first time he touched the ball in the third quarter. The drive did not result in points for Philadelphia, but thereafter the Texans seemed unable to generate a pass rush substantial enough to even pester Vick in the pocket…until the Texans got desperate early in the 4th. That’s when they brought the house against Vick.
“I’m used to taking hits. It’s not that bad,” Vick said. “If I take one and I lay down, then I took a good one. But I’m a pretty tough guy. I bounce back when I can. There’s no science to getting hit, or protecting yourself.”
“He got knocked around a little bit,” Andy Reid said. “He got back up and kept going. I loved his energy in the second half. Both sides of the ball, he was firing them up.”
The play that sealed the win was set up by a great 3rd-and-19 completion for a first down that will forever be known as the Great Catch & Stretch…
With about 6:15 to go and the Eagles up by only 3, it looked like the Texans had stopped the Birds and were ready for a game-winning drive of their own. But Vick hit Brent Celek near the first-down marker as Celek turned and lunged forward while being pinned by Texas LB Kevin Bentley. Just a nanosecond before Celek’s hip touched the ground, he reached forward with the ball for the crucial first down. Although ruled short of the first, Celek immediately implored his head coach to challenge the play. And you know your Eagle karma is good when Reid actually wins a challenge!
So many heroes in this game—DT Trevor Laws with a huge INT in the first half…. terrific pass and run-blocking by LT Jason Peters and C Mike McGlynn… Vick throwing for 302 yards and accounting for 3 TD’s… hugely successful screens to LeSean McCoy… and by the way, give props to the Texans, especially Matt Shaub throwing for 337 yards and Andre Johnson receiving for 149 yards…the Texans played like they wanted it badly.
Schaub and his receivers abused the Philly safeties and corners on occasion, with Nate Allen and Dimitri Patterson biting on some double moves that could have been disastrous if the Eagles behind Vick did not answer so consistently. But Quintin Mikell (strong safety) made up for a lot at the end by bringing strong pressure up the middle and into the face of Schaub. The Eagles used their blitzing techniques sporadically…but when they blitzed, Mikell was usually busting things up in the Houston backfield.
I’d have to say, this game was extremely entertaining to watch from the armchair, even as it was spiced with serious anxiety in the 2nd half when Houston made its move and the Eagles secondary seemed ready to cave. The best news is: surviving Thursday night with a W, now the Birds get a mini-Bye of 9 days rest until the next chapter of the saga. But I’ll still be here working on the Eagles Eye question: Where do we go from here?
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