Philadelphia Eagles’ Michael Vick suffers concussion and loss at hands of Atlanta Falcons
Check out photos from the win over Philadelphia.
ATLANTA — Before making his return to the Georgia Dome, Michael Vick went out of his way to say that the building where he once held the local fans rapt was not “his house.”
Nonetheless, for as long as he was in the game on Sunday night, Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles kept a firm grasp over his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, and ownership of the game — possibly even those fans in the Dome themselves.
But that hold unraveled when Falcons safety William Moore’s hit concussed Vick with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. Shortly after Vick left the game, the Eagles expanded their lead to 10 points. But without him the rest of the way, they lost 35-31, rendering as somewhat incomplete Vick’s return to the Dome as a starter for the first time — and leaving doubt as to what the Eagles might be without him.
“I feel for him,” said Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who dropped a pass on fourth down from backup quarterback Mike Kafka with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter that would have given Philadelphia a first down inside the Falcons’ 20. “Obviously, this was a big game for him and he wanted to make a statement. Unfortunately, things happened the way they did. We wanted to go out there and win it for him.”
After the game, Eagles coach Andy Reid said that Vick had a concussion. (Originally, it was announced in the press box that Vick had a neck injury, and he also was seen bleeding from his mouth after leaving the game.) Reid said Vick would fly back with the team after the game and added, “He’s OK right now.”
Said Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson of Vick: “He looked kind of out of it. He’s a tough quarterback, so we’ll see.”
Vick will have to enter the league’s concussion protocol, and only tests and medical evaluations will determine whether he will play next week.
For Falcons fans — who booed Vick lustily when he entered the game and, it seemed, later when Vick walked to the locker room for observation after getting hurt — the vagaries of Vick’s health are well known. In 2003 — one season after being the first quarterback to record a win over the hosts at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field in the playoffs — Vick suffered a broken right leg at the hands of Baltimore’s Ray Lewis during the preseason. He missed the first 11 games and the Falcons went 5-11 that season, ending Dan Reeves’ tenure as Atlanta’s coach.
Yet as the Falcons once did, the Eagles have invested heavily in Vick and built their franchise around him, having traded one-time anointed starter Kevin Kolb to Arizona in the offseason.
Building around Vick comes with inherent risks. Vick is listed at 6 feet, 215 pounds — hardly a build that can take a huge pounding — and with his running style he puts himself in danger of big hits. Reid seemed tacitly to understand as much when asked a question about whether the coach had to accept Vick’s missing time from games as a result of his style. Reid grunted an inaudible response.
The Falcons didn’t sack Vick on Sunday, but they hit him plenty of times. Defensive tackle Peria Jerry hit him on a pitch that caused a fumble that was returned 64 yards by defensive end Ray Edwards — a huge momentum shift in the game that led to a Falcons touchdown. John Abraham hit Vick on a scramble, forcing another fumble lost. Before he left, Vick completed 19 of 28 attempts for 242 yards and two touchdowns with an interception and three fumbles — two lost.
Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said Atlanta hit Vick too many times.
“Yeah, I take blame on a lot of that,” he said. “I got confused on some blitzes, and some things you just wish you could’ve had back. I think we all got to take full responsibility for anybody hitting him.
“A talent like that, you can’t let him get hit. He’s one of the best quarterbacks; we’ve got to protect him. As a unit, I count myself, we have to protect Mike a little better.”
McCoy said Vick’s absence was “definitely the difference in the game.”
Falcons wide receiver Roddy White is one of Vick’s close friends. Earlier in the week, he said he wanted Vick to play badly. But he didn’t want him to get hurt.
“Oh, man, I never want him to get hurt,” White said. “Never, ever. You know, I love that guy. That’s my guy. It was tough to see him leave out the game. You want to play him the whole entire game. But he went out, unfortunately, and that’s a tough loss for them. I hope he’s not hurt and gets to play next week.”
Yet White realizes that defenses will pound Vick when the opportunity arises.
“Yeah, I mean, we did a good job of hitting him today,” White said. “Getting after him a little bit. Our defense did a good job.”
Falcons starting defensive tackle Corey Peters said that’s always part of the game plan with a quarterback, but more so with Vick.
“In any game that’s what we want to get accomplished,” Peters said. “Even more importantly him because he’s a running guy. We just want to keep him in the pocket and make him be more of a quarterback. If he’s going to hurt us, hurt us with his arm, and I think we did a good job of that overall.”
Earlier in the week, Vick spoke of “the great joy” he felt in 2009 when he returned to the Dome as Donovan McNabb’s backup. That game marked his first as a visitor at the Dome against the Falcons after a 19-month stint in a federal prison on dog-fighting charges. Vick threw for a touchdown and also ran for one that day, as Falcons fans displayed a bit of schizophrenia, chanting his name.
That partiality to Vick was not in evidence much on Sunday. His teammates wanted to win his first game as a starter for Vick, but it was not in the cards.
“That’s the kind of quarterback he is,” Jackson said of the hits Vick takes. “We just got to hope for him not taking them brutal hits or nothing seriously where he’s out. Hopefully, the injury he has now is not too bad.”