FanShot

Vick in King's MMQB

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Each week, thanks to play-by-play game dissection by ProFootballFocus.com, I'll look at one important matchup or individual performance metric from one of the Sunday games. One week removed from an inglorious debut at Cleveland, Michael Vick matched up against the chameleon fronts and odd rushes of the Baltimore Ravens, so I asked PFF czar Neil Hornsby to dissect how Vick fared in his 75 snaps against the Ravens, and how much punishment the embattled Vick took in the 24-23 Philadelphia victory. Running. Ten rushes for 34 yards, broken down into two kneel-downs, three quarterbacks draws (including the winning one-yard run with two minutes left), four scrambles, and one muffed handoff to Bryce Brown. Other than the kneel-downs, he was hit on every run as he either dove head-first for extra yardage (twice) or ran out of bounds -- when, on one play, he sent the CBS sound man with the parabolic mike to the ground in a collision. Passing. The numbers: 23 of 32, 371 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, two sacks, 12 quarterback hits, five additional hurries. On the 12 plays in which he was hit, Vick's average time holding the ball before being contacted was 3.3 seconds; to put this in context, Matt Hasselbeck's average time to throw last year was a league-low 2.4 seconds, meaning he takes an extra second when he's under duress to try to find a receiver. Vick's longest pass of the day -- a 49-yarder (47 in the air) to DeSean Jackson late in the third quarter -- was his best throw of the day. But his decision-making, and his judgment when there was traffic in the short middle of the field, was suspect. Three times, including his one interception, he didn't seem to see linebackers or defensive backs lurking in plain sight. His stats when clean, as expected, were far different than when he was pressured. • When hit or hurried: 9 of 15, 181 yards, no touchdowns, one interception. • When not pressured: 14 of 17 for 190 yards, one touchdown, one interception. Summary. Vick continues to be a man who has no regard for his body and he did whatever it took to win; hanging in until the last second to make throws, or diving head-first for first downs, for example. As much as we say the Eagles have to change him, it's obvious Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg aren't going to be able to. But his game-winning drive, 80 yards in 10 plays, was a thing of brilliance. He didn't make a bad throw and had to convert only two third downs. He made nearly every throw in this game. He can look superb, but then he seems to lose concentration and throws something back across his body or into the middle of the field; two or three times he took chances that a veteran quarterback shouldn't take. Nearly all his interceptions last week and the ones this week (together with those that were dropped) came from linebackers not being where he expected. His weakness in these two games has been short underneath. You wonder how much longer he'll be able to take the physical pounding he takes. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/peter_king/09/16/week-2/index.html#ixzz26lFQ1B6U