This is not how the Eagles want to play football. Sure, they opened the season with a 31-13 win over the Rams, but keep this upplays breaking down all over the place, Michael Vick getting body-slammed by blitzers running free, Vick taking off and running recklessly down the fieldand its a recipe for disaster.
Without question, were not trying to lean on that style of play at all, offensive tackle Todd Herremans said.
Vick ran too much, got flushed out of the pocket too much, got hit too much in St. Louis Sunday.
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Yeah, the Eagles left town 1-0. But its not the template they want to use to win football games.
Some strange things happened and that bothers me, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said. There was some bad football.
The official game stats list the Rams with 11 quarterback hits, and if you factor in eight scrambles and three sacks, thats 22 snaps out of 66 offensive playsexactly one third of the gamein which Vick was at great risk.
Thats about 22 too many.
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We know that theres going to be times where (teams) bring an extra guy, and in those cases its up to Mike to just either elude him or throw the ball and get rid of it, Herremans said. But it is frustrating to see him get hit and have to go pick him up off the ground.
Yes, it was the first game with a new O-line and O-line coach. Road team in a dome. Facing a top-10 defensive line. First time for Vick adjusting to a new system where hes asked to read much more on the line of scrimmage.
Mornhinweg doesnt want to hear any of that.
I want him to move and use all that great athleticism (only) when hes forced to, Mornhinweg said. We can make up a lot of excuses, but thats the way I want him to play.
Vick threw for 187 yards and ran for 97 Sunday. In all, the Eagles had 237 rushing yards, making this their first game since 2007 (17-7 win over the Dolphins) and just the fourth in 12 years under Andy Reid in which they had over 200 rushing yards and less than 200 passing yards.
Mornhinweg doesnt mind Vick escaping the pocket and making things happen down the field when its a last resort. He just wants to keep it as the exception. Not the rule.
(He had) a couple plays that were just excellent, that were beautiful, like an artist, Mornhinweg said. And a couple others where we didnt do it the right way. Got to do it the right way. Itll pay off over the long run. If you dont, it will bite you at some point.
Vick was under tremendous pressure much of the game but especially in the first half. He completed only 44 percent of his passes (14 for 32), his worst as an Eagle.
As an offense, we didnt play like we wanted to play, Jeremy Maclin said. We only completed 14 passes. Just a lot of miscommunication in a lot of different spots. But the good thing is we won when we played like that. So thats a credit to us. But well get better.
Much of the Rams pressure came from the blitz, not surprising since head coach Steve Spagnuolo is a former Jim Johnson assistant.
And Vick knows the Eagles will continue to see a high percentage of blitzes until they can consistently stop it.
If teams want to do it each and every week, well have counters for it or well have ways to beat it, he said. That was part of the reason I was able to run for 100. However we get it done, thats what its going to be.
Vick promised the way he played Sunday wont be the way he plays all year.
We all know that I only give you two or three games of the year like that, and (one of them) just happened to be in the first week of the season, he said. After the game, I knew that there were things I could have done better, and I could have made the game a lot easier. Sometimes, you get out there and your killer instincts just kick in.
The Eagles seek their second 2-0 start since 1993 on Sunday night with a national prime-time game against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons lost to the Bears Sunday in their opener in Chicago Sunday.
Were definitely not satisfied with how we played (Sunday), Herremans said. Were happy we got a win, but after watching the film, theres millions of things we need to work on before we go down to Atlanta.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com.