Injured Vick should have benched himself

No way he was going to sit on the bench and watch, Michael Vick vowed.

After missing the end of the Atlanta loss with a concussion? After missing the end of the Giants loss with a bruised hand?

Nothing was going to keep Vick from playing the entire game the following week against the 49ers.

Im not coming out of the game this week, regardless, Vick said the Wednesday of 49ers week. Theyre going to have to cart me off the field.

Maybe they should have carted him off the field Sunday.

Because Vick did himself a disservice Sunday, and he did his teammates a disservice, and he did the coaches and trainers and the entire franchise a disservice.

It takes a lot of courage and guts and toughness to play hurt. It takes even more courage and guts and toughness to admit that you really need to not play hurt.

And Vick should not have played Sunday.

Second offensive snap for the Eagles Sunday at the Linc, Vick got hit so hard by blitzing Cards linebacker Daryl Washington he wound up with two broken ribs.

Vick didnt tell a soul. Nobody on the sideline knew. Nobody in the huddle suspected. Vick was not leaving that game, no matter how much pain he was in, no matter how much the injury affected his play, no matter how poorly he performed.

When Vick said, Theyre going to have to cart me off the field, he really meant it.

Just one problem.

He was dreadful.

We didnt know Vick was injured until Monday morning, when head coach Andy Reid revealed the injury at his weekly presser. But when you watched him try to play against the Cards Sunday, it was impossible not to suspect that something was going on.

He was that bad.

Why were his passes flying five yards over guys heads?

Why was he taking off scrambling when he wasnt under any pressure?

Why did it seem like everything he had learned since he arrived in Philly about being a smart, patient pocket quarterback had suddenly been forgotten?

Because he was in so much pain he couldnt function.

Vicks performance, one of the worst of his career, is understandable now, but whats not understandable is why he stayed in that game, didnt let any trainers or coaches know how much he was hurting, and why he put his personal desire to play ahead of his teams chances to win.

Vick was 2 for 2 for 21 yards when he got hurt. He was 14-for-32 (44 percent) for 107 yards with two interceptions and a 26.4 passer rating after he got hurt.

Against the NFLs 29th-ranked pass defense.

This is a defense a healthy Michael Vick tears apart. But playing with two broken ribs that had to make it tough for him to even breathe, much less play football, he was ridiculously ineffective.

The Eagles scored just 10 offensive points in their crushing 21-17 loss to the Cards. The field goal came after a turnover and drive that went all of eight yards. The touchdown came on the only drive that LeSean McCoy was a big part of. He had five touches on the TD drive, just 12 on 12 other drives.

At the very least, Vick should have let Reid and Marty Mornhinweg know he was hurting, so they could have tweaked things and made McCoy a bigger part of the game plan (which they should have done anyway, but we already wrote that story).

Vicks toughness is admirable. Really is. It cant be questioned. But his judgment can be.

Theres a point where a player, especially a veteran, a leader, has to know that the longer he stays out there, the more hes damaging his teams chances to win a football game.

Ellis Hobbs made that mistake last year, when he refused to let anybody know he had suffered a hip injury -- it turned out to be a hip flexor -- early in a game against the Titans.

That day in Nashville, Kerry Collins -- playing in place of an injured Vince Young -- took advantage of an obviously hobbled Hobbs and connected with Kenny Britt for 225 yards -- most ever against the Eagles -- and three touchdowns as the Eagles blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead.

Same deal Sunday. Times about 20.

With a banged-up cornerback, you can at least hope the other team doesnt take advantage of the matchup.

With a banged-up quarterback? You have no shot.

Young has played in two Pro Bowls, hes won 30 of 47 career starts, hes been here long enough that he knows the offense -- remember how well he played in the Jets preseason game before pulling a hammy? -- and theres no question the Eagles would have had a far better chance to win that game Sunday with a healthy Young than with a battered Vick.

Vick said Monday the injury didnt affect him. Reid disagreed: Id probably say that it had something to do with it.

Obviously it did. He wasnt anywhere close to the Michael Vick were used to seeing. He threw for less than half his season average against a defense that hasnt stopped anybody all year.

Heres more of what Vick said back in early October, back before the 49ers game:

If Im hurting the team more than Im helping it, then Ill definitely step back and let somebody else play. Im not that selfish. I care more about this football team having a chance to win than me finishing this game.

And heres what he said Monday: Maybe it was selfish to stay out there.

Somewhere between the 49ers game and the Cards game, Vick went from Im not that selfish to Maybe it was selfish.

Somewhere between the 49ers game and the Cards game, the Eagles went from underachievers to laughing stock.

And for the first time since he got here, Michael Vick is doing things to lose instead of doing things to win.

E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com