Vick floundering a year after resurgence

A year ago, Michael Vick was one of the two or three most dangerous players in the NFL.

Now, nine games into his second year as the Eagles' starting quarterback, he has a worse passer rating than Donovan McNabb.

What happened to this guy?

The mysterious decline of Michael Vick continued Sunday, when he struggled through one of the worst games of his career in the Eagles 21-17 loss to the Cards at the Linc (see story).

Vick completed 16 of 34 pass attempts (47 percent) for just 128 yards, with two interceptions and no touchdowns and no completions longer than 20 yards.

Vicks 32.5 passer rating was the seventh-worst of his 92 career starts and the worst by an Eagles starter since McNabbs 13.2 figure when he was benched at halftime of the Eagles 2008 loss to the Ravens in Baltimore.

Vick has thrown 11 interceptions, five more than all last year and the most by an Eagles quarterback through nine games since Ron Jaworski in 1982. In his last five games, he has five touchdown passes and seven interceptions.

In his first 10 starts as an Eagle, Vick threw 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. In his last 11, hes thrown 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Not coincidentally, the Eagles were 8-2 in those first 10 games, and theyre 3-8 in the last 11.

The Eagles signed Vick in August to what is essentially a five-year, 80 million contract. Since then, hes won just three of nine games.

Sunday afternoon, against the NFLs 29th-ranked pass defense, he was as bad as weve seen him.

Vick missed open receivers, took off and ran too often, threw two inexplicable interceptions, rarely looked down the field and looked completely out of sorts against one of the NFLs worst pass defenses.

I was inaccurate today and never really got comfortable, Vick said. Im very hard on myself and that just cant happen. You have to find ways to get it done. I didnt do it, and I just have to figure out a way to get it done.

No doubt, Vick was hurt by the absence of DeSean Jackson, suspended for the game by head coach Andy Reid for missing a mandatory Saturday morning meeting (see story).

Honestly, it was tough, Vick said. Playing with a guy you go to war with each and every week and you believe in, have confidence in and him not being there, it was a blow for everybody, not just me. Were used to him being in the huddle. We count on him and we depend on him.

But that doesnt explain Vick missing receivers who were wide open, and it doesnt explain him throwing two interceptions where he clearly had no open receiver in the area.

And it doesnt explain why Vick has been so ineffective for a while now. Although he did play very well two weeks ago against the Cowboys, that was the exception. Six of the last nine weeks, his passer rating has been below 80. Last year, he only had one game under 80.

Overall, Vick now ranks 20th in the NFL in passer rating (79.8), 18th in completion percentage (60.3), 15th in yards per game (244), fourth in interceptions (11) and 15th in touchdowns.

Vick had no answers Sunday afternoon.

I give a lot of credit to the Arizona Cardinals, he said. They played a great game. They had a good plan, and we were never able to get into a rhythm, move that ball downfield consistently and we kept our defense on the field for a long time, which is unfortunate.

I think those are things that we just cant do. We have to figure out the answers to why it happened.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com