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Eagles Win; QB Debate Continues (for fans)

It’s as if Eagles fans have been put on auto-pilot in reacting to this team. The Eagles scored a bunch of points against the Detroit Lions – a team that has won a handful of games in the last few seasons – with Michael Vick replacing an injured Kevin Kolb at starting quarterback, and the fans want the franchise turned over to Vick.

The reality is that Vick had a “very good” day against a franchise that has been putrid in recent years. He was 21 of 34 passing for 284 yards, and two touchdowns, plus 37 yards rushing. Not even fantasy football owners were thrilled with those numbers. I’m not going to rehash my arguments from last week, but those numbers aren’t so stellar that a team is going to scrap their plans for who they think is their franchise quarterback to play Vick.

In fact, DeSean Jackson’s 45-yard touchdown had as much to do with Jackson’s run after the catch than the pass. I’m not taking it away from Vick, but it certainly doesn’t enhance his statistics.

Here’s the rest of my thoughts on the game:

• The Eagles defense may be the biggest issue of the season when it’s all over. For the second straight week they looked like they took the second half off, and almost gave this game away. Throw in Jahvid Best’s 75-yard screen pass for a TD, and this team was absolutely gashed on the ground. Maybe it’s time to stop holding on to Sean McDermott’s ties to Jimmy Johnson and get a real defensive coordinator.

• To follow up on the above, Detroit’s first touchdown drive was completely on the ground with the running game. They went 76 yards in 6 plays.

• Andy Reid officially wasted his first timeout with 9:47 left in the half. He was trying to avoid a delay of game penalty, which was still called, and he took the timeout anyway. The result of the extra time for Reid to think? That would be an incomplete pass.

• While I don’t think Vick can lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl championship, I still see how exciting he is to watch. His 12-yard run at the end of the half, two plays before the Eagles third touchdown, was incredible.

• Vick also re-introduced an endangered species to Philadelphia. He engineered an 89-yard drive for the touchdown mentioned just above with 1:11 on the clock when the Eagles got the ball.

• LeSean McCoy had a huge game. He had 120 yards on 16 carries with 3 touchdowns – two of which came on strong runs. If only the Eagles had a coach that understood the value of a running game.

• Give the “D” credit for a nice stop on 4th-and-1 deep in Eagles territory early in the 4th quarter. It was a bad call by the Lions’ coach to go for it. But it turned out to be a huge stop by the defense.

• Finally . . . do we really want Hank Baskett on the “hands” team for onside kicks? Did Reid not even watch the Super Bowl? Riley Cooper can stay on the sidelines for those plays too.

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