That’s Vick’s post-game press conference, in case you haven’t seen it six times yet.

Vick clearly isn’t happy. He’s been knocked out of both Eagles losses. What’s worse, Howard Eskin reported on NBC 10 last night that Vick will miss 3-4 weeks with his broken right hand. Shit.

So how are we feeling about this $100 $80 million $35.5 million experiment? Not only has Vick gotten hurt twice before the end of September, but the Eagles are – ready for this – 1-4 in his last five starts, including the playoff loss to Green Bay. In those five games, his quarterback ratings are as follows: 74.1, 79.9, 83.7, 103.6, and 73.8. Not awful, but a bit surprising when you consider that during the first 15 weeks of last season (before this 1-4 stint began), Vick only twice had quarterback ratings under 90- Week 1 against Green Bay, in which he played only half the game, and Week 11 against the Giants. Now, in this last five-game period, he’s had only one game with a QB rating above 83. Ouch.

It doesn’t get better, either. I’ll refer you to what I wrote for the USA Today football preview this summer:

Through the first six games of 2010, Vick eclipsed a 100 QB rating four times. In the final six games? Just once.

In the first seven games of 2010, Vick didn’t throw one interception. He threw six in his final five games, plus one season ending pick in the playoffs.

Vick’s yards per attempt and completion percentage were also down in the second half of the season. And he was sacked more, too: 15 times in first six games, 19 in final six.

 

Do you think perhaps opponents have figured out how to defend Vick, after they were caught off-guard during the first half of last season?

Saying that Vick has come back down to earth is an understatement. He’s reentered the atmosphere in a fiery mess. Somewhere, NASA has issued a search for fragments.

All of that being said, placing the blame squarely on QB 7 would be doing a disservice to the myriad what the fucks? performed by the rest of the team.

Casey Matthews is the Madden 2004 prototype for a linebacker: bites comically on play-action and is always outran by a 92 speed rating. For real, how has Roger Goodell not declared him a glitch and mandated the Eagles remove him from the field, or at least not use him during online play? 

Tackling: they can’t do it. When Victor Cruz caught a pass along the Giants’ sideline, Kurt Coleman tried to bring him down with what can only be likened to a stripper circling a pole (ultimately, she ends up prone on the ground, while the pole – in this case, Cruz – dances to the motherfucking end zone). Not even Nnamdi Asomugha, who's proving ESPN's claim that his worth is inflated because opposing teams simply avoided his side of the field in Oakland, could stop Cruz. Nnamdi dove by him like an Asian foot soldier in a Ninja Turtles movie. It’s as if he intended to not tackle him.

More Madden. Not to keep invoking the video game, but the Madden 12 was right on in their depiction of the Eagles: easy to run against, secondary isn’t difficult to throw against thanks to below average safeties, and, because of a shitty offensive line, throwing 50-yard bombs on offense is a near impossibility. The only reliable option is Shady McCoy, who cuts on a dime and can’t be tackled with anything less than three defenders.

Considering all of these issues (and we didn’t even talk about Andy Reid and Juan Castillo’s upcoming job search), could it be that Vick pulled a Chris Pronger on the media yesterday? 

All anyone talked about last night and this morning was if Vick is treated fairly by officials. Much like Pronger during a playoff series (see puck incident from 2010 and hand conjecture this year), Vick has focused attention squarely on himself, instead of his sub-par teammates. Unfortunately, in doing so, we find that our fears of injury and inconsistency are coming true… and we’re not even one-month into his $35.5 million contract.