And if you are Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, a man who devoted his offseason to eliminating a potential quarterback controversy – only to have one appear in bright Kelly green before the regular-season opener was over – you are wondering if this is going to be a very long year.
On a charged afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, Reid rolled out a new starting quarterback for the first time since the waning days of the 20th century, and the results couldn’t have been more miserable.
The dawn of the Kevin Kolb(notes) era began poorly and degenerated from there.
Kolb, in his third career start, had a punchless first half in Sunday’s 27-20 defeat to the Green Bay Packers, completing 5 of 10 passes for 24 yards as the Eagles generated a grand total of three first downs. The ever-patient Philly fans turned on Kolb in his 29th minute as a starter: After he misfired on a short pass to Pro Bowl wideout DeSean Jackson(notes), nearly serving up an interception for a touchdown to Packers linebacker Clay Matthews(notes), some of the 69,144 fans at The Linc booed, venting the way they often did at McNabb during his 11 seasons as the face of the franchise.
As Kolb’s backup – for now – Michael Vick(notes) would later note, “This is a tough crowd, man. We had one punt and they just went nuts on [Kolb].”
It was enough to give a guy a serious headache – except Kolb already had one, having been slammed to the turf while being chased by Matthews midway through the second quarter. At halftime it was determined that Kolb had a concussion, and his day was done.
Reid’s day, however, was getting still more painful. First the coach watched Vick, the three-time Pro Bowler and notorious dogfighter, come in and give Philly an appreciable and immediate bounce, nearly leading the Eagles back from a 17-point, second-half deficit and looking suspiciously like his pre-scandal self.
In other words: Hello, quarterback controversy.
To cap things off, McNabb, the 33-year-old quarterback Reid jettisoned on Easter, was victorious in his first stint as the would-be savior in the nation’s capital, summoning a smooth, capable performance in the Washington Redskins’ 13-7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys that put his new team a game ahead of his old one in the NFC East standings.
Oh, and the Eagles also lost a pair of starters (fullback Leonard Weaver(notes) and center Jamaal Jackson(notes)) to apparent season-ending injuries, and Reid is facing heat for having allowed Kolb and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley(notes) – who after hitting his head on teammate Ernie Sims’(notes) thigh slumped to the turf, got up briefly and fell back to the ground like a battered boxer – to return briefly to the game following concussions.
This is not where Reid expected to be after choosing Kolb, a 2007 second-round NFL draft pick who was impressive in two starts last season, over McNabb, who’d led the Eagles to five NFC championship games and a Super Bowl, and ultimately having the audacity to deal the six-time Pro Bowler (for a second-round draft pick in 2010 and a third- or fourth-round selection in 2011) to a division rival.
When Reid phoned Kolb on Easter and told him, “Hey, bud, I just made you the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles,” he was projecting the confidence of a man expecting to go all in and win.
He still may, but as Reid addressed reporters after Sunday’s defeat, he was practically mumbling as he answered a slew of unpleasant questions.
Why were Kolb and Bradley allowed to return to the game after the head injuries?
“They were fine. All of the questions that they answered with the doctors registered well, but as it went on, they weren’t feeling well, so we took them out.”
Why did the offense struggle with Kolb in the game and get more productive when Vick played?
“I’m going to take responsibility for this. There were a few different things going on there. It wasn’t just the quarterback or the offensive line. It was a combination of things. I’ll make sure I go back and fix that … [At halftime] we tried to make a few adjustments and do a couple of different things. We made a few adjustments there, and we were able to move the ball.”
Once Kolb is healthy, will he remain the starting quarterback?
“Yes.”
But is it really that simple? Not when Vick, now in his second year with the Eagles after an 18-month stint in a federal prison for his role in a dog-fighting ring, bears a reasonable resemblance to the quarterback who led the Atlanta Falcons to the 2004 NFC championship game – where they lost to McNabb and the Eagles in the same stadium.
On Sunday, Vick threw pinpoint passes (16 for 24, 175 yards, one TD) and showcased the jaw-slacking speed that no man at his position has ever possessed. This was not the step-slower Vick of 2009 but the vintage version: He carried 11 times for 103 yards, his first 100-yard rushing game since November 2006 and the 10th (including playoffs) of his career. He also became the third quarterback in NFL history (along with former Eagles star Randall Cunningham and ex-49ers Hall of Famer Steve Young) to eclipse 4,000 career rushing yards and gave the Eagles, in their Kelly-green throwbacks, a vivid reminder that he was once a star.
As for those halftime adjustments to which Reid referred? “We didn’t really make any changes, man,” said second-year wideout Jeremy Maclin(notes), whose 17-yard touchdown reception cut the Packers’ lead to 10 with 10:23 remaining. “I think in the second half we just tried to make plays.”
Said Packers middle linebacker Nick Barnett(notes): “They put in Michael Vick – that was the adjustment. They ran the same routes and the same offense, but we had to account for him. There were times I was chasing him and tried to take the right angle, but all of a sudden the angle changed.”
In a moment of honesty that was less calculating than it sounds, Vick, who has genuine regard for Kolb’s talents and considers him a friend, told reporters, “I feel like if I had been out there for four quarters maybe we would have had a chance to win the game.”
The Eagles might have, anyway, had they been able to convert a fourth-and-1 from the Green Bay 42-yard line with two minutes remaining. Reid called for Vick, lined up in the shotgun, to get the first down with his feet, a play that surprised absolutely no one, and least of all the Packers.
“He’d been making all the plays, and we knew they were going to put it on him,” Barnett said. “We were like, ‘What’s he going to do – throw the ball on fourth-and-1? I don’t think so.’ So yeah, we were ready.”
Matthews led a charge of Packers defenders who blasted through the Eagles’ line and stuffed Vick for no gain, preventing the fantastic finish the quarterback has been playing out as a daydream in his head who knows how many times over the past three years.
“I thought we were going to come back and win that game,” Vick said.
Now it’s Kolb, at an alarmingly early stage of his development, who’ll have to summon a comeback of sorts to keep the Philly fans from howling their displeasure. Vick, meanwhile, surely made himself some money on Sunday. By demonstrating that he still has the rare skill set that made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2001 draft, Vick will likely be an attractive option for another NFL franchise when his contract expires after this season – or, perhaps, he’ll have supplanted Kolb as McNabb’s successor by then and will get paid by Philly.
As he stood in the players’ parking lot outside The Linc an hour after Sunday’s game, accepting congratulations from a group that included his 8-year-old son, Michael Jr., Vick looked as calm and comfortable as he had in the shotgun while confronting a second-half deficit to a trendy Super Bowl pick.
“That was just like the old me out there,” he said softly. “It felt good.”
I’m not sure Reid’s emotions were quite as clear-cut.
