Vick Would Like To See More Balanced Play-Calling

Andy Reid on Wednesday was asked to clear up a gray area when it comes to this Eagles offense. Once and for all, who is calling the plays?

“Marty [Mornhinweg] does,” said Reid. “He does a good job with that. The thing we have is great communication during the game. We keep things wide open.”

There you go. If you are looking to assign blame for the decision to throw the ball 56 times against the Browns, the offensive coordinator owns a good chunk of that.

Michael Vick was asked about the aerial show on Sunday, and whether he prefers it that way or would like the running backs to carry more of the load.

“I think we could balance it out a little bit,” said Vick. “But if Coach wants to call 56 pass plays, then that’s what it is. We’re going to go out and have a fun doing it and go out and try to make it work.

“Obviously you’d like to see some balance, but at the same time I’m never going to complain about throwing the ball.”

One of the consequences of dialing up that many pass plays is that the defense has that many more opportunities to hit your quarterback. And hit the quarterback the Browns did — 11 times officially, which led the league in Week 1. Injury, though, is no longer a concern for Vick apparently.

“I sorta said to myself, ‘You know what? Stop worrying about playing not to get hurt,'” Vick told Albert Breer. “Two weeks in a row, against Pittsburgh and New England, my mindset was just to play cautiously and not get hurt and get through the preseason to the regular season. And I just told myself, ‘I can’t play like that.’ I can’t play with so many different things on my mind. … If the good Lord don’t want you out there, and you’re gonna sprain an ankle or tweak your thumb, that’s what’s gonna happen. Go out there and play lights out. That’s why we have backups.”

Of course, that runs directly counter to what he said all offseason, when he promised  to be more cautious.

Whether he is protecting himself or not, there is no question that the quarterback needs to protect the ball more. After an offseason dedicated to limiting turnovers, the offense coughed it up on its first two possessions against the Browns. Vick threw four interceptions in all and could have been victimized at least twice more.

“You’ve got to be patient with this game,” said Vick. “You can’t become impatient, you can’t try to press too hard or try to rush things. You’ve got to let it happen.

“There were plenty of throws that I wish I could have had back, that I wish I would have pulled down, maybe checked it down and maybe ran with it. It’s options,” said Vick. “I know why I did the things that I did. It wasn’t like it was mental errors. When it’s mental errors then it can become a problem, but that wasn’t the case.”

Vick indicated that he allowed frustration to get the better of him for parts of the game before putting it all together for a game-winning drive late.

“The thing I can tell you,” said Vick, “is that we will progress and get better as the season goes on.”

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