Eagles Wake-Up Call: Luck Be A Lady(Bug)

At halftime of the Monday Night Football game between the Chargers and Raiders, ESPN ran an NFL Films piece of various soundbites from the week. Michael Vick was mic’d up, and was overheard having this exchange with LeSean McCoy.

“A ladybug just landed on me. You know what that means, right?” Vick asked during pregame warm-ups.

“Good luck,” McCoy replied.

Naturally, Vick proceeded to have one of his worst starts as a pro. He did  avoid a game-ending interception moments before throwing the go-ahead touchdown to Clay Harbor, though. Suppose that was lucky. And the Eagles somehow escaped with a win, which is definitely fortunate given the level of play on the offensive side.

“I was just telling somebody, ‘Man, I think this is one of the sloppiest wins in my career,'” said Cullen Jenkins. “It’s still setting in that we won the game. It might be a blessing in disguise for us because we come away with a win most importantly, but it shows us that we still have a lot of work to do.”

That was a common thought in the locker room following the Eagles’ 17-16 win over the Browns: the idea that getting roughed up by an unspectacular team and being able to respond might serve this team well.

“I think this is good for us. I think they tested us,”  said Jeremy Maclin. “What you can’t do in this league, especially teams that you are supposedly better than, you can’t let them hang around. You play them in their place, you let them hang around, the crowd gets involved and guys start believing…It’s battle testing.”

Added Andy Reid: “If you take a positive out of this, you saw good defense and a tough football team that hung in there and trusted each other. Nobody pointed fingers and we came out on the positive side of things. ”

WHAT YOU MISSED

The debut of “Birds 24/7” on 97.5 The Fanatic (Mondays 6-7 from 360 in Parx Casino) went off without a hitch. The only struggle was trying to keep the groupies off Kapadia. Here is the podcast if you missed it.

Sheil reviews the play of the offensive line and discovers Vick was hit 14 times. When asked about the inordinate amount of hits the QB takes, Reid contended that Vick doesn’t get hit in the pocket any more than other signal-callers. Is he right?

Maclin sustained a hip injury against the Browns. With the Eagles thin at wide receiver, they are looking at Mardy Gilyard.

Here’s a breakdown of how much each Eagle played. It was slim pickings for Brandon Graham.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Tim Hasselbeck came down heavy on Vick on Mike & Mike Monday.

Michael Vick gets paid like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. He’s in that class in terms of how he’s compensated. The highest paid player on your offense, you expect him to play well. That was a disaster. If we were to see Tom Brady or Peyton Manning play like that, everyone would think, ‘What in the world is going on?’

The rave reviews for RGIII continue to pour in. From ESPN NFC East blogger Dan Graziano:

We’re looking at a high level of intelligence here — an ability to process information quickly and act on it with precision. This is Eli Manning‘s strength. It is Michael Vick‘s weakness. It is an ability that not all quarterbacks ever attain, and very few possess innately. Griffin showed on a number of occasions, in the toughest building in the league in which to play his position, that he has it. “He was pretty good, wasn’t he?” a giddy Shanahan asked with a smile on his way back to the locker room.

Joe Flacco posted a 128.4 quarterback rating as the Ravens — the Eagles next opponent — pounded the Bengals 44-13.

COMING UP An off day for the Eagles before resuming practice on Wednesday in preparation for their home opener against Baltimore.