Vick: ‘I take sole responsibility' for loss to Chiefs

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That’s awfully noble of you, Mike. Don’t get me wrong, you deserve some of the blame, but there is plenty of it to go around the Eagles’ locker room after their 26-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night.

Michael Vick can come back for a second helping of blame if he likes. His performance was far too reminiscent of what Philadelphia had been becoming accustomed to prior to this season.

The Birds’ quarterback was erratic, completing 13-of-30 pass attempts for 201 yards. The 11-year veteran was indecisive, which helped lead to five sacks. He also turned the ball over three times, including a terrible pick-six—one of two giveaways to spot the Chiefs 10 points within the game’s first four minutes.

But we couldn’t lay everything on Vick even if we wanted to. The Eagles’ offensive line struggled mightily to protect him. Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston abused Todd Herremans and rookie Lane Johnson to the tune of 3.5 sacks, while at the opposite end Tamba Hali appeared to be getting the better of Jason Peters for much of the night.

Despite an improved pass rush this week, the Birds’ defense had no answer for slot receiver Donnie Avery. Avery hauled in seven passes for 141 yards, including a pair of third-down conversions of 15 yards and beyond, essentially picking up where Eddie Royal left off for San Diego last week.

Even special teams can’t be absolved. Damaris Johnson’s muffed punt at Philadelphia’s 8-yard line was one of the plays that handed Kansas City points at the outset, while Alex Henery missed a field goal for the second consecutive week—although this one probably didn’t matter as much.

There’s only one man in midnight green who comes away unscathed, and that is LeSean McCoy. There was a scary moment where Shady went down clutching his ankle, but he returned to the game and ripped off a 41-yard touchdown run to give the Eagles life in the second half. McCoy finished with 158 yards on the ground.

Vick certainly did not play well though, despite rushing for 95 yards himself. Give Kansas City some credit for making him uncomfortable in the pocket, although that had nothing to do with either of his interceptions, or several other missed targets.

The Eagles fall to 1-2 on the season, and have a very tough matchup ahead in Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 10 days from now. Meanwhile, the hardest part was the Chiefs move to 3-0 and Andy Reid gets to extract some revenge on the franchise that sent him packing after 14 years of service. Gatorade shower? Gatorade shower.

Sorry for that.

Despite everything that went wrong for the Eagles, it should be noted they somehow had an opportunity to win this game until late. The defense kept Kansas City’s offense out of the end zone for three quarters, but the hole the rest of the team had dug with stalled drives and turnovers was too much to overcome.

In other words, the one person besides Shady it's hard to lay this loss on is Chip Kelly. When your players commit five turnovers, it's nearly impossible to win the game.

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