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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick said on Friday he has recovered from a mild concussion and will play in their home opener against the New York Giants this weekend.

Vick sustained a concussion in the third quarter of the Eagles loss to the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday when he was spun into his own offensive lineman.

“There’s no reason to think that I won’t play on Sunday,” Vick told reporters. “After having two good practices, basically I’ll be able to go out there and I’m very excited about the opportunity to go out and play against the New York Giants.”

Vick underwent a series of test and was cleared by an independent neurologist to return to practice on Thursday, according to a report on the Eagles website.

Vick, who signed a $100 million six-year deal with the Eagles last month, is still listed as questionable on the team’s official injury report despite passing all his concussion tests.

“I feel good. I feel great and ready to play, nothing feels different,” said Vick. “So I feel like I’ve worked myself back into good condition and playing shape and I’m ready to go.”

The Giants have said they will come hard after Vick if he is under center on Sunday but the threats did not impress the Eagles quarterback.

“They want me out of the game because they don’t want me in the game,” said Vick. “I mean, having to deal with me for 60 minutes, I understand the magnitude of that.

“So it’s fun, it’s a game and that’s why I’m here. And I play the way I play for a reason and we’re going to have fun. I look forward to the challenge.”

Read More: Michael Vick (QB – PHI), Vince Young (QB – PHI), LeSean McCoy (RB – PHI), Mike Kafka (QB – PHI), Philadelphia Eagles

Michael Vick was diagnosed with a concussion on Sunday night, and may have an uphill to be clear in time for the Philadelphia Eagles home-opener this week. Vick took a beating in the pocket on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, and was finally knocked out the game as his head slammed into his own lineman just after he released a pass. Vick was spitting blood, and Andy Reid later revealed the Eagles’ dynamic quarterback had been diagnosed with a concussion.

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It’s always bothered me to see concussions deemed slight, mild or labeled with other terms downplaying their significance. In that regard, we have no idea how “severe” Vick’s concussion is, but just looking at how he acted and what he looked like following the hit that knocked him out of the game, it became clear something was wrong. Vick was reportedly moving around slowly in the locker room, still suffering the effects of the concussion.

So where does he go from here? It’s not as simple as a doctor shining a light in his eyes and giving him a thumbs up. There are stringent rules in place when it comes to concussion testing, and rightfully so. Each fall, every player is put through a baseline test, then measured against that test to determine when they’re over the concussion. Vick will have to go through this process, which will be ongoing throughout the week, and must pass before being medically cleared to play.

Considering the circumstances, he may not play in the Eagles’ home opener. It’s not the end of the world, though. In fact, it’s a good thing. A concussion is a dangerous thing, and the long-lasting affects aren’t worth a rush to return to action.

If Vick can’t go, Mike Kafka, who actually looked competent in limited action, will likely start for the Eagles. Vince Young is still nursing a hamstring injury, and Kafka is, essentially, the only option. But with an offense full of weapons and a capable running back in LeSean McCoy, Kafka may be fine as a stop-gap.

For more on this game, check out our Eagles blog Bleeding Green Nation. To catch up on NFL Week 2′s action, visit our StoryStream.

Read More: Michael Vick (QB – PHI), Michael Turner (RB – ATL), Jeremy Maclin (WR – PHI), Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles’ 35-31 loss to the Atlanta Falcons was marred by a serious Michael Vick injury. The Eagles’ quarterback suffered a concussion in the third quarter of the loss, according to head coach Andy Reid. The injury was originally deemed a neck injury, but Reid later said that Vick did suffer a concussion.

Vick was holding the ball to make a pass in the pocket when he was hit by a Falcons player. He fell hard into his offensive lineman and laid on the ground. As he staggered to get up, he spit out blood onto the ground.

Vick also pointed to the scoreboard when Falcons fans booed him, which proved to be a bad omen. At the time, the Eagles were leading, 31-21. But afterwards, Matt Ryan and the Falcons rallied, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a run by Michael Turner. Mike Kafka replaced Vick and didn’t look that bad, but his fourth-down pass inside of two minutes was dropped by Jeremy Maclin to end the game.

It remains unclear just how long Vick is sidelined, but no matter what happens, the Eagles will be weakened going forward.

For more on Michael Vick’s injury and the Eagles, visit Bleeding Green Nation and SB Nation Philly.

September 19, 2011

ATLANTA — Before making his return to the Georgia Dome, Michael Vick went out of his way to say that the building where he once held the local fans rapt was not “his house.”

Nonetheless, for as long as he was in the game Sunday night, Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles kept a firm grasp over his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, and ownership of the game — possibly even those fans in the Dome themselves.

But that hold unraveled when Falcons safety William Moore’s hit on Vick gave the QB a concussion with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. Shortly after Vick left the game, the Eagles expanded their lead to 10 points. But without him the rest of the way, they lost 35-31, rendering as somewhat incomplete Vick’s return to the Dome as a starter for the first time — and leaving doubt as to what the Eagles, dubbed the NFL’s “Dream Team” in the offseason, might be without him.

“I feel for him,” said Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who dropped a pass on fourth down from backup quarterback Mike Kafka with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter that would have given Philadelphia a first down inside the Falcons’ 20. “Obviously, this was a big game for him and he wanted to make a statement. Unfortunately, things happened the way they did. We wanted to go out there and win it for him.”

After the game, Eagles coach Andy Reid said that Vick had a concussion. (Originally, it was announced in the press box that Vick had a neck injury, and he also was seen bleeding from his mouth after leaving the game.) Reid said Vick would fly back with the team after the game and added, “He’s OK right now.”

Said Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson of Vick: “He looked kind of out of it. He’s a tough quarterback, so we’ll see.”

Vick will have to enter the league’s concussion protocol, and only tests and medical evaluations will determine whether he will play next week.

For Falcons fans — who booed Vick lustily when he entered the game and, it seemed, later when Vick walked to the locker room for observation after getting hurt — the vagaries of Vick’s health are well known. In 2003 — one season after being the first quarterback to record a win over the hosts at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field in the playoffs — Vick suffered a broken right leg at the hands of Baltimore’s Ray Lewis during the preseason. He missed the first 11 games and the Falcons went 5-11 that season, ending Dan Reeves’ tenure as Atlanta’s coach.

Yet as the Falcons once did, the Eagles have invested heavily in Vick and built their franchise around him, having traded one-time anointed starter Kevin Kolb to Arizona in the offseason.

Building around Vick comes with inherent risks. Vick is listed at 6 feet, 215 pounds — hardly a build that can take a huge pounding — and with his running style he puts himself in danger of big hits. Reid seemed tacitly to understand as much when asked a question about whether the coach had to accept Vick’s missing time from games as a result of his style. Reid grunted an inaudible response.

The Falcons didn’t sack Vick on Sunday, but they hit him plenty of times. Defensive tackle Peria Jerry hit him on a pitch that caused a fumble that was returned 64 yards by defensive end Ray Edwards — a huge momentum shift in the game that led to a Falcons touchdown. John Abraham hit Vick on a scramble, forcing another fumble lost. Before he left, Vick completed 19 of 28 attempts for 242 yards and two touchdowns with an interception and three fumbles — two lost.

Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said Atlanta hit Vick too many times.

“Yeah, I take blame on a lot of that,” he said. “I got confused on some blitzes, and some things you just wish you could’ve had back. I think we all got to take full responsibility for anybody hitting him.

“A talent like that, you can’t let him get hit. He’s one of the best quarterbacks; we’ve got to protect him. As a unit, I count myself, we have to protect Mike a little better.”

McCoy said Vick’s absence was “definitely the difference in the game.”

Falcons wide receiver Roddy White is one of Vick’s close friends. Earlier in the week, he said he wanted Vick to play badly. But he didn’t want him to get hurt.

“Oh, man, I never want him to get hurt,” White said. “Never, ever. You know, I love that guy. That’s my guy. It was tough to see him leave out the game. You want to play him the whole entire game. But he went out,  unfortunately, and that’s a tough loss for them. I hope he’s not hurt and gets to play next week.”

Yet White realizes that defenses will pound Vick when the opportunity arises.

“Yeah, I mean, we did a good job of hitting him today,” White said. “Getting after him a little bit. Our defense did a good job.”

Falcons starting defensive tackle Corey Peters said that’s always part of the game plan with a quarterback, but more so with Vick.

“In any game that’s what we want to get accomplished,” Peters said. “Even more importantly him because he’s a running guy. We just want to keep him in the pocket and make him be more of a quarterback. If he’s going to hurt us, hurt us with his arm, and I think we did a good job of that overall.”

Earlier in the week, Vick spoke of “the great joy” he felt in 2009 when he returned to the Dome as Donovan McNabb’s backup. That game marked his first as a visitor at the Dome against the Falcons after a 19-month stint in a federal prison on dog-fighting charges. Vick threw for a touchdown and also ran for one that day, as Falcons fans displayed a bit of schizophrenia, chanting his name.

That partiality to Vick was not in evidence much on Sunday. His teammates wanted to win his first game as a starter for Vick, but it was not in the cards.

“That’s the kind of quarterback he is,” Jackson said of the hits Vick takes. “We just got to hope for him not taking them brutal hits or nothing seriously where he’s out. Hopefully, the injury he has now is not too bad.”

It’s different in the Georgia Dome.

The Philadelphia Eagles posted a remarkably decisive 31-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 17, 2010.

The Birds held Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan to less than 6 yards per pass attempt (23-for-42, 250 yards) while intercepting him. They did an even better job of containing bruising running back Michael Turner. The 247-pounder struggled to gain 45 yards on 15 carries; he finished the season with 1,371 yards.

Given that Atlanta went on to finish 13-3 and earn the No. 1 seed for the
NFC playoffs, the case could be made that it was the Eagles defense’s best showing of the year.

But Eagles defenders say it will be different in Atlanta.

“They were what, 8-1 at home last season?,” said rookie middle linebacker Casey Matthews, getting his stats slightly skewed (it was 7-2 including playoffs) but the gist right.

The Eagles also discounted the Falcons’ poor performance in a 30-12 opening loss at Chicago’s Soldier Field, where Ryan threw for 319 yards but no touchdowns and Turner had 100 yards on just 10 carries.

“Preparing for Matt Ryan in Atlanta is totally different than in Chicago,” Eagles defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins said. “He’s a lot more comfortable at home, and he’s able to manage the game a lot better. We have to get them out of their comfort zone.”

Safety Kurt Coleman put it even more simply.

“We have to make (Ryan) feel not at home,” Coleman said. “That’d be nice.”

The best way to do so, by general consensus, consists of hitting Ryan and shutting down Turner.

“The biggest part going into the game is to shut down the run,” Jenkins said.

Turner was virtually an afterthought in the Eagles’ win last year. But Eagles
coach Andy Reid declined an opportunity to look back at 2010′s success in stifling Turner.

“That was last year and this is this year and we’ve got to do it,” Reid said. “I mean it’s nothing that we can talk about right now until the game is over or compare. We’ve got to get better in that area and do a good job there.”

The Eagles’ run defense occasionally sputtered against St. Louis in the opener.

Allowing just 154 yards was fine, but the Rams averaged almost six yards
a carry and starter Steven Jackson tore off a 48-yard touchdown run before leaving with an injury.

“It was a nice run … on the first play, but the hole was pretty big. I
might’ve been able to fit through that hole,” Reid said.

Turner may prove more durable and more effective against the Eagles’
wide-gap defensive line and less-experienced linebackers.

“He’s definitely tough to handle,” Matthews said. “He’s one of the
leading running backs in the league. He has big legs and he knows how to use them.”

Jenkins agreed.

“It’s hard to play against (Turner),” he said. “He is a tough back to get down. We really have to pursue and gang-tackle him.”

Coleman hopes that Jenkins and Matthews and their units can slow down Turner before he has to.

“I’m not afraid to take a hit from Turner but I hope the D-line and linebackers get all the chances before I do,” Coleman said with a laugh.

Reid liked what he saw from his run defense as the opening game wore on.

“As you saw, as the game went on, they tightened things up and the seams, that’s what we’re looking at, the lanes for runners to run through were tightened up and it progressively got better as the game went on,” he said. “I thought in general the defense improved as it went on. I thought, obviously we started off slow with the first run, and then the next time they came back and tried that same run it was a two-yard gain as opposed to a long one, touchdown.”

Stopping Turner makes Ryan have to try and win the game by himself with more limited weapons.

“The run sets up their passes with a lot of play action,” Coleman said.
“They’ll work a lot of passes to (11-time Pro Bowler) Tony Gonzalez off play action. But if we can stop the run, we’ll hurt Ryan’s ability to manage the game.”

Reid said Ryan was effective at checking off and hitting the right receiver when the Bears blitzed him and said it will be important for the Eagles to get pressure from their front four.

Jenkins said the Eagles’ defensive line rotation (the Eagles played eight defensive linemen against the Rams) will help create pressure.

“It’s difficult for an offensive lineman to deal with our rotation,” he said. “It’s more you have to prepare for.”

And that means more Birds swooping in on Ryan.

“The best defense is to hit him,” Coleman agreed. “He’s such a smart quarterback. We have to get to him, especially at home. He’s so much more comfortable at home.“

EAGLES ITEMSReid said the only players who did not practice Wednesday were CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (ankle), DE Darryl Tapp (pectoral strain) and QB Vince Young (hamstring). All are day-to-day, he said … Reid on whether OT Winston Justice would start at right tackle when he returns from injury: “Listen, I’m not very good at predicting the future so I just take it as it goes.” … Matthews on his first game: “We (the linebackers) were a little slow to start but we got better in the second half … we can always play better.”