It’s known that Eagles quarterback Mike Vick missed practice on Wednesday with broken ribs. It’s still unknown when Vick actually broke the ribs.
Coach Andy Reid said Monday that it happened on the second play of the game, even though Vick showed no signs of suffering from an injury that would prevent him from playing, either the rest of the day or on Sunday night against the Giants. Given mounting speculation that Vick didn’t sustain the injury on the second play and in light of the fact that Reid has spoken with forked tongue a time or two in the past, the head coach was peppered with questions on Wednesday regarding the alleged timing of the injury.
“Mike told us after the game,” Reid initially said regarding the timing of the injury, via comments circulated by the team. “He doesn’t have X-ray vision. He was sore, I guess. I’m not sure anybody knew. He didn’t tell anybody, so he just played.”
Pressed on whether the rib injury occurred on a hit that occurred late in the game, when Vick remained on the ground and eventually exited for a brief period of time, Reid got a little irritated. “Whatever you want to write, you write,” Reid said. “I told you the second play of game, what more do you want him to do? This isn’t the game of Clue, you know, I’m telling you the second play of the game.”
As Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, Vick had his worst game as an Eagle, with a passer rating of 32.5 and only 124 yards through the air. Reid, as a result, has an incentive to claim that the injury occurred as early in the game as possible, in the hopes that folks will blame the performance on the damaged ribs, and not on Reid’s ongoing inability to get Vick to play like he played in 2010. Or the absence of receiver DeSean Jackson, whom Reid deactivated possibly in part because Reid assumed the Eagles could beat the Cardinals without him. Or the fact that Reid and the coaching staff didn’t change up signals and other evidence that former Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb was able to spot, and then to relay to his defensive teammates.
As a result, Reid should be concerned about his job security. Asked whether he is, Reid said, “I’m concerned about getting ready to play the New York Giants.”
That makes sense. Because a loss on Sunday night could result in Reid eventually getting whacked by Professor Plum in the observatory with a candlestick.