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Vick's gains pay for fumbles pain

Eagles' running quarterback has eight drops so far this season, but makes it up in yards

By: Bob Ford

Posted: 10/14/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Ron Cortes / Philadelphia Inquirer / MCT archives Eagles� Michael Vick drops the rock as Steelers� Steve McLendon corrals him earlier this month. (TRIBUNE MEDIA MCT)

Brett FAVRE fumbled 166 times in a professional career during which he set numerous records, but none that might stand as long as that one.

Not counting however many balls he dropped while playing touch football in Wrangler jeans, Favre is the all-time NFL fumbler, one of only three men in the league's long history to put it on the ground more than 150 times. (Warren Moon, 161, and David Krieg, 153, if you must know.)

When Favre is remembered, however, the fumbles probably won't come to mind. He brought too many good things to the field and the backyard, and quarterbacks do fumble. They just do.

Quarterbacks fumble because, aside from the odd direct snap here and there, they touch the football on every play. The law of averages is against them. Of the all-time fumble leaders in NFL history, the top 20 are quarterbacks.

As much as quarterbacks fumble in general, running quarterbacks, whose game brings a rushing component, are even more vulnerable to losing the ball as they make their way down the open field.

Which brings us to Michael Vick and whether he is being unfairly castigated, based on a short sample of fumbling this season, or whether the Eagles and their fans really have a legitimate Milk-Bone to pick with him.

Vick has fumbled eight times this season and the Eagles have lost possession on five of those, including two last week in a two-point loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The first of those cost the Eagles at least three points and, as head coach Andy Reid famously said, we can all do the math.

There is no denying Vick is the active leader in career fumbles with 84, of which 39 were recovered by the opposition. On the other hand, he has gained a total of 5,365 rushing yards, or 64 yards for every time he loses control of the ball. Among the seven quarterbacks in league history who gained more than 3,000 yards, and it's an impressive list, Vick has been the least likely to fumble per yard gained.

That's a very nice statistic, but is it still relevant in 2012, with a 32-year-old Vick playing for a coach who mostly wants him to remain in the pocket? A good question, and not one that can be answered after five games this season, although the evidence is starting to stack up against Vick.

"I've never had a fumbling problem before," Vick said after the Pittsburgh game.

From the raw number of fumbles in his career, that seems ludicrous, but when you factor in the production he amassed while risking those fumbles, and with the number of times he's taken the risk, maybe he's right.

He has averaged 7.1 yards per rushing attempt in his career. Among that list of the top seven running quarterbacks, only one other is over six yards per rush (Randall Cunningham, 6.4). That's an amazing average, particularly when you consider that quarterbacks are charged for a rushing attempt on a kneel-down and are called upon to run the occasional sneak.

But Vick's numbers were compiled mostly back when he could buy dog biscuits and no one would think twice about it. To determine whether he has a fumbling problem now -- one that outweighs his production -- you would have to know two things: Is Reid going to turn him loose and let him run, and are the eight fumbles in five games a statistical aberration?

Those questions will be answered in the next 11 games, assuming Vick stays on the field to complete them. There has been some indication in the last couple of games that Reid is willing to call more runs for Vick, and some indication the quarterback himself is not enamored of hanging around in the pocket waiting to get clobbered. Given the state of the offensive line, and it isn't improving, Vick is often better off if he improvises now and then.

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 14, 2012 B5

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