Michael Vick's Style Won't Change: Why He'll Have to Be Lucky to Be Good

To stop him, you must break him.

Michael Vick is such a uniquely talent quarterback that there's only one way to slow him down: Defenses have to get in Vick's face and get hits on him. He's strong and brave enough to fight through most of the injuries that result from the hits he takes, but he loses much of his edge when he isn't 100 percent.

After killing it in 2010, Vick wasn't himself for much of 2011. Naturally, he's been criticized heavily for his poor decision-making, his tendency to hold onto the ball too long and his penchant for leaving the pocket too quickly. 

Here are three statistics from Pro Football Focus that are supposed to help explain Vick's drop-off in production from 2010 to 2011:

1. As a percentage of pass attempts, only Jay Cutler and Sam Bradford were hit more as they threw in 2011. 

2. Vick was pressured on 39.7 percent of his dropbacks, which was the highest percentage in the league.

3. Despite being pressured so often, Vick threw the ball away on only 12 of his 199 pressured dropbacks. Twelve quarterbacks threw it away more often than he did in such situations, and only two of those quarterbacks were pressured more than he was over the course of the season. 

Those three statistics come together to tell a story, right? Vick reverted to old habits in his second season as Philadelphia's starting quarterback.

Nope.

In Vick's MVP-esque 2010 campaign, he was hit nearly as often while throwing and took 10 more sacks than he did in 2011. In fact, he was pressured more often (41.8 percent of dropbacks) and again threw the ball away on exactly 12 pressured dropbacks (this time out of a total of 195).

In 2010, he threw five interceptions while under pressure. In 2011, that number only increased to seven. 

He was basically the exact same player when facing pressure.

The major difference, strangely, was that while Vick threw only one non-pressured interception in 2010, he tossed seven of them this past season. Not much else changed.

In arguably his worst two games of the season—Week 9 against Chicago and Week 10 against Arizona—Vick was pressured on only 34.9 percent of his dropbacks. He didn't struggle in the face of pressure; he struggled as a result what the pressure did to his body.

Sure, the offensive line gave up 20 percent fewer pressures in 2011 than in 2010, but that wasn't enough to save Vick from taking a beating. And as you added the 2011 beatings to the 2010 beatings, No. 7 began to fade. 

Last year, his play deteriorated as games wore on and as the season as a whole wore on. His passer rating consistently fell off a cliff beyond his 20th attempt within games, and he had more trouble staying on the field beyond October.

Now, he's another year older, bruises are fading less quickly and defenses are able to more efficiently key on his strengths while targeting his weaknesses.

Vick got lucky in 2010. He survived the season with only one severe injury to his ribs—one that forced him to miss three games in October.

In 2011, it was a different story. There was the concussion against Atlanta in Week 2, the hand injury against the Giants in Week 3 and the finger injury against the 49ers in Week 4. He's tough, so he kept pushing through, arguably doing as much harm as good, until two broken ribs suffered in Week 10 against Arizona finally forced him to miss time.

Combine these injuries with stout defensive game-planning, and Vick was no longer a major threat with his legs. And so with defenses now completely familiar with what to expect, Vick can no longer afford to become so banged up.

Considering that he won't have All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters this season, that'll be a remarkably difficult task. 

He'll be 32 this season, and his style hasn't changed yet. Inevitably, he'll continue to take hits. The Eagles and Vick have to do their best to limit the damage, but a lot of it could come down to dumb luck.