Michael Vick Injury: Why Vick's Desire to Play in Week 4 Will Be His Downfall

Michael Vick will play on Sunday. NFL.com posted here that Vick will play on Sunday when the Eagles host the San Francisco 49ers.

Wednesday, September 28 at 12:19 p.m. EDT

Eagles Insider also posted this direct quote from Vick leaving no doubt that he will play.

But is this going to hurt him? As far as his game with San Francisco goes, it may or may not hurt Vick. But the point is that for the second week in a row, Vick will be playing in a game a week after he was removed from one.

I have said that the Eagles need to win this game. If they lose and one other team in their division wins, the Eagles will be two games back in the NFC East. While Philadelphia has the most talented team in the division, a two-game deficit with 12 games to play is not insignificant. 

This is especially true when you consider that all three other teams in the NFC East are 2-1. If more than one of them win and Philadelphia loses, the hole is not insignificant. Remember that the Eagles have already dropped a home divisional game to the Giants.

But if there is one thing that the Eagles can do, it's winning with backup quarterbacks. Remember that Donovan McNabb frequently missed time to injury, yet the Eagles play rarely suffered.

Heck, last year when they beat the 49ers in San Francisco, it was Kevin Kolb, not Vick, that led the Eagles to the win.

Vick is vulnerable for taking shots. When he runs around, he takes hits. That's just a simple fact.

When he stays in the pocket, a few things happen.

One: His overall ability goes down. Vick is a decent passer, but his strength as a quarterback is not as a pocket passer.

Two: He still takes hits. Opposing defenses bring a lot of pressure on Vick when he's not running around as much. They know that he's not a great pocket passer and is prone to making mistakes when he's playing as one.

The truth is that Vick needs a week off. After the 49ers game, the Eagles will still have two games to play before their bye week.

Philadelphia needs Vick at the end of the season and in the playoffs a lot more than it needs him against San Francisco.

If Philadelphia plays its game, it will beat the 49ers. Mike Kafka is a little unproven but has shown himself to be a capable quarterback. Given San Francisco's issues at defending the pass, Kafka should do just fine.

If the Eagles aren't on their game and lose with Kafka under center, then the odds are pretty good that they would have lost with Vick under center.

By playing while banged up, Vick is really running the risk of getting hurt and missing significant time.

Even if it means falling to 1-3, Vick is best served to take the week off.

Obviously, what I say doesn't mean anything. You read the above tweet. There really isn't anything ambiguous about that. He is going to play.

But Vick needs to remember that he will take shots and that he's left his last two games due to injury. You can say what you want about how clean the hits were, but they were strong enough to knock Vick out of action.

Even if he survives the week against San Francisco, this is the kind of attitude that will eventually get Vick into trouble.

If the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl this year, Vick will need to be their quarterback. The more that he plays hurt in early season games, the more the Eagles and Vick put that at risk.