Michael Vick: Is Terrible Play Symptomatic of Eagles QB Playing Hurt?

It's pure coincidence that Michael Vick's last name rhymes with "pick."

He did have a career worst four of them Sunday, three of them were pretty bad and the last one wasn't really his fault.

You know the "F" word will be bantered around in Philly this week, that's "F" as in fault. A big fat "F" as in whose fault is this giant conundrum that has put it's nasty arms around the team and squeezed away victories as the Eagles now face the ugliness of being 1-4.

Vick has taken his lumps, he's been beaten up pretty good in five games and at this point, there should be enough concern around the Eagles' headquarters for the man who was given that big, fat $100 million-plus contract.

One of those Vick picks went straight to Buffalo's Nick Barnett, who took it 31 yards for a touchdown, and that happened to be the final margin of victory, seven points with the Bills going to 4-1 with this 31-24 win.

Vick's confidence level has to be shaken on the same level that his body has been. He's been forced to run for his life and when you go to pass some blame around on this Eagles squad, well, Vick is just one cog in this out-of-sync 1-4 machine that is quickly losing any and all control of the season.

It may not really be fair to say that Vick was terrible. He passed for 315 yards and a pair of scores and rushed for 90 yards and in the process, set the NFL rushing record for quarterbacks with 4,948 yards.

What is terrible is the overall team performance. Fingers are starting to point at defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and if you're pointing fingers at him, then you need to point fingers at the guy who gave him that responsibility and that's Andy Reid.

With the preseason expectations and now with this 1-4 start, you would suspect that confidence on this squad is waning. You could say the same for Vick. Can he pull out of this funk that has infiltrated his play?

Vick has passed the scores of physicals and everyone says he's fine.

But deep down inside, it may be his psyche that has been shattered.

Vick used to have this aura about him; he could do amazing things when you least expected them. In the first half, we saw the Vick who has been nothing short of mistake-prone.

In the second half, Vick led the team back from the hole he put them in, but he simply didn't have enough gas in his tank to get it done and the Eagles defense looks like it started the season running on empty.

Vick started this season with plenty of expectations. When teams pass out nine-figure contracts, they have huge expectations.

Is Vick playing hurt? Suffice to say the entire Eagles team is playing hurt.

And that's emotional and psychological hurt more than anything else.