Snap Judgments: Vick's second act less fulfilling than Eagles debut

Michael Vick amassed just 61 total yards (along with a rushing TD) in three quarters of action against the Jets. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from an eventful and jam-packed Thursday night of preseason football ...

• Make what you will of the always-watered-down product that is Week 4 in the NFL preseason, but I think it's safe to say, at least for now, that Michael Vick and the Eagles won't be reinventing offensive football as we know it anytime soon.

Maybe Philly's two-headed quarterback situation will wind up dazzling us before the 2009 season is finished, but all we saw out of Vick Thursday night against the Jets at the Meadowlands was a player who has miles and miles to go before being anyone's idea of a secret weapon.

It was ugly. U-G-L-Y. Vick's night in the Jets 38-27 win started shakily and got worse. Add it all up, there were painfully few positives. Two fumbles. An interception in the end zone. Four sacks for a combined 40 yards lost. Seven of 11 passing for a meager 26 yards, with a passer rating of just 29.7. And lastly, seven rushes for 35 yards, with a 2-yard second-quarter scoring dive being his almost singular highlight.

We saw Vick stumble on one first-quarter run, tripping himself without being touched for a one-yard loss on an option play. There was a false start, a key delay of game on third-and-goal, a poorly underthrown interception to Jets cornerback Dwight Lowery in the end zone, and a wild, out-of-control scramble that resulted in a 22-yard loss, a sack and a fumble.

In Vick's five second-half drives, Philly punted three times, lost the ball on one of his fumbles, and converted a 36-yard David Akers field goal. Vick's one-play touchdown drive aside, his night was a study in rust removal. And there's a long way to go in that process.

To no surprise, Eagles starter Donovan McNabb didn't even take the field against the Jets, so there was less concern this week about breaking the rhythm of the Philadelphia offense by dropping Vick in and out of the game. In all honesty, there wasn't any discernible rhythm to the Eagles offense, especially when Vick was in the game under center.

When Eagles head coach Andy Reid mercifully pulled Vick for good with less than five minutes to play in the fourth quarter, inserting A.J. Feeley, you were almost thankful that No. 7's night was done and he couldn't take another pounding from a Jets defense that clearly smelled blood and was circling for the kill.

Let there now be no debate: Vick's game is not there yet, and Thursday night proved it in vivid colors. Clearly NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did him and the Eagles a favor on Thursday by ruling that Vick must sit out the first two weeks of the NFL regular season until he's fully reinstated, because he needs time and a lot more practice reps to resemble anything close to the running/throwing threat Philadelphia envisioned when the club signed him three weeks ago.

After two long years away from the NFL, Vick is a work in progress, and at times, that work is going to be messy and not very attractive. He may very well have come a long way off the field already, but if we thought he might somehow magically return to his form of 2002-2006 after just weeks back on the field, we now know better. This experiment the Eagles have started is going to take some time. Vick is back, but nowhere near all the way back.

• There was a secret weapon at Giants Stadium, but it wasn't Vick. It was Danny Woodhead.

He's not bumping Leon Washington, Thomas Jones or rookie Shonn Greene off the roster in New York, but how can the Jets not keep Woodhead, the 5-foot-9, 195-pound dynamo and former Division II star running back who wound up stealing the show against the Eagles? He's Wayne Chrebet ... at running back.

Woodhead, who played collegiately at tiny and virtually unknown Chadron State in Chadron, Neb., ran wild against the Eagles, with 18 carries for 158 yards, and a 10-yard reception. He scored on a 55-yard scamper in the second quarter, set up a second touchdown with his 44-yard run in the third quarter and punched in a 3-yard rushing touchdown to cap his night. All night long, the Eagles couldn't corral the little speedster.

Woodhead Fever. Catch it. I know I did.

• There's some serious hand-ringing underway among Patriots fans regarding the state of New England's shaky secondary, and the Giants' first seven pass attempts of Thursday's game is only going to intensify those concerns 50-fold.

New York's opening onslaught shredded the Patriots for 206 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first quarter. The completions went for 44 yards to tight end Kevin Boss, nine yards to Boss, 23 yards to Sinorice Moss for a touchdown (all from Eli Manning), 38 yards to Domenik Hixon, 12 yards to Moss for another touchdown, 16 yards to Mario Manningham, and a 64-yard dagger to the heart for another touchdown, this one by rookie Hakeem Nicks.

Backup David Carr threw the last four of those passes, for 130 yards and two scores, after Manning had finished his one series of work 3 for 3 for 76 yards. Overall, Manning and Carr completed all nine of their attempts in the game, for 229 yards and three scores. Both finished with perfect 158.3 passer ratings for the game. Has an NFL team ever had two quarterbacks finish with perfect passer ratings in the same game, when they each threw more than a pass?

I get the feeling New England's secondary might just get some extra attention from Bill Belichick in the coming week, and that's never a good thing in Foxboro.

• Watching Mark Sanchez on his picture-perfect opening drive against the Eagles -- 5 of 5 for 67 yards passing, with a 21-yard scoring strike to Jerricho Cotchery -- I couldn't even remember why anyone ever thought Kellen Clemens had a legitimate shot to win the Jets' starting quarterback job. Could you?

• Wow. An honest-to-goodness Vernon Gholston sighting. The former Ohio State star stormed the Eagles backfield and dropped Kevin Kolb for a seven-yard sack in the first half, and it makes you wonder if new Jets head coach Rex Ryan really can make a player out of the No. 6 overall pick in 2008 -- just like he said he would.

• With Sinorice Moss himself questioning whether he was about to become one of the odd men out in the Giants' logjam of receivers, those were two incredibly well-timed touchdown catches by the ex-Miami Hurricane. Moss hauled in a 23-yarder from Manning on New York's first drive, and doubled his fun with a 12-yard scoring pass from Carr on the Giants' second possession.

• I know one guy who wasn't thrilled to hear the news Goodell has decided to fully re-instate Vick in time for Week 3 of the regular season. That would be Chiefs defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, whose Kansas City defense will be the first one faced with having to prepare for the Eagles' two-headed quarterback. The Chiefs at Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 27 suddenly got a whole lot more interesting than it first appeared.

Come to think of it, will that also be the day we'll hear our first "We want Vick" chant' breaking out in the stands at the Linc after a McNabb interception (or maybe even an incompletion)?