Losing Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. Being forced to play Mike Vick on a short week made it that much tougher. While Todd Haley referred to Vick’s performance in Thursday’s loss against the Baltimore Ravens as “commendable,” he told reporters today he is happy to have the long week to get extra practice reps in.
“It’s great. As I said last week, it was a tough deal. For a guy who hadn’t had a lot of reps, at all, period. Actual meaningful Pittsburgh Steelers reps. To be able to come out here and make the calls in the huddle, really just from an operational standpoint, for him, his comfort level of what the words mean and what they mean to him. All those things are just so important. Having an extra day this week is huge.”
Though Vick was far from perfect, given the circumstances, it’s hard to be overly critical of his performance. If you had told me Vick wouldn’t turn the ball over and would throw a touchdown pass before he game, I would have taken it. Hopefully with the full week and extra day of preparation, his play will continue to improve Monday night against the San Diego Chargers.
As a fun fact, and bouncing off Dave’s stat of the Steelers lack of success in California, Vick has won just once in that state in his career. A 21-10 win against the San Francisco 49ers way back in 2004. Vick went 13/22 for 163 yards a touchdown, and an interception that day.
