Eagles Vick Jackson and McCoy headed for career seasons

The Eagles offense is thriving with QB Michael Vick (7) RB LeSean McCoy (25) and WR DeSean Jackson posting huge numbers.(Photo Rob Carr Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA Through two games the Philadelphia Eagles have seen receiver DeSean Jackson constantly running past his man deep down the sideline and quarterback Michael Vick throwing as far as he can hoping Jackson can run under the ball.

When those opportunities aren't there LeSean McCoy has carved up defenses either running the ball or with short passes.

The Eagles' three most important skill position players are all on pace for career seasons. McCoy leads the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 356 and Jackson is second with 297. Vick meanwhile is third in the NFL in passer rating at 119.0 behind only the Denver Broncos' Peyton Manning and Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers.

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It's an offense that puts more pressure on a defense than I have ever seen NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said.

This is easily Vick's best start to a season since 2010 when he went the first seven games without throwing an interception. He finished the season with a 62.6% completion rate by far the best of his career and went to the Pro Bowl. He hasn't come close to those results since until now.

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(Vick) is comfortable and he's playing his game McCoy said. Coach (Chip) Kelly is letting him be himself. ... Last game (the San Diego Chargers) decided to come here and stop me stack the box up and we threw on them.

With this offense what's amazing is you've got to pick your poison. If you want to take me out of the game that's fine Mike will throw for another 400 yards.

So far there hasn't been a defense that has stopped the Eagles' trio. Philadelphia ranks second in the NFL in yards per game with 477 and second in yards per play at 7.86. Vick is coming off a game in which he passed for 428 yards while Jackson had 193 yards receiving.

Perhaps the Kansas City Chiefs led by former Eagles coach Andy Reid will change that Thursday night when they invade Lincoln Financial Field. They rank second in the NFL in points allowed per game (9.0) and fourth in total defense (248.0 yards allowed per game).

For the Chiefs to do that however they'll have to get a pass rush on Vick while making sure McCoy doesn't hurt them out of the backfield on dump off passes. The Chiefs also will have to hope they can get to Vick before he has a chance to throw deep to Jackson.

And they'll have to do this within the confines of Kelly's up tempo offense where opponents aren't able to substitute or catch their breath in the no huddle attack.

That helps explain why Jackson has gotten behind his defender so often mostly in single coverage. Honestly it's kind of one of those things where you're just hoping everything goes well Jackson said when asked to describe the feeling of beating his defender deep and awaiting the pass. Anytime I'm able to get past guys it's like that extra concentration level.

Those deep balls don't always work of course.

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Against San Diego last Sunday in the Eagles' 33 30 loss Jackson was open deep three times. Once he caught one ball just out of bounds down the sideline. Vick overthrew him on another because he was about to be hit by a defender. But they did hook up for a 61 yard touchdown in the third quarter.

Every concept that we have has some form of deep shot Vick said. We just try to make sure that if there's an opportunity that we don't miss it.

In between those deep balls McCoy has terrorized defenses either running the ball (184 yards against the Washington Redskins on Sept. 9) or receiving (a career high 114 yards against San Diego).

Not only is Jackson a deep threat but he has lined up as a slot receiver from time to time catching passes with a linebacker covering him. That happened on a 37 yard touchdown reception on Sunday that was negated by an illegal formation penalty.

One thing I know about (Jackson) is that he's really fast Kelly said. He catches the ball extremely well and is a very difficult matchup. So as a coach it's a lot of fun to have a guy like that on your team when you're trying to figure out different ways to get him the football because he can affect the outcome of the game on the offensive side of the ball.

He's such a dynamic player.

Kelly's offense is about finding ways to make Jackson Vick and McCoy even more dynamic.

Frank also writes for The (Delaware) News Journal a Gannett property

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