Vince Young's performance during Sunday night's win over the New York Giants may not have been perfect, but it was enough to the Eagles their fourth win on the season and a key division victory. The 6-5 slinger completed 23 of 36 passes (63.9 percent) for 258 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions in the win.
Throughout his career, the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback has been lauded as a clutch player capable of coming through in the fourth quarter, even if he doesn't always make it look pretty. Young, however, is not content with merely managing games from the quarterback position; he's looking to build upon last week's performance if called upon to start against the New England Patriots in place of the injured Michael Vick.
"The biggest thing was that I wanted to get guys out of the huddle, call the right plays, and keep a good tempo. I think did a pretty good job with that," he said. "I'm happy about some of the things I did on the field, but I am not satisfied."
The Eagles hope that 2010 Comeback Player of the Year Michael Vick will be available Sunday, but if his broken ribs are not yet fully healed, the team is comfortable going with Vince Young under center.
"The guys on this team have a lot of confidence in Vince," said head coach Andy Reid during his Wednesday press conference. "That drive in the fourth quarter certainly didn't hurt."
This week, the Eagles will have an even tougher challenge than they did at MetLife Stadium, as they face the AFC's top team, the Patriots, at Lincoln Financial Field. Young has one career start against the Patriots, in his rookie year with the Titans. The numbers weren't pretty. Young completed just 15 of 36 pass attempts (39.9 percent) for 227 yards and threw two interceptions with no touchdowns in a 23-40 loss at home.
This time around, the veteran quarterback is five years wiser. He knows, still, that New England poses a special challenge for himself and the Eagles offense.
"You always have to have respect for coach (Bill) Belichick and his teams," said Young. "He's going to try to take some of our playmakers out of the game, so I'll have to be patient with my reads. I need to take my time, drive down the field, not turn the ball over, and convert on third down."
The pressure of Sunday's game will be nothing new for the two-time Rose Bowl MVP. He knows that if he prepares for the game to the best of his abilities and stays calm, cool, and collected, he can will his team to victory, yet again.
"I've definitely been in some huge situations in my career," said Young. "It's pretty much the same this week. Everything starts in practice. We had a great week in practice last week and we were able to transfer that over to the game against the Giants.
"As a team, both offense and defense, we stayed together throughout the entire game, and that's something we want to continue to do through all four quarters of every game from here on out."
