When Eagles backup quarterback Vince Young started throwing around the term “Dream Team” in the preseason, it stuck. But just four games in, Vick is calling to banish that term from the locker room.
“The Dream Team… that word is dead now. Can’t talk Dream Team anymore,” Vick said this week, as the team fell to 1-3 with a loss to the 49ers, and is now sitting in the basement of the NFC East.
“Maybe it put pressure on some players, maybe it didn’t, but I think just the fact that it was lingering around and people were talking about it creates a sense of pressure.”
The Eagles were a popular preseason Super Bowl pick as they signed a number of high quality veterans and added to a roster already loaded with talent – Vick, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin – and a team that went 10-6 last year and won their division.
“We’ve got to come together as a team,” Vick said. “I’m confident in myself, and I couldn’t be with a better group right now.”
While the name might be gone, the sense of their potential isn’t. The Eagles take a 1-3 record to Buffalo, where the Bills are sitting at 3-1 and just a last-second field goal at Cincinnati from being 4-0. In spite of the difference in the way they’ve played this year, the Eagles are favored by 2.5 to 3 points in the game.
Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was asked what he thought of the “Dream Team” coming to town and smiled and said, “It’s just like our guys calling themselves the ‘Goon Squad’ for the receivers… I don’t think it really matters.”
The match up highlights the difference in approach for the two teams. The Eagles were loaded with preseason expectations and high-priced free agents, while the Bills have built their team around unexpected stars and old fashioned hard work.
Harvard QB Fitzpatrick is on his third team in six years, but playing Pro Bowl caliber football. Fred Jackson has been averaging 147 yards from scrimmage per game this season, out of Division III Coe College by way of the Rhein Fire. TE Scott Chandler is on his fourth team in four years, and also has four TDs in four games this year. WRs David Nelson and Stevie Johnson have 6 years of NFL experience between them, but have combined for 46 catches for 565 yards and 4 TDs this season.
It’s the blue collar Bills versus the rockstar Eagles, the Goon Squad versus the Dream Team, Michael Vick versus the Amish Rifle.
