Michael Vick passed, ran and dazzled in an astonishing performance to propel the Philadelphia Eagles to a 59-28 rout of the Washington Redskins on Monday night.
Mesmerizing despite steady rain, Vick became the first NFL player to throw for at least 300 yards and rush for 50, while tossing four scores and rushing for two more in one game.
Vick threw three of his four touchdown passes and ran for both scores in the first two quarters alone, as the Eagles (6-3) exploded for a franchise record-tying 45 points in the first half and buried their NFC East Division opponents.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I felt it would be different this time and I knew I would be here for the long haul,” Vick told reporters, having sustained a rib injury in his previous game against the Redskins on Oct. 3.
“That’s what it’s about, stepping up when you’re on the big stage. We wanted to start fast and that’s what we did,” Vick said.
Vick finished a magical night having completed 20 of 28 passes for 333 yards and running for 80, as Philadelphia moved into a tie with the New York Giants atop the division.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Philadelphia compiled nearly 600 yards of offense and had a 45-14 lead over Washington at halftime.
Vick tossed his final score in the third quarter and defensive back Dimitri Patterson also intercepted Donovan McNabb and ran it back 40 yards for the Eagles’ final touchdown.
“It’s embarrassing,” Washington coach Mike Shanahan said, of his team’s performance. “I should have had [the team] better prepared than I did.”
Philadelphia wasted little time as Vick connected with DeSean Jackson for an 88-yard score on the first play from scrimmage.
Running back Jerome Harrison added a 50-yard TD run in the first quarter and the Eagles raced to a 35-0 advantage in the second.
Enjoying his first season as a starting quarterback since 2006, Vick is the NFL’s highest-rated quarterback and has yet to throw an interception or lose a fumble this season.
McNabb, playing in his first game since he was controversially benched toward the end of a loss to the Detroit Lions on Oct 31, threw two scores and three interceptions as the Redskins (4-5) lost for the third time in four games.
However, all was not bad news for McNabb, who agreed to a long-term contract extension with the Redskins, the team said on earlier on Monday.
Details of the deal were not disclosed, but several reports said the 33-year-old contract, traded to Washington during the offseason, agreed to a five-year extension that will keep him with the Redskins through the 2015 season.
Monday was McNabb’s second meeting against the franchise where he spent his first 11 years, leading the Eagles to five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl appearance, losing 24-21 to the New England Patriots.
A report on the NFL’s official Web site said McNabb’s new contract includes US$40 million guaranteed and could be worth up to US$88 million.
In eight games this season, McNabb has a 76 percent passer rating — his lowest since his rookie season in 1999 — and has thrown seven touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier