Amateurs watch the spectacle, while professionals watch the craft. This is a truth that applies everywhere.
For the news media, Lu Ke's starting position was just a gimmick. The nickname "Skywalker" was far more interesting and eye-catching than "Chinese-American quarterback" or "Bambi." Ultimately, this was just a publicity stunt. No one truly cared about Lu Ke's performance on the field. They would delve into it more after a few more wins and when the playoffs began.
But for insiders in the league, this was a genuine new beginning.
In the fourth week of the regular season, Lu Ke would be starting as the quarterback for the fourth time. But this was the first time he had escaped the crisis of being a temporary or backup quarterback and had earned the starting position fair and square.
In the previous three weeks, people were still waiting for Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick. Lu Ke was just a last resort in a crisis. Many teams had already given up on the first two or three weeks of the regular season. Now, Alex and Colin had both recovered from their injuries, but after a team competition, they were both on the bench, and the temporary quarterback had become the official starting quarterback.
For the team, for the fans, for Lu Ke, and even for the other three quarterbacks, everything was new. The change in position would inevitably bring a series of chain reactions in mentality, pressure, and emotions. This was an uncertain factor for the game, and it also added to the intrigue of this week's game.
This week, the San Francisco 49ers were still playing on the road. They would travel to Philadelphia on the East Coast to challenge the Eagles.
Since their establishment in 1933, the Philadelphia Eagles had always been a team in the NFC East. They were in the same division as the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Washington Redskins. This division, in addition to the NFC North, had the most historical conflicts, grudges, and past events. All four teams could be said to have long histories and glorious records, and they all had their own eras in the league.
The Philadelphia Eagles were a powerhouse in the league in the 1950s, dominating the competition. Unfortunately, that was before the merger of the NFL and AFL, which was before the Super Bowl era. So, they unfortunately became one of the thirteen teams in the league that had never won a Super Bowl.
Despite this, the Philadelphia Eagles were still a dominant force in the NFC East, holding their own against their three rivals. After the millennium, in the past eleven years, the Philadelphia Eagles had won the division title six times and came in second three times, successfully making it to the playoffs nine times. They only missed it in 2005 and 2007.
With this performance, they had firmly suppressed their division rivals and became the absolute powerhouse of the NFC East in the 21st century.
In the 2010 season, the Philadelphia Eagles made it to the playoffs with a record of ten wins and six losses, but they lost in the first round to the red-hot Green Bay Packers. This year, they came back for revenge. They had an impressive record of three wins and one loss in the preseason, but after the regular season began, they only had a poor record of one win and two losses.
This was a team that excelled on offense and was relatively weak on defense. In the tenth week of the regular season last year, they scored an incredible fifty-nine points in a single game, crushing their division rivals, the Washington Redskins. People still talk about it to this day.
It was the same in the first three games of the regular season this year. The defense performed poorly, and the offense had to constantly carry the team. In the second week, the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Atlanta Falcons on the road with a score of "31-35." And in the third week, the Eagles lost to their division rivals, the New York Giants, at home with a final score of "16-29."
Compared to last year, the offense's firepower had decreased this year, and they couldn't get anything going. This also led to the result of only one win in the first three games.
But, as the absolute powerhouse of the NFC East in the first decade of the 21st century, their foundation was still there. Once they made adjustments or found the problem, they would still be one of the most dangerous opponents in the league in the games to come.
On this team, the offense was full of stars. Running back LeSean McCoy, offensive tackle Jason Peters, and wide receiver DeSean Jackson were all Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro level players.
And their leader, Michael Vick, was a well-known figure in the league.
He entered the league in 2001 as the first overall pick and went to the Pro Bowl three times. He also created a unique school of thought for running quarterbacks, becoming a beautiful sight in the league. In times of crisis, he could always use his legs to find a path and lead the team forward. He gave rise to the pistol formation and promoted the read-option offense. The younger generation, like Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick, all followed in his footsteps.
In the 2006 season, Vick ran for 1,039 yards in a single season. He was the first quarterback in the history of the league to run for over a thousand yards in a single season. It's important to know that even for a running back, a thousand-yard season is a monumental achievement, let alone for a quarterback. This was not only unprecedented, but it would probably never happen again.
After the dog-fighting scandal in 2007, Vick was put in prison and spent twenty-three months there. After he was released in 2009, the Atlanta Falcons cut him. His career seemed to be over. Just as he was about to go to an indoor league in Europe to find work, the Philadelphia Eagles offered him a contract.
At that time, the Philadelphia Eagles' decision to choose Vick was a reluctant one, but it was not too difficult to understand. At the time, the team's two quarterbacks were a veteran whose performance had been declining for three consecutive years, and a rookie who had been a rotational backup for two years and whose performance had always been terrible. And the team's head coach at the time used the West Coast offense, which had a very complicated playbook.
The West Coast offense, which is complicated to explain, can be simply understood as "pass first, run second." It relies on a large number of intricate running routes and plays to move the ball forward through dazzling passes. It has strict requirements for the quarterback's passing accuracy, control of the game, and Wonderlic test score.
The San Francisco 49ers' offense was a West Coast offense.
So, the Philadelphia Eagles needed a backup quarterback who had experience with the West Coast offense, and Vick had been the leader of the West Coast offense before he went to prison. What's more, because of his time in prison, Vick's annual salary in 2009 was only $1.6 million, which took up very little of the salary cap.
So, Vick came to Philadelphia. After being a rotational player in 2009, Vick once again showed his ability. In the 2010 offseason and the first two games of the regular season, he earned the starting position with his outstanding performance.
Throughout the rest of the season, Vick was unstoppable. He broke all his personal records for quarterback stats. He not only led the team to the playoffs, but he was also selected for the Pro Bowl, won that year's Comeback Player of the Year award, and even almost took away Tom Brady's regular season MVP title.
One can imagine the expectations and anticipation the Philadelphia Eagles had for the 2011 season. Although their record was not good at the moment, their foundation was undoubtedly still there. Under Vick's leadership, the Eagles' offensive explosiveness was always one of the most terrifying things to watch.
What's more, the determined Philadelphia Eagles had also spent a lot of money to build up their defense in the offseason this year. They clearly wanted to make a big splash. They brought in Cullen Jenkins, a key defensive tackle who had just won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers.
They also brought in defensive end Jason Babin from the Tennessee Titans and cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha from the Oakland Raiders. All three of these players were First-Team All-Pro members, and their abilities were beyond a doubt.
Three weeks of the regular season had passed, and the defense was still getting used to each other. Once they found the right defensive rhythm, the team's strength would definitely rise to another level.
This week, the Philadelphia Eagles were about to face the challenge of the San Francisco 49ers. The teams' conditions were undoubtedly a focal point of attention, and it was a severe test for both sides.
For the defensive players, they would be facing the most talked-about Chinese-American quarterback of the season. In Jim Harbaugh's West Coast offense, Lu Ke's abilities were on full display. The fact that his quarterback rating was over a hundred in the previous three weeks was the best proof of this.
As for the offensive players, especially Michael Vick. Vick, who had the best performance of his career last year, had seen his performance drop this year despite all the high expectations. Now, Vick was about to face Lu Ke, and it was inevitable that the media reporters would once again try to stir up trouble, hoping that the hot-tempered Vick would say something shocking.
On Wednesday's official media day, a reporter had asked Vick a related question. "If I'm not mistaken, the 49ers still haven't confirmed their starting quarterback, have they?" Vick's simple statement was not only a comeback to the reporter but also a way of ignoring Lu Ke.
Later, under the media's influence, phrases like "Vick Ignores Lu Ke" and "Vick Is Not Afraid of the Challenge" could be seen on many websites. But in the end, Vick was just stating the facts. Before the San Francisco 49ers confirmed their starting quarterback, the reporters couldn't add any fuel to the fire.
Until now.
When faced with the same question, Vick shrugged and said carelessly, "How would I know what's going to happen? On the field, I'm not the player standing across from him. My job is to score points for my team, and the ultimate goal is to win. If he can do that, then he should try to chase me."
This was a watered-down version of what he said. In the interview, his words were mixed with a lot of profanity. It was clear that Vick didn't like being talked about in the same conversation as Lu Ke. He was a veteran who had been in the league for ten years and had seen countless ups and downs. Lu Ke had only played three games. The two of them couldn't be compared.
What's more, the Philadelphia Eagles' record was not good right now, and the offense couldn't get anything going. Vick had no patience to deal with the reporters.
As a result, major media outlets all ran headlines like, "Michael Vick Never Had Lu Ke on His Radar: Doesn't Care About Anything but Winning."
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