Vick's costly gifts

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - If you wanted to view Mike Vick's performance in the Eagles' 31-24 loss to the Bills through rosecolored glasses, you could point out that he threw for 315 yards and completed 65 percent of his passes for the fourth straight week.

You could mention that he confounded yet another opposing defense with his catch-me-if-you-can speed, rushing for 90 yards and leapfrogging over Randall Cunningham to become the league's all-time leading rusher among quarterbacks.

But the only Vick statistic in yesterday's debacle that mattered was four. That's how many interceptions he threw in the Eagles' fourth straight loss. And while No. 4 really had more to do with wide receiver Jason Avant than Vick, that still left three others with his fingerprints all over them.

Couple those turnovers, two of which the Bills turned into touchdowns, with the brain cramp he suffered at the end of the first half when he let the clock run out on a throw into the end zone, which blew an opportunity for a field goal, and you can make a convincing case that Vick was a lot more to blame for this defeat than Juan Castillo's much-maligned defense.

"You know as a quarterback that an interception is an interception," Vick said after the game. "Regardless of how you look at it, the world is going to judge you as throwing an interception. Some of them are tipped and some of them are straight shots where guys just pick them off. You hate balls that are tipped because you can't control that. But an interception is an interception and you just can't have them in this game."

Turnovers are absolutely killing the Eagles. They had five more yesterday - Vick's four picks and a fumble by Avant at the tail end of a 35-yard third-quarter catch-and-run. That makes 15 giveaways in five games, 14 in their four-game losing skid. They've got a league-worst minus-10 turnover ratio.

Ten of those 15 turnovers belong to Vick, who now has seven interceptions to go with three lost fumbles.

In Vick's first six games last season, he threw 11 touchdown passes and didn't have a single interception or lost fumble. In his 12 games since, he's got 19 TD passes and 20 turnovers (14 interceptions, six lost fumbles). The Eagles were 4-2 in those first six games, 5-7 in the last 12, including 1-4 this season.