Giants plan on putting their licks on Vick

The Eagles have voiced their concerns the last several weeks about the hits that Michael Vick has been absorbing. The Giants plan to give them plenty more to gripe about.

While they are not going to be delivering any deliberate late hits or helmet-to-helmet smacks - like the one delivered by Cowboys linebacker Anthony Spencer last week that drew a penalty flag and a $12,500 fine - the Giants have made it clear: They expect to get their licks on Vick.

"He's going to get hit in this game too," Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, who had three sacks of Vick in the previous meeting, said Thursday when asked about the Eagles' complaints. "As a defensive player, I'm going to hit him. If it's in that gray area, I'm going to hit him."

Vick has been hit plenty this season. For a quarterback known as much for his mobility as his passing, he's been sacked a relatively high 25 times. Consider that much-less-athletic Eli Manning has been sacked only 13 times, and has played in three more games than Vick.

But the difference is that Vick also can run. He has 82 carries this season, and that's where he takes the majority of the violent hits that the Eagles are so up-in-arms about. Earlier in the season, he was sandwiched by the Redskins and missed three games with a rib injury. He hasn't missed any games since then - and is putting up MVP-caliber numbers - but he's taken plenty of wicked shots that no other quarterback takes.

"It bothers me, to be honest with you," Eagles coach Andy Reid told ESPN earlier this month as the pile-drivers piled up. "He does run, but he's still the quarterback and you can't treat him like he's a running back there. That's not what the rules state."

By the Giants' thinking, though, Vick breaks the mold for a typical quarterback, so defenses must break those rules.

SEE PHOTOSTop 10 Giants of all time

"He's a different animal," Tuck said. "If I saw Peyton or Eli or Brady or any of those guys who aren't as athletic as Michael running down the sideline and they're heading out of bounds, they're going out of bounds. This guy, you kind of brush him off and think 'I'm going to guide him out of bounds' and he takes it, plants and scoots down the sideline for 50 more yards."

"If you start taking off and you put yourself in a running back position, once a quarterback tucks the ball and takes off, you're a running back," linebacker Michael Boley said. "You're a running back with the ball and you're trying to get yardage. So you have to treat him like one."

When the Giants played the Eagles in November, they put steady pressure on Vick with blitzes and tried to force him to roll to his right and throw across his body (he's lefthanded). That was the only game this season that he has started and finished but not thrown a touchdown pass. He ran for 34 yards and a touchdown against the Giants, but his 3.1 yards per carry were the second-lowest of the season.

The Giants know that Vick, who is 6 feet, 215, does not like to get hit. Durability has been one of the big drawbacks throughout his career (on the field, at least). But Tuck thinks Vick brings that on himself.

"If I was going to tell Michael Vick anything, it'd be: You're picking your own poison," Tuck said. "He's running like that, which is very effective for him, but he's going to take some hits. And some of them have been late. But where do you draw that line at? I don't know."

The Giants have no plans to pull up on Vick and think about it, either.