Giants try to figure out how to stop Eagles' Vick

While watching the first half of Monday night's virtuoso performance by Michael Vick against the Redskins, Tom Coughlin said he was so impressed he had to put his pencil down and just sit back and appreciate the masterpiece as a fan.

Really?

"Not really," he later admitted. "I had indigestion, a stomach ache . . . ''

It was impossible for the Giants not to notice what their next opponent did in its previous game, a 59-28 blowout in which Vick threw four touchdown passes and ran for two scores. And if anyone was in the dark about it, the flood of Vick questions in their locker room Wednesday made them keenly aware of the kind of offensive player they are about to face on Sunday night.

"He presents something that no other quarterback is able to do in this league, which is he's able to kill you with his arm and his legs at an extreme level," Giants safety Antrel Rolle said. "I've never seen a quarterback do the things that Michael Vick can do . . . besides Michael Vick."

Added defensive tackle Barry Cofield: "He's unlike anything we've ever seen at the position."

Not all of the Giants' focus this week is being spent on coming up with flattering and attractive ways to describe Vick, though. They want to contain him. They want to stop him. They want to make him a non-factor.

Can that actually happen?

"Vick is a guy," Rolle said, clearly finished laying bouquets of superlatives at the feet of Vick. "He's a guy . . . There's not one man who can beat our defense."

If there is one, Vick might come close. He goes beyond game-planning. Schemes and theories do not seem to be able to slow him down.

"You have to obviously try to contain and keep him inside and not let him outside," Coughlin said.

"There's all kinds of strategic things that you say that you can do and you must do, but you have to time it up with the right circumstance, the right play, the right situation. They do a lot of things that if you think you have a handle on how you're going to have some containment on him, he finds a way to break it down."

The Redskins tried to use a "spy" to stop Vick on Monday, planting a defensive back in front of him to mirror his movements. On a conference call Wednesday, Vick said he likes when teams do that because it depletes their coverage downfield. Scratch that one off the list of Perry Fewell's ideas.

What makes Vick even more dangerous are the receivers he is throwing to. DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are both deep threats, and when Vick is able to buy time in the pocket and keep a play alive, they tend to find open areas on the field.

The Giants, though, believe they can stand between Vick and his third consecutive NFC Offensive Player of the Week nod. He hasn't thrown an interception this season, but Coughlin said there have been a few that have rattled off the hands of defenders.

Vick also has been sacked 15 times in only six games. By comparison, the far less mobile Eli Manning has been sacked only 12 times in nine games. The last time Vick played a full game against the Giants, with Atlanta in 2007, he was sacked seven times and the Giants won.

Safety Deon Grant, who played against Vick twice a year when he was in Carolina and Vick was in Atlanta, said Vick can be stopped.

"We did a few things to keep him kind of rattled," Grant said. "Nobody's Superman out there on the field. Vick's just like me. We ain't won no Super Bowls yet."