Mike Vick led an Eagles fourth-quarter comeback.

Michael Vick fought off a barrage of hits, sacks and dropped passes to rally the Eagles to a 43-24 win over the desperate Houston Texans last night in front of 69,144 chilly fans at the Linc.

After a slow start Houston gave the Birds all they could handle until a fourth quarter surge helped earn the Birds signal caller his first comeback win as a starter.

Head coach Andy Reid said he was impressed with his quarterback.

“He got knocked around a little bit,” Reid said. “[Houston] has a real good defensive front. They blitzed a little bit, and he kept getting back up and kept going. I loved his energy in the second half. He was firing up guys on both sides of the ball. He brought a lot to the table.”

On their first drive, the Eagles moved the ball 88 yards on 11 plays scoring on a one-yard pass from Michael Vick to LeSean McCoy.

The drive got a great kick-start when Vick hit the beleaguered DeSean Jackson with a 30-yard completion. It was a play everyone in the Delaware Valley envisioned was going to happen except apparently the Houston defense.

Reid was asked if he was sending any kind of message making his first play of the game to the player he had reportedly feuded with after Jackson’s performance against Chicago last week.

“He did a great job of sitting in front of the free safety, who was playing very deep,” Reid said. “In terms of a message, we’re playing the other team, so that was the message.”

With the extra point, kicker David Akers passed former Eagles safety Brian Dawkins for most games played in an Eagles uniform with 184 games.

The Texans answered back with a 39-yard drive on seven plays culminating with a 48-yard field by Neil Rackers.

The Eagles went right back to work with Vick leading the way. Again the Birds marched down the field with Jackson and McCoy getting most of the touches.

And again McCoy found the end zone, this time on a four-yard run to give the home team a 14-3 lead, just seconds into the second quarter.

After a Texans cameo of a drive, the Eagles drove 51-yards on seven plays added a field goal to go up 17-3.

But just when you thought you might get to bed a little early knowing a win was in the bag, the visitors showed life for the first time all evening rolling downfield 80 yards on eight plays including a 42-yard strike to Andre Johnson. Two plays later the score was 17-10.

Houston again appeared to be on the move, driving the ball to the Eagles 38-yard line with 1:32 left in the half.

On the next play, Schaub went back to pass, setting up a screen to Arian Foster when defensive tackle Trevor Laws stuck his giant paws in the air and somehow snagged the pass only about three-yards airborne.

Laws started to chug toward the end zone, holding the ball like it was a container and he was shaking it make a martini.

It was an easy swat for Foster to jar the ball loose at the 18-yard line, but luckily for the Eagles, cornerback Trevard Lindley was there to recover the ball.

The Eagles again were not able to put the ball in the end zone settling for a 22-yard field goal, making the score 20-10.

On that possession, tight end Brent Celek dropped what looked like an easy reception in the end zone, as did Jason Avant just two plays earlier.

The Texans came out of the tunnel a different team.

Schaub, apparently okay after being shaken up on the next to last play of the second quarter, led his team downfield 79 yards on 11 plays scoring on a 13-yard rocket of a pass to Foster to make the score 20-17.

The Birds next drive started out well enough, moving the ball well, but an interception by Jason Allen at the Houston 14 ended those hopes.

On this drive the Eagles defense appeared to become unglued. The Texans marched 86 yards on 13 plays, converting three third-down plays and seemingly moving the ball at will…the drive ended with another Foster touchdown, this one a three-yard dash.

The third quarter ended with the Eagles trailing 24-20.

With their fans in a deep silence, Vick rallied the Eagles (8-4) to score 10 straight points and pull out the win and keep his team in first place.

For the Texans, who are way past being an expansion team, it’s another season down the drain.

“They are a good team and this is a tough place to play,” Schaub said after the game. “We got ourselves down early and they moved the ball and kept us off the field in the beginning of the game. We had a good plan and we just kept fighting though it and finally we made some plays against a very good defense and a very good team, but it just wasn’t enough during crunch time in the fourth quarter.”

Schaub finished 22 of 36 for 337 yards and two TDs. He was sacked twice.

Foster, who finished with 83 yards rushing on 22 carries and a score was asked why the Texans struggle to finish games.

“I’ve been playing ball for a long time, we’re trying to find ways to lose right now,” said Foster, who caught two passes for 26 yards and a TD. “It’s disappointing. But the sun’s going to rise tomorrow and so am I.”

Johnson led Houston with six catches for 149 yards.

McCoy had 20 touches for 130 total yards and two touchdowns.

Vick was 22 of 33 for 302 yards and threw two TD passes. He was sacked once and threw just his second interception of the season. His quarterback rating was 103.3 for the game.

Vick also led the team in rushing with 48 yards and a touchdown.

“Well, it’s easy to have a plan against him, it’s hard to execute,” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said after he saw his team drop to 5-7 on the year. “The bottom line, I mean we’d like to keep him in the pocket, make him throw the football. But even when you’ve got him there, he finds a way to get out and make plays. This young man is playing as good as anybody I’ve seen play in the National Football League, and I’ve been doing it for a while.”