AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2005 > October > 02
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Falcons no longer rely on one player
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
For the Falcons to grow up fully and finally, the time had to come when they saw Michael Vick as an asset, as opposed to the franchise itself. That time, brothers and sisters, is at hand. No longer does a Vick sniffle become a roster-wide pneumonia. A remarkable thing happened Sunday: Vick hurt his knee and his teammates didn’t dissolve in a puddle of tears.
The Falcons beat Minnesota 14-0 with Vick and 16-10 without him. After seeing the famous No. 7 go down 23 minutes in, Jim Mora didn’t lose his lunch or turn in his resignation. On the contrary, he said, “As a coach, I just kind of moved on.� And so did everyone around him. There was no panic. There was no fear. There was only continued domination.
“I like where our football team is right now,� Mora said, and he should. Good last season, the Falcons are demonstrably better now. They are no longer Michael Vick and a bunch of guys named Joe. This is a good-looking team that has started 3-1 against a difficult schedule, a team in the sense that, were you picking the Falcons’ MVP after four games, the famous No. 7 wouldn’t be even your second choice. (Rod Coleman would be No. 1, Warrick Dunn No. 2.)
“What happened in ’03, we’ve learned from that,� said Vick, speaking of the broken leg that scuttled a team’s season and forced a regime change. “It’s football. Things happen. Marquee players are going to get hurt.�
And the better teams, being the better teams, will win anyway. Philadelphia reached the Super Bowl while Terrell Owens was healing. New England became a dynasty after Drew Bledsoe got hurt and was supplanted by a young man named Brady. Nobody is yet suggesting that the Falcons can take a title without the outrageously gifted Vick, but they’ve progressed to the point that they’re ready to win a game or two if need be.
Let the rest of the nation persist in believing the highlight-driven hype that the Falcons are a one-man gang. We Atlantans are learning otherwise. The primary reason the Falcons are 3-1 is a quick and fierce defense — Daunte Culpepper was sacked nine times and intercepted twice Sunday — and Vick, when last we checked, doesn’t play D. And yes, Vick is unmatched in his capacity to improvise on the fly, but the Falcons’ offense has gotten expert at running the ball right at people. That’s not improvisation. That’s power and precision.
“We’re not the same team we were two years ago,� said Dunn, who gained 126 yards. “We’re not building our offense around one guy. If you’re able to run the football, it helps any quarterback.�
The Falcons rushed for 285 yards Sunday, the third time they’ve broken 200 rushing yards in four games. Matt Schaub, Vick’s understudy, gained 56 yards himself. As Rich McKay, the general manager, said: “If you’re a defensive coordinator, our run game is going to bother you. But Michael Vick is going to make you not sleep.�
Still, a team that can execute the two brute-force basics — run the ball and play defense — has a chance in every game no matter who its quarterback happens to be. Two years ago the Falcons lost Vick and lost all hope. On Sunday they saw him limp off and kept on hammering. They didn’t just nurse their lead. They added to it. They trust Schaub in a way they never trusted Doug Johnson, and they also trust themselves and their coaches in a way they didn’t back then.
“What do you expect?â€? Vick said. “If [his teammates didn’t think they could win without him], then nobody should be here — nobody should have a job.â€?
It’s easy to speak boldly when you’ve just won by 20 points to get to 3-1 and the famous No. 7 still expects to start against the regal Patriots next week, but the Falcons’ burgeoning assurance is no bluff. Once just a supporting cast, this is now a bona fide team.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
