KIRKLAND – Their defense held one of the best teams in the NFL to 10 points. Their running game piled up 200 yards, 117 of which came from tailback Warrick Dunn.
And yet, the main objective of any team trying to beat the Atlanta Falcons is, understandably, to contain Michael Vick.
That’s been the focus of the Seattle Seahawks this week, because Vick and the Falcons are coming to Qwest Field on Sunday.
“There are not many quarterbacks that can do what he can do,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said Wednesday. “They are hard to find.”
For 60 minutes every Sunday, Vick is also hard to find. His unique ability to make a play out of near disaster continually excites fans while annoying opponents.
The Seahawks are one of the few teams who have had some form of success containing Vick as a ball carrier. In two career meetings – including a short outing in last season’s finale when he was taken out to avoid further injury – the Falcons’ shifty quarterback has been held to 53 rushing yards on 16 attempts. That computes to a manageable 3.3 yards per carry. And the Seahawks have won both games.
But this Seattle defense is a totally different unit. All seven starters at defensive line and linebacker are different from the team the Seahawks fielded in January.
Some players believe this unit may be even better-equipped to face Vick.
“We have a lot of speed on our defense, and I think that’s the most important thing you can have when you’re facing him,” said defensive end Grant Wistrom, who missed the 2004 season finale because of a knee injury. “We’ve got good team speed on defense. We just need to be more fundamentally sound. We even need to improve on that from last week to this week.”
With eight new starters in the lineup, Seattle’s defense held its own last week. But there were a few occasions where the Seahawks defenders over-pursued, most notably on a pair of trick plays by Jacksonville’s rookie quarterback-turned-receiver, Matt Jones.
Vick is at a whole different level, both in terms of speed and elusiveness.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete,” said Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill, who was on the field for a few plays in the January matchup with Atlanta. “It’s fun to watch, so it’ll be awful fun to play against too. You want to play against the best, and he’s obviously one of the best.”
If the Seahawks had forgotten just how good Vick can be, they were reminded this week. In addition to the hours of videotape they’ve watched of him, many also saw Atlanta’s quarterback play on Monday Night Football. Vick had 224 yards of total offense in that game, including a 7-yard touchdown run and another 29-yard scramble.
“At one point, I was watching the Monday night game, and I had to stop what I was doing,” Seahawks defensive end Joe Tafoya said. “He was in the pocket, and I saw it coming: he tucked the ball and accelerated so fast, it was unbelievable.
“You watch somebody do something like that, all you can do is sit back and enjoy it – unless he’s playing against you.”
This week, Tafoya will be playing against Vick. And although he was an Atlanta teammate for a few days last season, Tafoya doesn’t have any secrets about how to stop him.
“If I did,” Tafoya said, “I’d be selling it. You’ve really just got to keep him in the pocket. That’s the only way to do it, and that’s a lot easier said than done. Because he’ll find a way out, and then he can throw the ball a country mile.
“Really, there are no secrets to stopping him.”
Vick said during his Wednesday conference call that he has seen a number of different defensive looks during his five-year NFL career. But as of yet, no one has devised one that can completely shut him down.
“The only difference I see in how the teams play me now is to play off me, and they won’t bring too much of a pass rush,” Vick said. “That doesn’t benefit them, either, because we do other things to take advantage of that. They are in a lose-lose situation.”
Vick’s ability to avoid pass rushers changes how a defense approaches a game.
“You have to really think about it all the time when you are playing him,” Holmgren said. “You can’t relax.”
And if a team somehow finds a way to contain him? That’s when Atlanta’s other weapons often rise to the occasion.
“They have a great offense,” Wistrom said. “Warrick Dunn’s a terrific running back, Alge Crumpler’s a Pro Bowl tight end. They’ve got a good offensive line, good receivers, and they run a good system.
“But you can’t give Michael Vick enough credit. He is the best athlete in the NFL.”
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