Falcons at Redskins: Flipping The Dirty Bird

Atlanta Falcons (5-6) vs. Washington Redskins (4-7)
1:00 p.m. FedEx Field
Oh yes, Jason Campbell is surely the savior of the Washington Redskins. That 11 for 23 for 118 yards performance provides inspiration for Redskins fans everywhere. Hey Washington Post…do you think you could hype him up a little more?

Give me a break. While everyone in the greater D.C. area is doing cartwheels over Campbell’s performance because of one play, I prefer to look at the final numbers and the overall performance and just shake my head. What exactly is there to be excited about? If you are an NFL quarterback, and you can’t go 11-23 for 118, then it’s time to brush off that resume and look for a new job. Or try getting signed by the Eagles. I hear they’re getting pretty desperate up there

Anyway, all the commotion about Campbell is over one play. It was a simple 15-yard pass to Chris Cooley on a crossing pattern. Yes, it was a nice throw. It was a clutch throw too, because it came on 3rd and 7 with less than five minutes to go and the Redskins trailing by three. But because Carolina safety Mike Minter decided to temporarily change his last name to Rumph, and missed what should have been an easy tackle, Cooley was able to sloooooowwwwwwllllllly rumble down the sideline for a 66-yard game-winning touchdown. Again, was it a good throw by Campbell? Yes. Was it an important throw by Campbell? Sure. But folks, to say that Campbell won the Redskins the game is a joke. The Redskins won because Cooley ran a nice route, made a nice catch, got great downfield blocking from Brandon Lloyd and the Panthers didn’t feel like making an open field tackle. Let’s call the play what it was: a 15 yard pass that the Panthers helped turn into a touchdown.

If you take away the last 50 yards of the play (aka: the part of the play Campbell had nothing to do with), he only goes 11-23 for 68 yards, one touchdown and one pick. That, my friends, is a pretty ugly day.

Besides, the real reason the Redskins won is that the 2005 defense finally decided to show up. Now, I don’t know if that ESPN the magazine article had anything to do with it. I’m sure by now you’ve either read it or heard about it. In this article, written by former Post writer Tom Friend, several “unnamed” Redskins players heavily criticized Gregg Williams’ coaching ability and ego. It was a rather nasty article written by a former Redskins beat writer who hated the organization because they didn’t cater to his whim for a terrible network/publication with an axe to grind. Tom Friend and ESPN is the perfect storm of Redskins hate. All that’s missing is Shithead Prisco. We all know ESPN doesn’t like the Redskins. They ignore the team as much as possible so they can hype up Philly, Dallas and the Giants (have you seen the major hype coming from ESPN leading up to a pretty average game this week between Dallas and New York). This article is terrible. Not one criticism comes from a named source in the organization. Not one. All the named sources have nothing but great things to say about Williams and the team. Worse yet, Friend couldn’t get Lavar Arrington, Antonio Pierce, Fred Smoot, Ryan Clark or a host of former Redskins to comment for the article either. And you know that Lavar usually loves a chance to bash his old team. Friend had to put words in their mouths to get his point across. Terrible, just terrible. There are so many flaws and falsehoods in that article, I don’t even know to begin. But I heard from an unnamed source at ESPN that their network is an abomination. I heard from an unnamed source that Chris Berman and Bill Parcells are lovers. I heard from an unnamed source that Tom Friend goes around sleeping with barnyard animals in his spare time. It must be true; all this stuff came from reliable unnamed sources!

Anyway, the defense looked great for the first time all season. They were able to force turnovers, limit big plays, pressure Jake Delhomme and they were able to get off the field quickly. Not the that Redskins offense could do much with the ball, but at least the Panthers didn’t have it. Williams tried this new craze called the blitz during the game. It appears to be pretty effective. I wonder why nobody called for him to use during the previous ten games (banging head on wall).

A new test waits for the Redskins this week. For the first time ever, the Redskins get to face The Michael Vick Experience (also featuring his backup singers known as the Atlanta Falcons). The only time the Skins played Atlanta since Vick entered the league was in 2003, when Vick suffered a broken leg in preseason. And what an interesting week for the Redskins to finally draw the Fightin’ Vicks on their schedule.

In case you missed it, the Falcons lost their fourth straight game last week. They were blown out at home by the Saints. This followed losses to such powerhouse teams like the Lions and Browns. Naturally, the fans booed. As they should. Here you have the Falcons - a team that continues to win nothing but is talked about glowingly by the sports media - start the season 5-2 only to have their season tank during the easiest part of the schedule. Their chances to win the NFC South are basically done with. And this is a division that no one wants to win. Tampa has been done since week three. The Panthers can’t decide which version of their Jekyll and Hyde show will arrive at the stadium on a week-to-week basis. Even the division leading Saints, for all their talent offensively, have one of the worst defenses in the league. These are the teams that the Falcons can’t beat. Wouldn’t you boo if you were one of the forty Falcons fans?

To compound matters, Mr. Ron Mexico himself decided to flip off the fans, with both hands, as he walked off the field. Classy. Vick, realizing that flipping off the people who pay his salary isn’t the best move, ran and hid behind his publicist as he quickly released his apology. He then ran and hid for protection behind his largest group of supporters…the talking heads at ESPN. No, this four game slide couldn’t possibly be Michael Vick’s fault. The rest of the team is horrible (pay no attention to the fact that the Falcons have special talents in DeAngelo Hall, Warrick Dunn, Alge Crumpler and one of the most experienced offensive lines in the game). Michael Vick should get the credit when his team wins and gives us a great highlight package, but he shouldn’t be blamed if they lose. It’s not like he plays an important position. I swear, if I hear Ron Jaworski, Sean Salisbury or any other terrible ex-quarterback that ESPN employs defend Vick again, I’m going to start my own sports network (we can dream, can’t we).

While ESPN loves to focus on Vick’s rushing numbers, they often cast aside his passing statistics. Which, seeing as Vick is a quarterback and passing is his primary job, is kind of important. Here are Vick’s numbers the past four weeks:
at Detroit: 17-32, 163 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
vs. Cleveland: 16-40, 197 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
at Baltimore: 11-21, 127 yards, 1 TD
vs. New Orleans: 9-24, 84 yards

There you have it. In the past four games, Vick passing numbers are: 53-117 (45%), 571 yards, 3 TD and 4 INT. Along with that robust 45% completion percentage, Vick is averaging 13-29 for 143 yards in his last four outings. This is a quarterback, which, according to everyone at ESPN (unless Vick, McNabb or Favre have a bad game) is the most important position on the field. How are these four losses not his fault? No team is going to win the majority of their games with a quarterback who can’t throw for 150 yards a game. Are you really telling me, like ESPN will have you believe, that a couple of drop balls here and there cost the Falcons instead of Vick’s inaccuracy? Is this bizarro world? Yes his wideouts drop an average of 2.5 passes a game. So for the sake of argument, let’s add those 10 catches to Vick’s total the last four games. That’s still a terrible 53% completion rate. You know what, receivers drop passes. Players make mistakes. But you can’t really believe that the majority of those 64 incomplete passes the past four weeks were the fault of the crummy players around Vick. That’s just not the case. You can blame Vick, and Vick alone, for the last two losses and maybe even the loss to Detroit as well. Truth is, Atlanta was better before Vick got there. Or have we already forgot the Jamal Anderson Dirty Bird era (I haven’t. I still remember how to do the Dirty Bird. Yes, I’ll go sit in the corner for 10 minutes now)?

Here’s why you can blame Senor Mexico. Are you ready? Make sure you’re seated. I’m about to tell you something that may shock you. Even though ESPN thinks Michael Vick is the greatest highlight package they can find, he is no better than an average NFL quarterback. But Mark, ESPN says that Vick needs two years to learn this West Coast Offense. We won’t know how good he is until then. How could you say those things about Vick? They said that Vick would need two years to learn the WCO three years ago. Times up. This is Vick’s sixth season in the NFL. How many mulligans does he get? He has exactly one game of note in those six seasons; the playoff victory at Green Bay. Take away that, what does Vick have? A career marred by a 53.5% completion rate and he has never had a season when his percentage was above 56. He has a career touchdown to interception ratio of 64/48, which means for every four touchdowns he throws he also tosses three picks. He also has a career quarterback rating of 75.1 with his best single season rating being 81.6 all the way back in 2002. What makes him even more maddening is his tendency to be consistently inconsistent. The two games before this four game skid were probably the best back-to-back games of his career. So he has the talent, there’s no denying that. He just hasn’t put it together and at this point I doubt he ever will. So yes, the four-game losing streak is Vick’s fault. The fans have a right to boo and Vick is a complete idiot for flipping the bird to whatever is left of his fan base.

In fairness to Vick, when you factor in his running ability the passing numbers don’t look as bad. In fact, his running ability is the only thing keeping him in the starting lineup. Otherwise he’s sitting on the bench somewhere or starting in Saskatchewan. So that’s what the Redskins have to play against. Make sure to contain Vick and Dunn as much as possible and force Vick to beat you in the air. More often than not, he’s going to fail.

Vick is due for a good game. Even when he’s struggled, it is rare to see him have a four game stretch like this. The best thing for Vick is to get out on the road. Don’t worry about playing in front of the fickle home fans. The Redskins defense, as long as I can remember, has struggled to stop rushing quarterbacks. From Randall Cunningham to Steve Young to Vince Young, the Redskins have never really fielded a defense that is patient and very disciplined. Aggressiveness is good, but not when trying to contain a runner like Vick. The Redskins will probably revert back to the Cover 2 they’ve been playing all year (namely because Tampa’s Cover 2 has worked very well over the years in stopping Vick) which means Vick will have time and the Falcons receivers should be able to get open. The question is: will Vick be able to get the ball to his wideouts and be patient against a Cover 2, or will he rush his throws, try to go deep and fail in every goal of the West Coast Offense.

The game will come down to what kind of effort Vick has. The Redskins offense will probably put up something in the vicinity of 17 points again. Can Vick get his team in the endzone three times? Or will his season and the Falcons season continue to spiral down the drain? Let’s hope Vick has one more bad game in him before he goes back up on his career roller coaster.