It was the first question that came to mind when I watched the Falcons game on Sunday. And not only did he read it, he took it personal. Yesterday, we saw the re-emergence of the Michael Vick of 2002 and 2003, the guy who played at VA Tech, the guy who earned the cover of Madden '04 and a one-way trip to the "Madden Cover Jinx" Hall of Fame. That Michael Vick was the one who was the up-and-coming star. The one we had been seeing for the last few years was the one who had caused my blood pressure to go up.
He had a great game yesterday, but of course...he's still not perfect. But things were better. His decision making was better. His passing was much more accurate. He made an effort to move the ball downfield. And he got his receivers in a rhythm. All things were under his direct control. Of course, he got got some help from Alge Crumpler and Ashley Lelie (who still didn't start...assholes), and he got some huge help from a coaching staff who seemed to discover yesterday (after much complaining from everyone in Atlanta, including the players themselves) that they even had a passing game. Did they fire Greg Knapp and I didn't hear about it?
Let's just hope that the Falcons keep playing like this, because this is the Michael Vick that's worth all the hype he was getting early on in his career. For the first time in three years, the offense played better than the defense. The offense didn't need to be bailed out by the defense. If anything, it was the reverse. 41 points? When was the last time the offense put up half that many points? Seriously...go check. I'll wait.
While you're doing that, I had felt the need to say something more positive about Vick anyway, since a friend of mine gave me so much flak about what I said last week. Problem is, Vick had such a great game that anything I try to clarify is going to look like I'm sucking up. So I won't say anything. Nothing I said was wrong. It just turns out that more blame should be heaped upon Greg Knapp...which I did last week. So there. I was still right.
And to think, we almost missed seeing much of this game. Midway through the first half, Pittsburgh started running away with it, so we just got up and left the room. My dad turned on "The Rifleman" and got on the computer. It just so happened that I turned on the TV in another room and happened to see the comeback. An amazing turn of events. The Falcons passed the ball.
Someone from the Falcons must have come through here, so let this one get back to them: Start Ashley Lelie, dammit.
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