PHILADELPHIA – Somehow, the Eagles needed to make Michael Vick miserable. So after a week of studying and scheming, defensive coordinator Jim Johnson and his staff grabbed their starting defensive ends and explained their job: Play Michael in the Middle.
With help from their defensive tackles, Jevon Kearse and Derrick Burgess accepted an assignment few have fulfilled this season and none have enjoyed. Yet after yesterday’s 27-10 NFC title game win over the Falcons, after they kept Vick between them in the pocket to stymie his offense, the two seemed unfazed by their success.
“It unfolded just like we planned,” Burgess said. “Jim’s a genius. We made it happen.”
“We knew that we had to just go out there and execute,” Kearse said, “then contain No. 7 (Vick) and not let him run around.”
The box score says the Eagles sacked Vick four times, intercepted him once and held him to 162 total yards and no touchdowns. But the game showed a demoralized Vick, whose team seemed to lose its vigor as its star struggled.
Blame the defensive line, and the ends in particular, for that development. Burgess, who collected 2½ sacks in 12 regular-season games, dropped Vick twice. Kearse added a sack, and defensive tackle Hollis Thomas had the fourth, ending an early Falcons touchdown threat.
Down 7-0, Atlanta drove to the Philadelphia 2-yard line. But Thomas stuffed T.J. Duckett on first down, safety Michael Lewis batted away a Vick pass on second, and Thomas forced Jay Feely’s 23-yard field goal by crunching Vick on third down.
The other momentum-moving sequence came in the third, when Brian Dawkins intercepted an underthrown Vick pass intended for Alge Crumpler and returned it to the Falcons 11. David Akers’ field goal four plays later pushed the Eagles lead to 20-10.
“I thought he was going to run another route,” Vick said. “Those are things that happen. Your emotions are high, and you’re trying to come back.”
Vick’s frustrations started shortly after kickoff. He burned a timeout before the third play. Then Kearse and Burgess flushed him from the pocket, and Corey Simon delivered the first of the day’s big hits on Vick five yards short of the first down.
Atlanta’s running game didn’t help. The Falcons rushed for 99 yards, 68 fewer than its average.
“Our first priority was to stop the run and then apply pressure on Vick,” linebacker Jeremiah Trotter said. “The front four did an outstanding job of that all day.”