Vick Uses His Head and Falcons Roll On

Just in case Michael Vick hadn’t burrowed himself deep enough into the heads of the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta quarterback sought out a little cranium-to-cranium contact.

Vick, angered Sunday by a hit he considered a cheap shot, gave linebacker Brandon Short a brief but violent head butt, then ducked out of the melee that ensued. Just another heartwarming moment in a matchup that fast is becoming one of the NFL’s most intense rivalries.

“I would rather that not happened, but I’m not going to tell [Vick] not to,” said Coach Jim Mora, whose Falcons improved to 4-0 with a 27-10 victory at Bank of America Stadium. “I loved the energy, the passion, the emotion.... Mike’s a fighter, he’s a competitor, he’s a winner, and he’s probably getting tired of getting hit.”

Those hits are a minor nuisance compared to what the Panthers are going through. At 1-2, they’re 2 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the NFC South, and they have been unable to solve the riddle of the league’s most elusive quarterback. In his previous three starts against Carolina, Vick led his teams to victories of 41-0, 30-0 and 20-14. He didn’t win with a virtuoso performance Sunday. He got a lot of help from running backs Warrick Dunn and T.J. Duckett, who combined for 139 yards rushing, and a Falcon defense that offset Jake Delhomme’s 308 yards passing with two sacks and two interceptions.

There were eight personal-foul calls in this bruising brouhaha, five against Atlanta and three against Carolina. Two of those weren’t counted in the final tally -- those thrown in the Vick-Short skirmish -- because they were offsetting. Coming into the game, the Falcons and Panthers had each been flagged once this season for personal fouls.

“It’s brewing into a rivalry,” said Atlanta cornerback Kevin Mathis, whose 35-yard interception for a touchdown dealt a blow to the Panthers in the fourth quarter. “When you have two teams that are making the changes that we’re making and winning games, that’s what happens.”

Vick shrugged off the head-butting incident and the especially rough play, some of which took place after the whistle.

“That’s just competitiveness on both sides,” he said. “There’s going to be jabbing and guys out there mouthing. It’s just part of the game.”

The threat of Vick bolting the backfield, his uncanny ability to leave defenders flailing and flummoxed, clearly had the Panthers concerned and frustrated. And they’re not alone. Coming into Sunday’s game, Atlanta’s opponents had been penalized a league-high 28 times. Fear of No. 7 almost certainly has something to do with that.

“I think we get sidetracked sometimes as a team and a defensive unit thinking that we have to stop this one person,” Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers said. “You can’t focus all your attention on one person, or someone else is going to kill you.”

Perhaps the silent assassin is Rich McKay, the Falcon general manager whose team is 6-0 since he made the move from Tampa Bay to Atlanta with two games left last season. It was McKay, son of legendary USC coach John McKay, who helped transform the Buccaneers from laughingstock to Super Bowl champions.

“When I came here last year I was very fortunate to have the last couple weeks just to see the team,” said McKay, whose franchise is 4-0 for the first time since 1986. “The attitude even though we’d won two games wasn’t real good.... Guys in the locker room weren’t really ‘us’ guys, they were ‘me’ guys. We needed to address that, and we did.”

That’s not to say McKay is resting easy these days. He knows the season’s young, and he’s well aware of how quickly good starts can evaporate. Last season’s Minnesota Vikings began 6-0, for instance, and missed the playoffs. Those 1986 Falcons were undefeated through the first four games, then lost to winless Tampa Bay on their way to an utter collapse. They finished 7-8-1 and also missed the playoffs.

Just as the Falcons know it’s way too early to get comfortable, the Panthers can take heart in the fact that five of their six games after Thanksgiving are within the division, meaning their fate probably won’t be decided until the stretch run. At times against the Falcons, though, they simply sounded exasperated.

Carolina defensive end Al Wallace was whistled for roughing the passer early in the third quarter and his frustration bubbled over for all 73,461 people in the stadium to hear.

“He’s got pads on too!” Wallace whined, his words broadcast over the referee’s microphone.

Yes, Vick is wearing pads. It only seems as if he has wings.