Vick’s Streak Is History

Michael Vick looked left, right and straight ahead, frantically searching for some running room.

For the first time in his career, the Carolina Panthers closed all of Vick’s available lanes and forced him to try to beat them with his arm.

He couldn’t.

Despite his history of running wild against the Panthers, Vick was bottled up all day Sunday and failed to create much offense for Atlanta. The Falcons managed a pair of field goals in their 24-6 loss to Carolina.

“Mike had a lot of success against these guys, and I know they had that in the back of their head,” said Carolina linebacker Chris Draft, who spent five seasons in Atlanta. “So this is like finally getting the monkey off their back.”

It was Vick’s first loss to Carolina (9-3) in six starts. Atlanta (7-5) had won three in a row and 12 of 14 against the Panthers.

“The streak was not going to last long, I knew that,” said Vick, now 5-1 against Carolina. “I was just trying to keep it going as long as I could.”

DeShaun Foster scored two touchdowns and became the first Carolina back to go over 100 yards in a game this season while helping the Panthers build a two-game NFC South lead over the Falcons. They have a one-game advantage over Tampa Bay, setting up another division showdown next week against the Buccaneers.

The Falcons certainly will be questioning their strategy in this game. Carolina was repeatedly embarrassed by Vick on the ground in his five previous starts, when he ran 40 times for 356 yards -- a whopping 8.9 yards a carry.

His success had the Panthers on edge all week, forced to issue repeated denials that Vick was in their heads. But Atlanta Coach Jim Mora wants Vick to improve his passing so the Falcons aren’t forced to rely on his legs so much. Mora stubbornly stuck with that game plan, holding Vick to a baffling three carries for 36 yards.

Vick completed 17 of 35 passes for 171 yards. He was sacked five times and intercepted twice, including Ricky Manning Jr.’s pickoff with 3:57 to play, which ended any hopes of an Atlanta rally. It set up Foster’s second score of the game, a six-yard run.

Foster finished with 131 yards in 24 carries.