This was one comment Vick couldn’t let pass

Michael Vick was stunned and upset last week after Jim Mora, father of Atlanta Coach Jim Mora, agreed on air with a radio host who referred to the Falcons quarterback as a “coach killer.”

“I think it was inappropriate, but he’s a commentator, and he has every right to say what he wants to say,” Vick told reporters last week. “I’m just going to keep playing football. At the same time, it’s crazy.”

Actually, what the elder Mora said wasn’t that bad. He was being interviewed by Fox host Craig Shemon, who suggested playing the run-happy Vick could harm a coach’s career.

“I think you’re correct, and it worries me a little bit because my son is the head coach down there, you know?” Mora said. “But he’s a great athlete; my son likes him a lot; he’s a good kid. But he’s not a passer. And you need a passer at quarterback to be successful consistently in the National Football League. And he ain’t getting it done in that category. I agree with you.”

A no-hitter

For the first time since joining the Carolina Panthers in 1997, safety Mike Minter didn’t make a tackle in a game he started. In every previous start, he had at least one tackle, and he’s the franchise’s all-time leader. That he didn’t get one last Sunday in a victory over St. Louis was, in his opinion, a good thing.

“When I can go through a game and not have a tackle, you know we’re dominating,” Minter told the Charlotte Observer. “I didn’t get close to anybody. That’s what you call a dominating defense, when a guy can’t even sniff a tackle.”

Kicking themselves

When it comes to the kicking game, the Chicago Bears are more than happy to have a New England castoff. Bears kicker Robbie Gould, who has made 24 consecutive field goals this season, began his career with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State. It was 2005, though, back when New England had Adam Vinatieri, so he didn’t make the team.

The Bears, who play the Patriots in Foxborough today, signed Gould in October 2005 and have no plans to let him get away. The Patriots, though, would love to have a kicker that consistent now that Vinatieri has moved on to Indianapolis.

Missing person

Former USC defensive end Kenechi Udeze, the 20th overall pick by Minnesota in 2004, hasn’t gotten to the quarterback since the exhibition season. He and Oakland’s Tyler Brayton are the only defensive ends with more than three starts who have gone without a sack this season.

“I’ve been pressing since Game 1,” Udeze told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But he said the sacks “are coming, and I can’t get hooked up on my own statistics. I have to play this game the way it was intended to be played, and that’s playing team ball. ... I don’t care if I get a sack as long as we start winning.”

Give them a hand

Philadelphia has a league-high 36 dropped passes, including five in last Sunday’s loss to Tennessee. Also in that game, defensive backs Lito Sheppard and Brian Dawkins dropped sure interceptions that might have been returned for touchdowns.

“We’ve got to get back to basics,” Coach Andy Reid said. “Look the ball all the way in. That’s what they’ve got to focus on and concentrate on. They’re not always doing that.”

No. 2 for Deuce

Arizona rookie Deuce Lutui, the former USC guard, was with his wife last Sunday when she gave birth to their second child, a daughter. Later that day, Lutui started in a victory over Detroit.

“I was asleep in my bed and then my wife’s water breaks at 4 a.m.,” Lutui said after the game. “And I was like, ‘Great timing.’ This was quite an experience, so I’m a little emotionally drained right now, kind of running on fumes.”

Moral victory

First-year St. Louis Coach Scott Linehan, whose team has lost five straight: “I’ve been very happy with the fact that even though we didn’t win, we were still putting ourselves in position at the end of the game to possibly win.”

Now that’s grading on a curve.

-- Sam Farmer