Steelers notebook
A healthy Bettis still may not start Sunday PITTSBURGH – Michael Vick may not be the ultimate yet in one-man offenses, but the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons is coming close in only his second year as a pro.
“Certainly we have to try to contain him,” Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Bill Cowher said of Sunday’s opponent.
“I say try because a lot of people have attempted to do so and have not been successful.”
Vick, the first pick of the 2001 draft, accounts for 66 percent of the Atlanta Falcons’ balanced offense when healthy, yet the Falcons have won when a.) Vick has missed a game with an injury, and b.) Coaches have schemed primarily to stop him.
Last week, the Baltimore Ravens used a full 11-man zone to stop Vick, and it worked. The Ravens allowed Vick to complete 12 of 24 passes for his complete-game yardage low this season of 136 yards.
The Ravens also held Vick to a career-low rushing total of minus-5 yards on 7 carries. Vick fumbled for the second and third times this season and threw his first interception.
Atlanta still won, 20-17, but it’s quite obvious by how detailed Cowher became Tuesday with his defensive outline that stopping Vick is paramount to beating the Falcons.
“We have to probably give them some different looks, spy them at times, some of the things a lot of people have tried to do,” Cowher said. “Just be very conscious of lanes and make him have to work laterally on the field and not give him a big alley where he can start working downhill, because when he starts running north-south, he is very dangerous. He is big and he is very, very fast.”
The former Virginia Tech standout, Vick is listed as 6-feet, 215 pounds. He reportedly ran a 4.2-second 40-yard dash before he was drafted. For comparison’s sake, he’s a faster version of Steelers back-up quarterback Kordell Stewart (6-1, 217, 4.5 40 as a college senior).
Cowher said he’ll use Stewart to help mimic Vick on the scout team this week. Cowher, though, said that watching opponents defend Stewart the past seven years won’t help the Steelers defend Vick.
“We don’t game-plan against ourselves,” Cowher said. “We work against ourselves, but when you work in practice you’re never live on the quarterback. You’re never in a situation where you’re truly rushing and trying to catch a guy and apply some of those things, because you never do that in practice.”
Cowher compared Vick’s mobility to that of Donovan McNabb (who accounts for 69 percent of his team’s balanced offense) and a young Steve McNair.
“This guy is different,” Cowher emphasized. “He’s much faster. He’s really fast. We’d like to get a good rain storm come in here that can just sit over Heinz Field for about 24 hours prior to kickoff.”
The Ravens oftentimes rushed Vick with only three players, dropping eight into coverage and keeping at least one spy near the line of scrimmage to mirror Vick’s movements.
“Whether or not you’re spying with a defensive lineman, who’s not involved with the rush, or you do it with a linebacker or a defensive back, those are certainly some of the looks you look at,” Cowher said. “You try to fill all the lanes, potentially at times with blitzes, which give him less lanes to look at and you’re occupying more space. Now, even with those blitzes you may be more under control than you would normally be. Your contain has got to be there. Your pressure lanes on the inside are probably more important than they’ve ever been, that you don’t get overloaded or pushed to a side so he can just step up and go, so it’s more of an awareness.
“Again, it’s the different looks that you can present to him. Maybe at times you rush eight and other times you rush five and six, so you have to present him with different looks to create a little bit of indecision and not let him get comfortable in making quick decisions. Even in the best of plans, he’s going to sometimes break a tackle or outrun someone and you have to stay back and live with that and not get frustrated by it.”
The Falcons do have other weapons, most notably alternating halfbacks T.J. Duckett and Warrick Dunn. The 254-pound rookie Duckett has rushed for 348 yards at an average of 4.3 per carry. Dunn, the second-leading receiver on the team with 24 catches, has rushed for 342 yards at an average of 3.6 per carry. Fullback Bob Christian is one of the better blocking backs in the league.
“They’re running the football well and they’re playing good defense,” Cowher said. “This football team is 5-3, a missed kick from being 6-2. (Vick)’s a big part of it.”