Falcons move on
ATLANTA — Michael Vick rolled to the left, brushed aside a rusher like a pesky gnat and took off the other way.
He didn’t stop until 47 yards later.
The Atlanta Falcons were off and running — and their one-of-a-kind quarterback had plenty of teammates along for the ride.
Warrick Dunn ran for a 62-yard touchdown, Allen Rossum set an NFL playoff record for punt returns and the Falcons routed the St. Louis Rams 47-17 Saturday night.
Vick? He was right in the middle of things, of course, throwing a pair of touchdown passes and running for 119 yards to break Donovan’s McNabb’s year-old record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a playoff game.
But Vick’s teammates managed to escape his considerable shadow, putting Atlanta within one win of the Super Bowl.
“You saw a team that plays together,” rookie coach Jim Mora said. “You saw a team that’s pretty complete. We like to say in the locker room that the best player on our team is our team. We proved that tonight with the way we played.”
The Falcons advanced to the NFC championship game for just the second time in the franchise’s 39-year history. They will either host Minnesota or travel to Philadelphia next weekend for a spot in the Super Bowl.
Now, a team known mostly for its inept play is on the verge of making it to Jacksonville, Fla., with a first-year coach. And speaking of Mora, he finally gave his family a playoff victory.
His dad, Jim Mora, took New Orleans and Indianapolis to the playoffs six times, only to go one-and-out each time. He’s the only 100-win coach in NFL history without one postseason victory on his resume.
St. Louis won its last two regular-season games just to make the playoffs with an 8-8 mark, then knocked off NFC West champion Seattle last weekend. But the Rams ran out of gas against the Falcons, who were off last week and had not played a meaningful game in almost a month.
It didn’t take long for those fresh legs to pay off, especially when matched against the Rams’ woeful defense and special teams.
“I don’t think I’ve been part of a loss like this,” defensive end Bryce Fisher said. “We played like we had handcuffs on.”
Vick’s big run came on Atlanta’s third offensive play, setting up an 18-yard touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler just three minutes into the game.
The tone was set for the first half: It resembled a track meet more than a football game. The Falcons led 28-17, the teams combining on the second-highest scoring half for a divisional-round game in league history.
Rossum did more running than anyone. The 5-foot-8 return specialist returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown with less than a minute to go in the first half.
He wasn’t done, setting an NFL playoff record with 152 yards on three punt returns — a staggering 50.7-yard average.
“I truly left it all out on the field,” Rossum said. “I’ll have no trouble going to sleep tonight.”
He had returns of 39 and 45 yards in the third quarter, setting up Vick’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Peerless Price and Jay Feely’s 38-yard field goal for a comfortable 38-17 lead.
Dunn rushed for 142 yards on 17 carries, including the 62-yard touchdown that quickly eclipsed Vick’s scamper for the longest run in Falcons’ playoff history.