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After Michael Vick broke his right leg four months ago, left tackle Bob Whitfield insisted the Atlanta Falcons were more than a one-man team.
``Anyone will tell you Michael Vick is a great player,'' Whitfield said of the superstar quarterback. ``I agree, but there ain't nobody good enough to go out there and win a football game by himself.''
Maybe so, but as Vick's recovery stretched into late November, Atlanta proved incapable of winning without him.
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A year after advancing to the second round of the playoffs, the Falcons were
the first NFC team eliminated from postseason contention. Ticket master. Dan
Reeves, 29-49-1 since start of 1999, was the first NFL head coach to lose his
job this season when owner Arthur Blank fired him Dec. 9.
The defense allowed 6,108 yards, most in team history. Atlanta ranked last against the pass and had the NFC's worst unit against the run. It surrendered 5.9 yards a play, the most by any team, and came within 12.4 yards of allowing the highest average in a single season.
``The one thing that I think internally we have to do here, first and foremost, is figure out the defense, figure out what happened,'' said president and general manager Rich McKay, who began his third week on the job Monday after being hired away from Tampa Bay.
Wade Phillips, who worked as defensive coordinator the last two years under Reeves before going 2-1 as interim head coach, must convince Blank and McKay that some of the problems were out of his control when he formally interviews later this week.
Phillips praised both men Monday.
``No matter what happens here with me, you have a guy that knows the guidelines, that can help push his team in the direction they want to go,'' he said. ``So you have an owner who wants to and is willing to do it and you have a guy that knows football, and of course now you need a head coach.''
Though Vick returned in the final month to lead the Falcons to a 3-1 mark, the offense still finished with poor statistics -- last in time of possession, last in third-down percentage and next-to-last in scoring.
At least Atlanta will have something to show for its 5-11 record -- either the seventh or eighth pick in the April draft. The NFL will use a coin flip in early February to determine whether Atlanta or Cleveland owns the No. 7 pick.
McKay has said several times that he plans to focus primarily on repairing the defense. The Falcons already have a franchise quarterback in Vick, and the offense has capable weapons with running backs Warrick Dunn and T.J. Duckett, tight end Alge Crumpler and receivers Peerless Price and Brian Finneran.
``You can talk to anybody who knows defense, and Wade Phillips knows defense,'' McKay said. ``Really, at the end of the year, you have to look back and say, 'What transpired here? How could you end up being 32nd in the league in defense?' To me, that's the first question.''
McKay spent Monday at team headquarters and made plans for his first round of interviews. He has received permission to meet before Friday with two defensive coordinators whose teams earned first-round byes in the playoffs -- St. Louis' Lovie Smith and New England's Romeo Crennel.
McKay plans to interview five to seven candidates. He also has sought permission to speak with Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey. San Francisco told McKay he could contact defensive coordinator Jim Mora, the son of the former New Orleans and Indianapolis head coach.
Though college candidates such as LSU's Nick Saban, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Southern Cal's Pete Carroll have surfaced in the Atlanta search, McKay gave no indication he's looking outside the NFL.
Whoever takes charge of
the Falcons could lead the team to the playoffs in 2004. Reeves coached them
to a playoff win at Green Bay last season, but he couldn't overcome injuries
this year to Vick, Dunn, Whitfield, offensive linemen Travis Claridge and Roberto
Garza, and linebackers Sam Rogers and Will Overstreet.