Gunzlingr
08-07-2003, 09:05 AM
Greenville, S.C. -- It was the ultimate emergency. Lose that game and the Atlanta Falcons' season would have been as good as over. The last stroke, the final blow, dead, all those calamitous benedictions.
Mike Vick, the "meal ticket," had been in recovery since midway of the Tampa Bay game, brought down with a damaged shoulder, luckily not the one he throws with. Doug Johnson had come on in relief, and while his ratio of completions looked good, the three interceptions didn't. And for one of them to have been picked off by that oversized circus act, Warren Sapp . . . Ugh!
The Giants were next, on the road. It was Johnson's game alone, to win or lose. Vick would be a spectator.
To this day, coach Dan Reeves says, "It was the key to our season. If we had lost to the Giants, we'd have been 1-4. That would have been too much to make up
more (http://www.ajc.com/falcons/content/sports/columns/bisher/index.html)
Mike Vick, the "meal ticket," had been in recovery since midway of the Tampa Bay game, brought down with a damaged shoulder, luckily not the one he throws with. Doug Johnson had come on in relief, and while his ratio of completions looked good, the three interceptions didn't. And for one of them to have been picked off by that oversized circus act, Warren Sapp . . . Ugh!
The Giants were next, on the road. It was Johnson's game alone, to win or lose. Vick would be a spectator.
To this day, coach Dan Reeves says, "It was the key to our season. If we had lost to the Giants, we'd have been 1-4. That would have been too much to make up
more (http://www.ajc.com/falcons/content/sports/columns/bisher/index.html)