Vis a vis Vick, was Mora Sr. right?

It seemed spot-on to me at the time.

 

When I started this thread, I had it in the back of my mind to take it a step further ... My kneejerk reaction to Petrino's resignation was that Vick had killed not only the short-term coaching prospects for Mora, but longer-term prospects of the franchise. Petrino might very well have bolted had Vick been available to play, but it's not hard to believe that things would have been different. With Vick on board, the blowup with Hall might not have happened. The musical chairs at quarterback almost certainly wouldn't have happened, and the Falcons would not have the fewest touchdowns in the NFL. Vick, a stablilzing force. Hmmm ... OK, that's pushing it. They wouldn't be a 10 win team with him, but neither would they be a 10-loss team. Without him, though, this was a house of straw, and Vick's decision-making was a lit match.

Maybe Schultz is right. Maybe Petrino leaving is a favor to the Falcons. But this franchise is now dead for probably three more years, and that's more on Vick than it is on Petrino.

 

Beamer also was smart enough to not put a whole lot of restrictions on Vick in terms of team rules. Ask anyone around that program those years, and they'll tell you Vick was untouchable as long as he wasn't invovled in a double murder after curfew.
He waited until Marcus to finally have enough of that family and bounce his young ass.

 

Perhaps I define coach killer differently than you, Mizzou. To me, a coach killer is the kind of player who not only quits on a coach, but gets his teammates to follow suit, thus dooming the coach.

Now, if Mora wanted to go up against the owner, Arthur Blank, who had a notorious man-crush on Vick, that was his own lack of foresight about what would be best for his job. Hell, he probably could have just kept calling rollouts for Vick and then inserted Schaub when Vick inevitably got injured.

Also, Schaub is proving to be almost as fragile as Vick. He's missed what, all or part of five games already this year and isn't likely to play this week, making it six.

Vick clearly wasn't an accurate passer, which is why Mora never should have tried to install an offense BASED on accuracy and timing. Those were never his strong suits. I'm no NFL coach, nor would I pretend to be, but it seems to me, the best way to use Vick would have been with receivers who could stretch the field vertically. That would have let him use that cannon arm and it would have opened up plenty of space underneath for him to scramble and make plays with his legs. I know everyone wanted him to be a passer, but if he was on my team, I'd want him to be a playmaker. Move the chains. Score touchdowns. Protect the football. That's how you win.

I agree trading Schaub was stupid, if only for the reason that Vick was bound to get knocked out of a few games and Schaub would have been a great insurance policy. Schaub is without a doubt a better passer, but he isn't Brett Favre out there either. Maybe he'll prove to be more durable in future seasons, but that certainly goes against the trend of players who are injured early and often in their careers.

Vick is a lot of things, many of them bad, but Mora got the boot because of the way he coached, not because of the way Mike Vick played.

As others have noted -- Dog killer, yes. Coach killer, no. And I feel almost stupid discussing him as a coach killer now (but shit, I already typed that much, may as well post it )

 

VIVA LA VICKBALL!

 

Playoffs? Playoffs?

 

The Moras aren't junior and senior, BTW. They have different middle names.

 

The younger Jim Mora was a fine coach for Atlanta.
He'll win later, I'm sure.