"TAMPA - Michael Vick has had bursts of 10 or more yards this season with greater frequency than Tiki Barber, Frank Gore and Larry Johnson. You expect it from those three. They are running backs. But Vick? A quarterback?  Yeah, you expect it from Vick, too.

"He's a magician," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said. "Any mistake and you're in trouble."  Vick needs only 40 rushing yards to pass former Chicago Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass into first place for the most yards gained by a quarterback in one season. Douglass rushed for 968 yards in 1972. Vick's 929 yards this season has him third behind Douglass and Randall Cunningham, who rushed for 942 yards for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1990.  But there's an even bigger prize to be gained Sunday afternoon. Vick needs 71 yards to become the first quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

"I'd like to be able to say I rushed for 1,000 yards this season," Vick told reporters earlier this week at the Falcons' practice facility in Flowery Branch, Ga. "It's going to mean a lot to me, even though it seems like I didn't try hard to get there."

But wait,

There's more history to be had Sunday.  Falcons kicker Morten Andersen needs seven points to pass Gary Anderson for first place on the NFL's all-time scoring list. Anderson, who made an NFL record 538 field goals, had 2,434 points during his career.  The 46-year-old Andersen, who was signed Sept. 19, two days after former (editor, former?) Atlanta kicker Michael Koenen was 0-for-4 against the Bucs, has made 537 field goals. He has scored in an NFL record 342 consecutive games, a streak that dates back to Dec. 4, 1983 when Andersen kicked for the New Orleans Saints against the New England Patriots.

"It just means you've been around for a long time. You've had good people around you, and you've had good fortune," said Anderson, who's in his 24th NFL season and has played in an NFL record 364 games.

But wait . . .

Atlanta running back Warrick Dunn is just 48 yards shy of his third straight 1,000-yard season and fifth of his career.  In keeping with Sunday's theme, he and Vick are just steps away from taking their place in NFL history as just the fourth teammates to rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. The others are the Miami Dolphins' Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris in 1972, the Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier in 1976 and the Cleveland Browns' Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner in 1985.  Dunn (134 yards) and Vick (127) ran wild against the Bucs in their first meeting this season, a 14-3 victory at the Georgia Dome.  "I think the first time we caught them off guard," Dunn said of Atlanta's spread option offense.

None are as dangerous as Vick, who's had 39 rushes of 10 or more yards this season and owns three of the top four rushing days by a quarterback in NFL history.  "He plays the position differently then we're used to seeing it," Falcons coach Jim Mora said. "When you turn on the TV and watch Mike Vick, you're usually going to see something you didn't see on a football field."

Against the Bucs on Sunday, you might see Vick run into the record books.

"It slices, it dices, makes Julian fries"