It's tempting to fall into the trap of conventional wisdom, the "we all know" school of thinking.  It's a mental short hand that eliminates the need for analysis.  A good example is the way the media, and alot of fans, evaluate Michael Vick.  As in, "runs too much, great arm but not a great passer, his strengths limit the Falcons offensively, not a field general."

Casey Stengel, to settle arguements with writers, used to say "You can look it up."  So I did.  And I used another quarterback for comparison.  A classic quarterback as opposite Michael Vick as you can get.  The anti-Vick if you will-Drew Bledsoe.  Quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys who, like the Falcons, have had an up and down season.

Let's start with the idea that a quarterback leads the offense and is responsible for generating points and first downs.  Vick's Falcons had 274 first downs, 35 touchdowns, and 23 field goals.  Bledsoe's Cowboys had 261 first downs, 35 touchdowns, and 19 field goals.  Granting that Bledsoe had 166 passing 1st downs to Vick's 138, a quarterback works within an offense and this year the Falcons had a better running game than the Cowboys most weeks.

Now, about Vick running too much.  It is worth noting that the Falcons were 5-1 when Vick ran for 50 yards or more.  His mobility helped limit Falcon opponents to 2 sacks or fewer 6 times, in which games Atlanta was 5-1.  Atlanta was 3-3 when he ran fewer than 7 times.  Conversely, the less mobile Bledsoe was 3-4 in games where he was sacked at least 4 times.

Most people concede Vick has a great arm, but question his skills as a passer.  Some wonder how Vick would do away from the Falcons run-oriented attack.  Well, Atlanta was 3-2 with Vick throwing 30 times or more.  In six games that he had a quarterback rating above 90 the team was 2-4 which implies that even when Vick throws the ball well and more often the result on the scoreboard is no better.  One statistic critics might legitimately bring up is that 2 of his 30+ passing days (against the Panthers and Bears) resulted in a 39.1 and 25.8 passing rating respectively and two losses.  However, few quarterbacks travel to Charlotte or Chicago and come away with glittering stat lines.

Drew Bledsoe, is a very good passer, given time to throw.  In games he has a 90+ rating Dallas is 8-1.  But here is food for thought.  Dallas is 5-1 when Bledsoe doesn't throw the ball more than 25 times.   In other words, the running game is the surest path to victory when it works well and quarterbacks win more games handing the ball off than throwing it.  That's the context Vick is working within in Atlanta and it's hard to fault it (or Vick) when it seems to be effective.

Atlanta still has some problems to work out.  The emotional state of their coach being an obvious starting point.  But, whatever the problems in Atlanta, they don't start (and certainly don't finish) with Michael Vick. The jury may be out on Vick as a great quarterback, but there is no doubt he is already a very good one.