TAMPA, Fla. -- On an afternoon when Tampa Bay thoroughly undressed the NFL's hottest player, unceremoniously stripped Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick of his cape and knocked that big "S" off his jersey, it takes a quasi-sartorial term to describe the carnage wrought by the Bucs defense.

In essence, the NFL's top-ranked defensive unit broke out The Full Monte, for Sunday's statement victory.

	Greg Spires had one sack and three tackles against the Falcons.

By the conclusion of a 34-10 victory, an outing in which the Bucs defense transformed Vick into a mere mortal, the quarterback was left more bare than a naked bootleg gone bad.

For that embarrassing circumstance, credit veteran defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, the NFL's highest paid assistant and worth every cent of the nearly $2 million the Buccaneers will reward him over the next two years. By designing a brilliant game plan that limited Vick to 140 total yards, and halting the Atlanta eight-game unbeaten streak, he brought the electrifying quarterback and his mates back to earth with a thud.

And he performed the seemingly unfathomable task -- after all, no one last week bothered to ask Vick about how he planned to attack the Tampa Bay defense, did they? -- by scrapping the Bucs' trademark "Cover 2" zone.

"Yeah, we put in some new wrinkles," acknowledged an unassuming Kiffin, dressed in an open red-and-blue flannel shirt with a blue T-shirt underneath, after the game. "I mean, that guy (Vick) is special, believe me. But we didn't want to go too far. On Saturday night, we were adding one more little thing and one of our guys said, 'Hey, Monte, we've got enough to beat him. Just let us go after him, huh?' And they were right."

Indeed, the Tampa Bay defense did it more with scariness than scheming, the league's fastest unit mirroring Vick's speed and not allowing him to break containment for a big play on the ground. The Falcons had 49 snaps and Tampa Bay used a "Cover 2" on just three plays. Instead, the crafty Kiffin employed "Cover 3" and man-to-man schemes generously, and put eight defenders in the box to help augment normal containment.

If the blueprint wasn't perfect, it was close to it, Bucs players agreed.

By unofficial count, Vick was hurried a dozen times, and he was sacked on two occasions. And on the ground, the man who last week established a new NFL record by ringing up an incredible 173 yards, on Sunday registered 15 yards on five carries with a long carry of just six yards.

Vick also completed 12 of 25 passes for 125 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. The Falcons had season lows in yardage (241), first downs (10) and net passing yards (113), and their 68 rushing yards represented their second-lowest total of the campaign.

Vick's statistics in the two losses to the Bucs, the other coming Oct. 6, in the Falcons' last defeat prior to Sunday afternoon: 16 completions in 37 passes, for 162 yards, one interception, one touchdown, and an anemic passer rating of 54.0. On the ground, six carries for 16 yards.

"We didn't put a cape on his back today," said defensive end Simeon Rice, whose streak of five games with multiple sacks was ended, but who had at least four hurries and was held shamelessly by Atlanta left offensive tackle Bob Whitfield all day. "The rest of the world lets him be Superman, but we weren't going to do it, 'cause we're not like everybody else. I don't think he could even conceptualize that there are defenders who can run with him. He better have it in his mind, though, every time he plays this defense."

Suffice it to say, the Hall of Fame won't be phoning Falcons headquarters this week, seeking the cleats Vick wore on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the Kiffin game plan, and the near-perfect execution of his veteran unit, Vick appeared to be clad in clodhoppers as he tried unsuccessfully to dance free of the relentless Bucs rushers.

And make no mistake, the game was won up front, with the Tampa Bay line manhandling a suspect Atlanta blocking quintet whose lack of pedigree could not be camouflaged here Sunday by Vick's characteristic derring-do.

Primarily because of tackles Warren Sapp and Anthony McFarland (who returned to the lineup after missing four games with a broken arm), and ends Simeon Rice and Greg Spires, it was mostly a day of derring-don't for Vick. He essentially made two big plays all day, a 20-yard completion to tight end Alge Crumpler in the second quarter when he deked two tacklers, and a 47-yard completion to wide receiver Trevor Gaylor on the final play of the third quarter that accounted for 26 percent of the Falcons' total yardage.

Beyond that, hemmed in and forced to stand in the pocket and survey a Bucs secondary that crowded the field between the hashes, Vick looked ordinary by any standards. He also looked confused much of the time, and he should be excused for that, given the subtle coverage alterations Kiffin made during the week of preparation.

	“	We didn't put a cape on his back today. The rest of the world lets him be Superman, but we weren't going to do it, 'cause we're not like everybody else. I don't think he could even conceptualize that there are defenders who can run with him. He better have it in his mind, though, every time he plays this defense. ”
		— Simeon Rice, Buccaneers defnesive end

Said a still-confident but slightly-rattled Vick, whose MVP credentials got him little more than Most Vilified Person status from the Bucs and a legion of throaty fans: "I've never run against a team like that. There was nothing I could do. They kept me contained. Every time it seemed like there might be a lane to run to, they cut it off, and closed it down."

As if all of that wasn't enough, Vick was sent an early message by the Bucs defense, who hit him hard and hit him early.

On the third play of the game, a third-and-eight situation, Vick was flushed from the pocket and tried to scramble up inside. He was planted by Tampa Bay weakside linebacker Derrick Brooks, who played a phenomenal game, with 10 tackles and a pass defensed. Later in the quarter, on a third-and-one from the Tampa Bay 39-yard line, Vick tried a bootleg to the right, and he was smashed for a six-yard loss by strong safety John Howell.

A second-year veteran, Howell had a superior game in replacing the injured John Lynch, who left with a neck injury in the first quarter. Then again, club management should award game balls to the entire defense, so stout was the unit throughout the contest. Unsung standouts like Spires, who had a sack and was in Vick's face all day, played a major role. And the usual standouts, like Rice and Sapp and Brooks, all stepped up in a game where Tampa Bay needed a win to retain first place in the surprisingly competitive NFC South.

The Falcons coaching staff played right into Kiffin's hands as well, coming out conservatively, and aligning largely in two- and three-tight end sets. The reliance on the tight formations -- on their 28 first-half snaps, the Falcons had three tight ends on the field for nine plays, and two tight ends 11 times -- clearly signaled the Falcons' fear of the Tampa Bay pass rush. In particular, the Falcons made sure Rice, who entered the game as the league leader with 14½ sacks, was double-teamed on most plays.

But the ploy didn't keep Rice, who played with great discipline and refused to allow Vick to get outside of him, out of the backfield. In fact, Atlanta only reached the end zone because referee Tony Corrente somehow ignored two blatant Whitfield holds in a three-play sequence on the one touchdown drive.

Worse, the tight formations essentially helped to box in Vick, because the Bucs were able to play closer to the line of scrimmage. The Falcons plight was exacerbated by the absence of tailback Warrick Dunn, the former Bucs starter, who dressed by didn't play because of a sore ankle. Because the Falcons have no legitimate deep threat, and the Tampa Bay secondary had no fear of the Atlanta wideouts, the field was constricted.

And, thus, so was Vick.

"To some extent," said Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber, "they played right into our hands. But we had a great game plan and we made a great player look pretty average, you know? Monte gave us a lot to work with and, with this defense, it was more than we needed."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.