Atlanta ? The Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles couldn’t wait to get started on their rematch of the NFC championship game – two players got kicked out before the game kicked off.

Then, it was the Falcons who got a bit of payback.

Michael Vick ran for one touchdown and set up another with a long pass, enough to give Atlanta a 14-10 victory over the Eagles on Monday night.

Clearly, emotions were running high. Jeremiah Trotter of the Eagles and Kevin Mathis of the Falcons were ejected after a scuffle broke out in pregame warmups, setting an intense tone for the rest of the night.

The Eagles, after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, shut down Vick the rest of the way. But they couldn’t come all the way back, their final bid denied when Donovan McNabb took a vicious hit from Rod Coleman on a fourth-down pass, the ball dropping far short of Terrell Owens streaking down the sideline with 1:33 left.

Vick kneeled a couple of times to run out the clock, giving the Falcons a victory over the team that knocked them out of the playoffs two of the last three years.

Atlanta running back Warrick Dunn, center, runs past Philadelphia's Brian Dawkins, left, in the first quarter. Dunn rushed for 117 yards as the Falcons beat the Eagles, 14-10, Monday night in Atlanta.

Less than eight months ago, the Eagles beat Atlanta, 27-10, for the NFC title in frigid Philadelphia.

“This goes to show how far we’ve come since 2004,” Vick said. “We were playing a great team like Philly on a Monday night with everybody watching. That’s what you play the game for. We certainly stepped up to the challenge.”

About a half-hour before the opening kickoff, with thousands of fans still making their way into the Georgia Dome and the players going through routine warmups, the teams began jawing at each other near midfield.

Trotter, the Eagles’ three-time Pro Bowl linebacker, apparently shoved Mathis, a backup cornerback. Mathis responded with a punch. Then, everyone got into it.

Clearly fired up, Atlanta raced to a two-touchdown lead before the game was 15 minutes old. Vick hooked up with Michael Jenkins and Alge Crumpler on a pair of 18-yard passes, then finished off things with a 7-yard scoring run.

The electrifying quarterback took off around right end, getting so free that he was able to hold the ball aloft at the 5 and leap over the goal line.

The Falcons scored again less than 3 minutes later. Vick lofted a 58-yard pass to Michael Jenkins, who hauled it in just short of the end zone. T.J. Duckett bulled over from the 1 on the next play.

Vick struggled the rest of the way, throwing an interception and losing two fumbles. He completed 12 of 23 passes for 156 yards, but did manage 68 yards rushing.