Accelerator pedal laggy?

Hi all,

I have owned my '73 dart sport 318 for a month now. What I have noticed is that the accelerator pedal is pretty low near 'the firewall.. I seem to have to push it pretty far to get acceleration. There's no indication that there is no power, the pedal just seems a bit deep.

Now the accelerator cable (I guess) has some slack near the pedal (sticks out, so the pedal has to move some way to actually pull on the cable)..

Could I tilt the pedal up a bit, and shorten the part of the cable that sticks out too, so the pedal "grips" the cable sooner? Or would that do more damage than good..?

I attached some pictures of the current and possible future situation; hope that clarifies my story. (1: deep pedal, 2: possible adjustment, 3: current position)

Thanks for thinking along!