Tag: Atlanta Falcons

Thanks to losses by the Bucs and Cowboys, the Falcons now control their own destiny. Win today against the Vikings, and the Falcons clinch a Wild Card spot.

Go Falcons!

Thanks to the Ravens taking down the Cowboys last night 33-24, the Falcons path to the playoffs is clear.  With wins today at Minnesota and Christmas weekend at home against the Rams, the Falcons will be in the post season for the first time since 2004.

The Falcons are still getting 3 today, which means that Vegas thinks this one is a toss up, but the Vikings get a field goal for being at home.  I have to like Atlanta’s chances because they should be able to at least contain the Vikings running game.  If that happens, and Atlanta can establish Ryan-to-White early, this one should come out smelling roses.

Just to be on the safe side, today I am still pulling for the Chargers, Redskins, and Giants.

Go Falcons!

A fun weekend of football is almost here. For Falcons fans, there are lots of games in play that impact their playoff hopes, but as this article states, none of this matters if Atlanta cannot win on the road at Minnesota.

Here’s your NFC rooting guide: Dallas plays Baltimore on Saturday and Tampa Bay faces San Diego at 1 p.m. Sunday. Falcon fans are rooting for the AFC teams, Baltimore and San Diego.

The Falcons will hit the field knowing the outcomes of those two key games. The Philadelphia at Washington game is at the same time 4:15 p.m., while Carolina plays the New York Giants in the Sunday night game. Washington and the Giants are the teams the Falcons fans are rooting for to win.

Regardless of the outcome, it has been a great year for the Falcons. Even if they do not make the playoffs, which will be disappointing, it will be a hell of an off-season. Waiting to next year will actually have some meaning for the first time in a long time because the Falcons will actually be expected to be a Top 10 team next year. Who would have guessed?

Go Falcons! And Ravens, Chargers, Redskins, and Giants!

Congratulations to Roddy White and Michael Turner, who earlier this week were selected as NFC All Pros.

Turner has rushed for 1,421 yards this season, second in the NFL. He also has set the Falcons’ single-season rushing touchdown mark with 15 and has two games left. He signed a six-year $34.5 million free-agent contract with the Falcons in March.

White has 1,301 yards receiving, which is second in NFL, with 84 catches.

Surprisingly, defensive end John Abraham, who is third in the league with 15.5 sacks, did not make the team. Carolina’s Julius Peppers, Minnesota’s Jared Allen and New York’s Justin Tuck were the Pro Bowl picks.

Abraham got screwed. While he may no longer be an every down player, he has been just short of spectacular as a pass rusher. The injustice was sort of corrected when Abraham was named as an alternate, but really, who tracks being named as an NFC All Pro alternate selection?

Matt Ryan was also named as an alternate. Ryan has put together a solid rookie year, but is he really Pro Bowl worthy, even as an alternate?

One final point, before I blow my wad on this post. Does anyone really give a damn about the Pro Bowl? Seriously, I do not think I have watched a Pro Bowl game since my childhood days. It is completely irrelevant, and a waste of time. The NFL should just stick with naming All Pros and do away with the Pro Bowl.

At the beginning of the year, if you would have asked me if I would be happy with a nine win season, I would have said heck yes. Funny how things change …

Atlanta is now sitting at 9-5, good for their first winning season since 2004. And oh by the way, they have never had back-to-back winning seasons, which is pretty incredulous if you stop for a minute to think about what that really means. So suffering Falcons fans are use to misery. It is part of our calling cards. We expect the worse. But a winning season? No one could have predicted such a great year. Playoffs? No way Bob, but here are our Falcons, sitting smack in the middle of the playoff hunt.

The only probably is that Atlanta is on the outside looking in at the playoffs, which brings me full circle. Am I happy with a nine win season? What about a ten or eleven win season? Could the Falcons possibly win eleven games and not make the playoffs? The sad reality is that the Falcons need to win out, but they will still need a ton of help to make a post season appearance.

Trying to understand all the scenarios and tie-breakers is enough to make your head swim, but to make it simple, the Falcons need to win out against the Vikings and Rams, and hope (no, pray) for Tampa or Dallas to cough up a loss. Lurking in the mist are the resurgent Eagles, and thanks to a piss poor call, they own a tie-breaker over the Falcons. Never mind that the Falcons may not have beaten the Eagles, but that muffed punt non-fumble call is now part of revisionist history.

Atlanta’s probability of going 2-0: 75%.
I think the Falcons should be able to win on the road at Minnesota, while the last game of the season against St. Louis is at home, and should be a freebie.

Tampa Bay’s probability of going 2-0: 90%.
Not good news for Falcons fans looking for the Buccaneers to slide. Tampa Bay’s last two games are at home against the Chargers and Raiders. The Chargers are still in the playoff hunt (at least mathematically), but they are having a disappointing year. The Raiders? Well, they suck.

Dallas’ probability of going 2-0: 65%.
Looking for Dallas to slip out of the playoff picture is more promising, but they seem to be on a roll. They finish up the year at home against a tough Baltimore team, and on the road against Philadelphia. If Philadelphia is still in the hunt, you have to like their chances, but that scenario may further complicate Atlanta’s playoff hopes.

Never tell me the odds …

How is Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith still justifying his decision to punt on forth down in the closing minutes of last week’s loss to the Saints?

Smith believed the Falcons’ defense was smart and stout enough to force a three-and-out and let rookie quarterback Matt Ryan try for a miraculous finish, but the Saints never gave back the ball.

“I’ve got no reservations about it,” Smith said Monday. “With 3:15 to go, fourth-and-5 from our 35, I felt like we’d punt them back, which we did. Michael (Koenen) hit a big punt. They had the ball first-and-10 on the 13 with 3:15 to go. We had two timeouts and the two-minute (warning). If we are able to stop them, we were going to get the ball back to our offense in better field position than if we’d taken the gamble on fourth down.”

Hello! What a piss poor call. You are down by 4 so a field goal is not going to hurt you, and you are just as likely have having the Saints run out the clock. The defense did not stop the f’ing Saint all day, so I have no idea why Smith thought his defense was get pick up some magic IQ points.

After the game, this dumb ass had the audacity to compare Ryan to Vick. Let’s don’t go there. He could have gotten his point across without the needless comparison.

Anyhow, tomorrow’s game versus the dreaded Buckaroos from Tampa Bay ought to be a good one. When I purchased my season tickets this year, I never would have predicted that the Falcons would be in prime playoff position with three games to play. What a great turnaround!

Yesterday the Falcons made a statement that they were ready to officially close the book on Vick; long live the Matt Ryan era. I will admit that with Dorsey sitting on the board, I thought Atlanta should go with Dorsey, and then go after Brohm or Henne, and offensive line help. Instead, Atlanta went after Ryan, their franchise QB, and traded back into the first round and
took Sam Baker (USC, LT). Is this enough to set the franchise in the right direction?

• Matt Ryan (QB, Boston College) – Round 1, Pick 3: All the experts say that this is the franchise QB of the draft. I think the bust potential is there, but if the Falcons need a new face to sell tickets, merchandise, and put the Vick debacle behind for good, then Ryan was the right pick.
• Sam Baker (OT, Southern Cal) – Round 1, Pick 21: The Falcons traded back into the first round by sending the Washington Redskins several picks. The Redskins received the Falcons 2nd (34), 2nd (48), and 4th (103) picks. In exchange, the Falcons took Baker with the Redskins 1st (21), and received their 3rd (84), and 5th (154) selections. With the Falcons having needs all over the field, I think the price for Baker was too steep. Baker has had injury problems the last couple of years, but he did only give up 4.5 sacks on his last 889 pass plays. If Baker overcomes his injury problems and can be coached, this Baker could play a pivotal part of rebuilding the offensive line.
• Curtis Lofton (LB, Oklahoma) – Round 2, Pick 6 (37): I admit that I am not crazy about this pick, however, if he can start, or at least get on the field a few times a game, this will be a good pick. If Lofton can talk over MLB, Keith Brooking can move to the WLB, while Michael Boley will continue to hold down the fort at SLB. If Lofton fills the inside for years to come, then everyone will wonder how Lofton fell into the second round.

Bottom line, I am going to give the Falcons a “C” for wow factor, but “B+” for addressing needs of QB and OL. Ryan may turn out to be the real deal, and everyone will wonder why all the fuss for taking Ryan three overall. The price to land Baker was too high. Lofton is not exactly a sexy pick. With all that said, if Baker and Lofton start right away, and Ryan takes over before the year is out, day one has to be considered a huge success. Not exciting, but successful.

Wow, what a game! Atlanta beat Tampa Bay 24-14 in a game that had a little bit of everything. For starters, the crowd was really into the game. I would like to think we were responsible for several false starts, and in some small way a great defensive effort that produced 7 – yes, count ’em – 7 sacks. I am not sure what the final tally was, but Atlanta easily held Tampa Bay under 200 total offensive yards. Simply impressive!

Vick continues to be an enigma. At times he has flashes of genius, which usually results in an amazing highlight reel scramble or a great pass that makes you wonder “how in the heck did he pull that off?” Then he does something pretty boneheaded like throw the ball to a wide open defensive back. Vick has amazing talent, but lacks anything that you would call consistency. It is pretty frustrating, but as long as the Falcons are winning, who the heck cares?

The Dome does not usually rock and roll except for the SEC Championship game, but today was different. Right from the start the crowd was into the game (especially when the Falcons were on defense), and we kept it going full blast for most of the game. I have seen enough Falcons games where the visiting team has as much fan support as the good guys, which is always disappointing, but I guess it has something to do with the nature of Atlanta. When I lived in Atlanta six years ago, everyone living in Atlanta was from somewhere other than Atlanta, and they were always proud to show their non-Atlanta colors. Anyway, except for the preseason this was the first game I made it to this year so maybe the crowd has been this supportive all year long. I am not sure if it came across that way on TV, but it was a raucous performance; the 12th man was alive and well.

Perhaps Atlanta’s defensive lineman Ed Jasper said it best “There’s not a lot of rah-rahs and cheering going on just because we beat the Bucs. We’re trying to get to the Super Bowl.”

Unless things go really bad down the stretch, the Falcons should win the division going away. Right now at 7-2, the Falcons have a commanding three games on second place New Orleans. Things are indeed looking good.

This weekend I managed to make it to my first Falcons game in several years as part of my new season ticket package. Some guys at work hold a block of five seats; one guy from last year dropped out, so I picked up the seat. The seats are pretty good for $125 (all home games including preseason) – they are fairly high up behind the endzone opposite of the score board/TV matrix display. Cheap seats they are, but they do offer a good view for the money.

There was no time to tailgate since I had baby sitting duties for most of the morning through lunch. Plus the kids had to have a nap, which would really hamper my efforts to take my six-year-old son, Joshua, to his first ever sporting event. I am sure the guys will have some better tailgating sessions lined up for the regular season. We will have to just to afford to go, what with beer at $7 per cup. Freaking ridiculous.

I lived in Atlanta for about six years and did not mind it one bit, except for the traffic, which really does suck as much as you read about. We decided to part south of downtown and do the Marta thing – its smarter, so the slogan goes. Parking at the Marta stations is free, and a round trip to the Dome and back was $3.50, which I suppose is not too bad.

Joshua was pretty excited about his first train ride. Thankfully he did not ask me the unanswerable questions about what some of the young punks were singing on the train. Would not have been a pretty sight – that junk was making me blush. Of course that is the price you pay for taking Marta – you have to mingle with inner city thugs that would sooner kick the shit out of you than say “excuse me.”

Poor Joshua. After we got off the train we had to walk, and walk, and walk just to get to our gate at the Dome. Of course our tickets are on the far said of the considerably large stadium. Once safely inside, we had to walk, and walk, and walk again, to go up, up, up to the seats. Joshua did great – he was taking in the sights and sounds, watching pregame warm-ups as we migrated from level to level, oblivious to the fact that it was going to cost a ton for dad to drink a few beers.

Anyway, enough about getting to the game. The game was great if you are a Falcons fan (a nice 37-10 shellacking), but unimpressive if you were there to see Vick, who was scratched from the game as a last minute precaution. Schaub looked like the second coming of Montana. OK, maybe that is a stretch, but he looked really good against Cincinnati’s number one defensive unit.

Joshua was very disappointed that Vick was not playing, but since the Falcons were winning, and scoring at will, he was happy. Tonya, my wife, presented him with a replica Vick shirt right before we left for the game – he was truly happy to have a shirt like dad’s. So we got over Vick not playing, learned a little about football, learned about cheerleaders, and learned how to “boo” the opposing team. Of course I explained that we do not dislike the opposition, we just want our team to win. Something like that to keep his mother from tearing into my hide. I figured the cheerleaders were going to get me in enough trouble so I better explain the booing.

The best part of the game for me was taking Joshua to see a “real” football game. He was a real trooper. The game started at 7:30PM, which is pretty much his normal bed time. He was wide-eyed for most of the 1st quarter, but midway through the 2nd quarter he was ready to go home. He managed to hang in there for the better part of 3 quarters, so all in all his performance was quality stuff!

My parents divorced when I was fairly young, so I do not have memories of my dad taking me to my first football or baseball game. I am not sure who will have the fondest memories of our Falcons experience – I think I will always remember my son’s expressions, and hopefully he will become a lifelong sports fan thanks to his outing with dad.

Father/son bonding is great! I now understand some of those “priceless” Visa commercials – I did spend $50 on food, adult beverages, and mass transit passes, but it was worth every penny to share the experience with my son.

While many may think it is far fetched, Schaub looks like a starter in the making, while quite whispers abound about Vick’s lack of a grasp on the newly installed West Coast offense. I saw Schaub first hand last Saturday as he single handedly dismantled the Bengal’s defense. Schaub not only looked sharp, he looked very, very comfortable playing with the rest of the first stringers while Vick sat and watched.

It had to be disconcerting for Vick to watch Schaub complete his first 6 passes, and look damn impressive in the process. The statistics will not show a beautiful 40 some-odd yard post to Price that was simply amazing; too bad it was lost due to a mysterious penalty [OK, I admin penalties are hard to see from the cheap seats]. Before it was all said and done, Schaub put Atlanta into a comfortable 27-7 halftime lead behind 214 yards (14 for 20) and 3TDs.

Thus far Vick only has 35 passing yards (5 for 9), which is not so impressive. Schaub on the other hand is a rookie, which makes his statistics all the more remarkable. Schaub’s QB rating is 111.0, he has 6 TDs to 2 INTs, and he has completed 66.7% of his passes (42 for 63) racking up 527 yards.

Is it far fetched for Schaub to steal Vick’s job? Perhaps – after all Vick is making a ton of coin. Some of this I say in jest – really, it is just preseason, but it is hard to ignore the underlying statistics. Thankfully, as fun as it is to stir up a QB controversy, it looks like Mora is sitting on a gold mine. Not only does Atlanta have one of the most exciting players on the planet, it looks like Mora and company drafted a truly capable backup in Schaub, which is important because Vick continues to put himself into situations where he gets his nuts knocked into the dirt.

When it is all said and done, I love me some Vick – I even laid out a decent amount of cash for a replica jersey for myself and my wife did the same for Joshua (our oldest son). Say what you will, Vick is a truly amazing talent (especially in Madden), and he is a joy to watch. I just hope Vick comes to terms quickly with the West Coast offense because Atlanta fans need this guy to succeed.