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As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > August > 22
Friday, August 22, 2008
Falcons must handle Ryan right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s all but official: Matt Ryan is going to start against Detroit on Sept. 7. We can (and surely will) debate for the next decade whether this was the wisest course, but it’s the course the Falcons will take.
“We’re going to go back and watch the tape,” said Mike Smith, the coach, but that’s just a coach talking. There’s nothing more to see. Ryan is No. 1 now and, this franchise can only hope, for the next 10 years.
To say the rookie has seized the job would be a slight overstatement. He has been competent in preseason games, competent as opposed to spectacular. And that’s OK. Competent is a marked upgrade over what we witnessed last fall. But with any rookie quarterback there’s much more at stake than Year 1.
The Falcons wouldn’t have spent the draft’s No. 3 pick and have sunk $72 million into Ryan if they weren’t reasonably certain he could start. The issue was always going to be when, and the more they’ve seen the more Smith and Thomas Dimitroff have leaned toward immediacy. And, for all Ryan’s conspicuous aplomb, it’s reasonable to assume this fast-tracking is partially a function of another rookie’s aptitude.
Smith and Dimitroff aren’t fools. They can cite all the distressing precedents, and they know the quickest way to ruin a young quarterback is to deploy him behind lousy blocking. But in their first two practice games the Falcons have seen enough of this much-lampooned offensive line to suspect it isn’t as bad as advertised, and what they witnessed Friday surely served as the clincher.
Working against a stout Tennessee defense, Ryan was sacked once in six series, and that was on a bootleg when Jevon Kearse went unblocked. Left tackle Sam Baker, he of the infamous “short arms,” worked against Kyle Vanden Bosch, who has 31 sacks over the past three seasons, and held his own. And if a rookie manning the most important line position can hang tough until he actually learns what he’s doing … well, the rookie quarterback will stand a fighting chance.
This isn’t to say Ryan won’t have some 5-for-20 days. Rookie quarterbacks do. But he has thrown 52 preseason passes and completed 32, and only one was intercepted. On Friday night he needed six series and one nifty Jerious Norwood run to generate his second touchdown of the month, but the cold truth is that there haven’t been many Falcons touchdowns (four, to be precise) in the exhibitions and there won’t be many in the season ahead.
In the grand scheme, the date of Ryan’s first start won’t matter. What’s important is that he not be allowed to fail abjectly. Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning muddled through wretched rookie seasons — Aikman was 1-11 as a starter his first year, and Manning’s Colts were 3-13 — but that’s not the preferred career arc. The Falcons can’t be afraid to pull Ryan on those 5-for-20 days, nor should they be reluctant to sit him if the season gets out of hand.
“You have to adjust to the speed of the game,” Ryan said Friday. “Sometimes you have to go faster, and sometimes you have to slow yourself down.”
That sounds like a plan. We’ve seen enough of these Falcons to know they’re going to lose a lot of games. We’ve seen enough of Ryan to believe he’s capable of winning a lot of games if handled properly. Over these next four months, this franchise has to figure out how to ensure that losing now doesn’t preclude winning later.
Permalink | Comments (161) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
By Oct., Tech’s offense will be up and running
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It worked at Georgia Southern, where he had no size. It worked at Navy, where he had no size or speed. Why wouldn’t Paul Johnson’s offense work even better at Georgia Tech, where he has access to both?
The “option-based spread,” as Tech officially dubs the stylized offense, differs from the spread option that is all the rage, and soon enough Tech fans will be saying, “Vive la difference!” One of the great assets of Johnson’s OBS is that nobody else runs the exact same thing, and in college football, novelty is power.
Even if an opponent sees the spread option once or twice — meaning West Virginia’s or Florida’s version thereof — it won’t be seeing Paul Johnson’s. And there can be no real simulation for it in practice: Who else runs the ball as a matter of course but deploys no fullback and no tight ends? Who else has A-backs and B-backs?
“If you’re not disciplined on defense, this offense is difficult to stop,” said Tech defensive tackle Vance Walker, who has viewed the OBS in practice. And how many opposing defenses can develop that much attention to oddball detail in the course of one week’s preparation?
Said offensive tackle Andrew Gardner: “Everything is predicated on running this offense as fast as we can.”
Given a modicum of time — a month, say — that rapidity will become Tech’s ally. At the season’s onset, alas, it should be something less. The first few games will be strewn with missed reads and fumbled pitches. (Remember, the Jackets are new to this thing, too.) Come October, however, the OBS stands to be running at a high rate of RPMs.
Look for Tech to lose three of its first four conference games, with all three losses coming on the road. Then stand back and watch as the transformation takes hold. Look for the same Tech team to win three of its final four ACC tests, to finish .500 in the league and to finish above .500 all told.
As Johnson has said: “In my mind, it’s been proved this offense will work.” We’re about to see further verification. We’re about to see the OBS set up shop in one of the high-falutin’ BCS leagues, and we’re about to see the rest of the ACC scrambling to figure out how to stop it.
(Editor’s note: Want a different take on how Tech’s new offense will fare? Terence Moore says the option offense will drop the ball in ‘08.)
Permalink | | Categories: Tech/ACC
Why UGA will win it all: The schedule
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia will win the BCS national title because it has the team and the seasoning, and also because it has the schedule. That’s correct. The schedule many folks feel will ultimately derail the Bulldogs’ run will actually speed their ascent.
Most teams ranked No. 1 in preseason carry some expectation of going undefeated. Because of its scheduled degree of difficulty, Georgia will surely be forgiven one loss, and maybe (as was the case with LSU last year) even two. Repeat after me: You don’t have to be No. 1 in the final BCS standings to win the national title; you only have to be No. 2.
The schedule will also serve to focus the Bulldogs on the weekly task, as opposed to the longer view. They can’t fixate on Florida in Jacksonville because they first have to negotiate South Carolina in Columbia and Arizona State in Tempe and Alabama and Tennessee between the hedges and then LSU in Baton Rouge. They have before them a step-by-step proving ground, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Nor is it a bad thing to be preseason No. 1. Only one of the past four BCS champions was ranked lower than No. 2 when it started — the exception was Florida in 2006 — and because the coaches’ poll figures in the BCS standings, it’s nice to have those folks’ attention.
“We all know it doesn’t matter where you start as much as where you finish,” coach Mark Richt said, “but the coaches’ poll is part of the decision-making process to see who plays in the big game down the road … It’s nice to have a third of [that selection process] think highly of your team as you begin.”
About the team: It’s the best Richt has had. There’s All-America talent at the skill positions, quickness across the defensive board and a burgeoning sense of self-worth fired by last season’s closing burst. Granted, lots of teams feel good about themselves in August, but no team has more cause to feel good than Georgia.
Said Knowshon Moreno, the great tailback: “Any team will be disappointed if it doesn’t win the national championship. That’s what every team is out to win.”
Only one team, however, will win the 2008 BCS title. Knowshon Moreno is part of that team.
(Editor’s note: Want a different take on how UGA’s schedule affects the Bulldogs’ chances of winning the national championship? Terence Moore says it’s too tough.)
