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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 > September > 08
Monday, September 8, 2008
Just one game — but a statement nonetheless
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — For a franchise that has seldom seen anything go according to script, the opener played out as if ordained by a benevolent deity. For one of the few times in Falcons’ history, everything that could have gone right went right. Usually it’s the other way around.
An offensive line that was supposed to be as brutish as Barney Fife opened holes broad enough to hammer out 318 yards rushing. A career backup set the team single-game rushing record in his first Atlanta start. A rookie quarterback threw a touchdown pass on his first delivery. A skeptical city sat up and took notice and, wonder of wonders, began to smile.
And the Falcons themselves? They awoke Monday morning and went back to work.
“We have to show everyone it wasn’t a fluke and we’re not just riding a wave,” said Todd McClure, the center. “Our approach is: ‘It’s over. We’ve done it. Now we’ve got to do it again.’ “
As festive as this September Sunday was, 15 Sundays remain. During the preseason, the new architect Thomas Dimitroff kept stressing that the Falcons’ evolution “is a process.” Back then, his mantra sounded like a plea for patience. After this improbably rousing opener, it can stand as a caution.
The Falcons aren’t yet where they want to be. You don’t raze a franchise in one offseason and turn it into a fortress overnight. What transpired Sunday was the strongest indication yet that this method has merit and that these men are skilled implementers. Said Matt Ryan: “What we did was set a standard for ourselves.”
They won’t always meet that standard. The competition will get tougher — it could hardly do otherwise — and the Falcons’ weaknesses will be brought to light. Ryan will have days when he plays like a rookie. The line will find that not every opponent buckles at the first sign of aggression. The young cornerbacks will get exploited the way young cornerbacks do.
Ryan again: “It’s still so early. To say we’ve proved anything is a little premature.”
Students of Falcon history are a fatalistic lot, and they can cite dire precedents of seasons that burned brightly for one Sunday. The rushing record Michael Turner eclipsed was set by Gerald Riggs in a powerful victory at New Orleans in Week 1 of 1984, and those Falcons finished 4-12. The huckster Jerry Glanville saw his first team beat Houston by 20 points in its opener, and those Falcons finished 5-11.
Said linebacker Michael Boley: “I don’t think we’ve proved a point at all. It’s a long season — 16 games.”
Maybe these Falcons, having surprised us once, will shock us utterly and win seven or eight. More likely it’ll be five or six. But at this nascent stage winning is less important than building, of proving that this franchise is at last in good hands. Speaking of Sunday’s victory, Boley said: “After the offseason we had, we kind of put out a statement — we’re not as bad as everyone thinks.”
We now have cause to believe these Falcons won’t be an embarrassment. They’ll play hard and sometimes well, and they’ll win some games — no 1-15 for this crew! — and they’ll leave us eager for 2009 to arrive, and we as an audience won’t have to drape shopping bags over our heads until then. We’ll be able to relish moments and deeds and even fly off on the wings of hyperbole.
Writing for SI.com, Jay Clemons called Ryan’s touchdown to Michael Jenkins “the greatest-ever first pass by a rookie.” Hearing, even the object of that accolade was moved to laugh.
“I don’t know how you quantify that,” Ryan said. “But I’ll take it.”
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Bradley’s Buzz: Matty Mania!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Official Matt Ryan hyperventilation index
Remember all those folks who wanted the Falcons to take Glenn Dorsey instead of Matt Ryan? Jay Clemons of SI.com says the Falcons took the right man even if Dorsey turns out to be Bob Lilly or Mean Joe Greene or Warren Sapp. And Clemons calls Ryan’s touchdown to Michael Jenkins “the greatest-ever first pass by a rookie.”
(Technically, Clint Longley’s bomb to Drew Pearson on Thanksgiving Day 1974 was the 20th pass of the quarterback’s first NFL game. But I only know that because I checked.)
Remember all those folks who said it was crazy to start a rookie quarterback? Don Banks, also of SI.com, praises the Falcons for their sagacity. So take that, Boomer Esiason!
And it was with great chagrin that local writers watched Boston College lose its home opener to Georgia Tech without Ryan. Steve Buckley of the Herald and Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe essentially wrote the same thing: That Chris Crane, who’s now the Eagle quarterback, is no Matty Ice. Here’s Buckley’s take, and here’s Shaughnessy’s.
Having spent the weekend in New England, I can attest that the BC community regards Ryan as irreplaceable. (There’s a life-size photo of him on the press box stairwell, for what that’s worth.) And Chris Cameron, the astute BC publicist, says the thing the Falcons liked most about Ryan — above his arm, his smarts and his toughness — was his ability to shrug off bad games.
That attribute might not seem like a big deal the morning after a bravura NFL debut. But it will become a big deal soon enough.
Then again, it was just Detroit
And those who follow the Lions are already in high dudgeon. Here’s Mitch Albom of the Free Press ripping the local team for getting ripped by the Falcons. And here’s Bob Wojnowski of the News doing the same.
You know, I’ve written one or two of those columns over the years while following the Falcons. It’s kind of refreshing when the vitriol flows the other way.
A Georgia team and its schedule, but not that one
We all know Georgia’s road looks difficult bordering on cruel, but Thomas Neumann of ESPN.com notes that Georgia Tech has had the nation’s third-toughest non-conference schedule over the past 10 years.
Yes, playing Georgia every year fluffed up that ranking some. But let’s not forget that the Jackets played Auburn and BYU and Notre Dame home-and-home, and they won four of those six games.
So does that mean Chan Gailey wasn’t so bad after all? Sorry, but you won’t find any takers for that argument this week. Not after the first big win of the Paul Johnson era.
Blank, Vick and The New York Times
Here’s a little parlor game: Read any profile of Arthur Blank and see how far down in the story Michael Vick is mentioned. Joe Nocera, a business columnist for The New York Times, waits until the sixth paragraph to drop Vick’s name, which signifies some restraint.
There are a few nuggets included — trying to distance himself from Vick, Blank notes that he “had dinner with him maybe once a year” — but there’s also an oversimplification. Nocera writes that “Blank turned a blind eye to Vick’s previous brushes with the law, choosing instead to re-sign him to a contract that included a $20 million signing bonus.” Not exactly.
On Dec. 23, 2004, the day Vick signed his famous contract, there was only one slight smudge on Vick’s record, and that was the strange case of the Rolex in the airport security line. (And that hadn’t yet come to light publicly, and no charges were ever brought.) The Ron Mexico lawsuit hadn’t been filed. The water-bottle thing wouldn’t happen until January 2007. The dogfighting allegations wouldn’t surface until April of that year.
Perhaps Blank should have known, somehow, that Vick wasn’t as a nice a guy as the Falcons had hoped. But, two days before Christmas in 2004, there was little to indicate as much.
Smoke goes racin’ and gets racy
Tony Stewart is my favorite NASCAR driver because he once drove me around Atlanta Motor Speedway for three laps with either making fun of my skittishness or crashing into the wall. And Mike Guy’s profile of Stewart in Rolling Stone didn’t make me like him any less.
A word of warning, though: Guy’s story includes R-rated language and imagery, so kids under 17 shouldn’t click on the link. (I’m reasonably confident this admonition will deter no one, but I offer it all the same.)
Oh, and Stewart makes it clear how much he hates Kurt Busch, which isn’t objectionable in the least. Because everyone hates Kurt Busch.
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