Falcons

By honest_abe

October 19, 2006 03:46 PM | Link to this

now that we found out mike vick can’t audible at the line of scrimmage .. based on the fact that the steelers are very proficient in throwing an array of zone blitzes should confuse mike… the birds should be out of timeouts by the end of the 1st quarter…

birds win, birds win, birds win…

By Jeff

October 19, 2006 03:47 PM | Link to this

Any chance they try PASSING to Dunn and Norwood?

By nitwit

October 19, 2006 04:08 PM | Link to this

Sure there is a chance to throw to Dunn or Norwood………….only to have the ball land at their feet or have the ball thrown behind them. Their best bet for a passing game is to get pretty far behind without alot of time left and have Vick throw the ball about 12 yards to Crumpler and let him ramble for about 15 more yards. Man you talk about racking up some impressive passing numbers.

By Andy

October 19, 2006 04:12 PM | Link to this

Steve,

Is it true that Mike Vick isn’t allowed or does not audible at the line during games?

I am not worried abbout Vick because I never raised him to the lofty standards others did. If Knapp doesn’t screw with his confidence, Vick will be a 55% career passer. He will be the same QB he was under Reeves, a playmaker to fear. He was a decent passer and great runner. That is all you need to win with a great defense and great run game. He should be able help this team win a Super Bowl, but if the focus is on trying to make him a 60-65% QB with great stats…might as well get No. 3 warmed up.

Anyway, all that needs to be done is to have the pocket move on some pass plays, have some check downs to RBs and such and we should be fine. The biggest concern should be our D-line’s health. They are monsters when together and if they are not, the Steelers could roll a la the G-men.

By A-Town Vet

October 19, 2006 04:12 PM | Link to this

Wyche , You make a good point about how the Falcons should utilize our passing game to keep the running lanes open but i bet you did not hear this from the Falcons coaching staff. Knapp’s play calling is going to get someone seriously hurt. If what people are saying about the QB’s not being able to audible then only the grace of God will help the Flacons move the ball this weekend.

By Boogie

October 19, 2006 04:13 PM | Link to this

You are scaring me! Time for the trick plays to come out. Double reverse, Flea Flicker, Running-back pass,Wide receiverpass, Fumblerooski. Why not nothing else seems to work!!!! Hope the defence can keep them under 30 points. I guess they will be saying 3 and 3 is not bad.

By VolsRock

October 19, 2006 04:15 PM | Link to this

How many time-outs can you call before snapping the ball? I can see it now … set—time-out; set—time-out; set—time!!!! DAMN, coach, they keep changing things at the line on me!

By Andy

October 19, 2006 04:15 PM | Link to this

Why don’t we try some bootlegs and passes over the middle to our TE. That should suprise the Steelers.

By mountain_jim

October 19, 2006 04:17 PM | Link to this

Expect the Falcons to utilize a passing game - without being willing to start the only WR that can catch the ball? ……. right..

Fire Knapp! All he came up with this offseason/preseason was a zone-read - no audibles, no screens, no slants, no passes for Dunn, no variety, no deception, no chance.**

Fire Stewart! When is he going to teach the WRs to get open and catch the friggin ball when it hits their hands?

By Falconsbeliever

October 19, 2006 04:47 PM | Link to this

Forget this week’s scheme. Knapp has to go!!

Many of you seem to realize that Vick had much better success passing under Reeves. But do you all realize who his WR’s were? They were Quentin McCord and Trevor Gaylor.

Now, I know Roddy White and Michael Jenkins are not great, but they are better than McCord and Gaylor, that’s for sure. If Vick can have such success with those, guys, shouldn’t he be able to have the same success with White nad Jenkins. The only explanation is coaching.

In addition, Warrick Dunn had 50 receptions the year he played with Vick, and Dan Reeves was here. Dunn hasn’t caught more than 37 passes since Mora and Knapp took over.

For Mora/Knapp to say Dunn is needed to pass block is ridiculous, particularly since Vick was sacked seven times last week, and has been sacked more times this season than any other QB.

Mora and Knapp’s failure to throw passes to Dunn and Norwood out of the backfield is inexcusable. They should be fired.

By Jeff

October 19, 2006 04:54 PM | Link to this

Vick CAN throw the ball. Not only did he have success under Reeves with Quentin McCord and Trevor Gaylor, but he also won the MVP of the Pro Bowl a few years ago. He won the MVP after passing for 250 yds.

Sure, it’s the pro bowl, but you have to be able to pass with some profeciency in order to have success.

PEOPLE, THE PROBLEM IS GREG KNAPP AND THE OFFENSE.

By bravomann

October 19, 2006 04:56 PM | Link to this

Let Mike be Mike,But get some pass protection rolling out with him. That will keep the Steeler D to play more soft or tire the heck out of them, either way it saves Mike from taking blindside shots and should open up counter run plays. Oh yeah Jenkins should ride some pine until Leile gets tired out running deep routes and catching the friggin’ ball, He needs to start.

By VolsRock

October 19, 2006 05:08 PM | Link to this

TIME-OUT! TIME!

By Singletary

October 19, 2006 05:12 PM | Link to this

Hi to all and Jeff… it’s a vicious circle but the other variable left out of your pretty comprehensive list below is the OLine!

Many of you seem to realize that Vick had much better success passing under Reeves. But do you all realize who his WR’s were? They were Quentin McCord and Trevor Gaylor.

Now, I know Roddy White and Michael Jenkins are not great, but they are better than McCord and Gaylor, that’s for sure. If Vick can have such success with those, guys, shouldn’t he be able to have the same success with White nad Jenkins. The only explanation is coaching.

By VolsRock

October 19, 2006 05:17 PM | Link to this

Hey Coach Mora, when things start looking bad against the Steelers Please try something different other than taking names on your clipboard … it may look like your doing your job but that’s not the case … you may be making notes but you never make the changes that need to be made. If you’re lost there on the sideline, wave to the Blank-ety Blank and he’ll lead you off. Never have seen such expressions of total dumbfounded looks on the leaders of an NFL franchise in my life and I’ve been watching the game for a half-century! That includes you and all your “coordinators” and the face of the franchise MV7!

By bmullis

October 19, 2006 05:21 PM | Link to this

ATTENTION PLEASE, PAGING DAN REEVES, PAGING….DAN..REEVES….PAGING…..DAN……REEVES

By Falcons Fan

October 19, 2006 05:47 PM | Link to this

Hypothetical…

Would this city rather have Mike Vick or rookie Matt Leinart playing the QB position?

By Smitty

October 19, 2006 05:55 PM | Link to this

It was interesting to hear Vick talk about Coach Reeves and how the coach believed in him….I get the feeling that Mora does’nt believe in Vick and Vick knows it…I mean why not let the man call audibles at the line…it damn sure can’t be any worse than the play calling now

By Najeh Davenpoop

October 19, 2006 06:14 PM | Link to this

Falcons Fan, the city would much rather have Vick playing QB. But the suburbs would much rather have Leinart at QB. Get my drift?

By Tim

October 19, 2006 06:41 PM | Link to this

“I feel disappointed for Matt,” Falcons coach Jim Mora said. ”

This is Mora’s quote from the Atlanta Journal. Sounds like he is more disappointed he was caught vs having a guy on the team that uses illegal drugs ! What about the team that Lehr cares less about, since he is taking illegal drugs. He knows what is legal and illegal, he has been in the league long enough. If Lehr is this bad taking illegal drugs, what will he be like from now on if he has to go straight ? Get rid of this worthless lineman.

By parks

October 19, 2006 07:42 PM | Link to this

good post Tim, sad thing though is he should have been gone long before he was caught

By Jeremius Shakazulu Abul El-Alamin Muhamid

October 19, 2006 07:44 PM | Link to this

I think the foulcoons will probably get obliterated this Sunday. Atlanta foulcoon history is against them.

Since when has this cursed franchise ever overcome internal adversity? Historically, they roll over and die like a gut-shot marshmallow. Ron Mexico is the proverbial albatross around this team’s neck.

On the lighter side, did you see Polamalu did tackled by his hair last week?!?! Oh man, I laughed!!! If only it could happen again this week. The foulcoons are going to lose anyway…pull out that idiot’s hair!

By Ol' Birdy

October 19, 2006 07:50 PM | Link to this

First, the very fact that Lehr does play poorly means he will definitely be reinstated with full starter priviliges. It’s the way of Mora to sub-optimize. His commitment is to the under-performing players, not the players who are out there actually helping the team win. Those players want the BEST players on the team. Ask any player who they want starting to help them WIN: Lelie or Shoddy White.

Second, since we are running an offense under HIGH SCHOOL RULES where the QB cannot audible, we will play right into Pittsburgh’s hands. IT seems our coaches (Knapp in particular) are not very smart.

Blank said, “We’ve given them all the tools.” right here in this very newspaper. He was talking about the coaches. Having a team that under-achieves while not letting a 6-year veteran choose between 2 plays is ridiculous.

O wait, maybe Knapp DOES give Vick an “audible”. I think it is, “If they blow up Lehr, Mclure and/or Forney, run your tail off!!”

These coordinators here are looking pretty bad. No wonder they never get interviews for head coaching positions. Who would take them?

By beatem

October 19, 2006 09:13 PM | Link to this

the falcons suck go saintssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By BirdDog

October 19, 2006 09:56 PM | Link to this

Abraham & Kearny out plus zero creativity on offense spells disaster for the Falcons on Sunday. Do you ever remember a Falcons team with more injuries than Mora’s teams? It seems every year we lose 3-5 key players to injury and most don’t come back until the following year. I question Mora’s conditioning strategies.

Vicks comments to HBO would suggest that the rumor about Knapp & Donatell getting into it last Sunday may merit some truth. Vick obviously feels that this coaching staff does not believe in him and thus is not calling the plays he would prefer running. Knapp is the biggest idiot in the NFL and will not be around long. We have been waiting patiently for 4 years for him to come up with a decent offensive scheme yet nothing seems to materialize. Worse yet, the guy takes no chances on new plays and continues running the same old plays for negative yards. It took him 2 years to implement the simple shotgun, he never used Duckett properly, he refuses to throw screen passes to our fastest men(Dunn & Norwood), he leaves our most accomplished reciever Lelie on the bench, and he has no clue how to make halftime/gametime adjustments. Run, run, pass, punt; run, run, pass, punt; pass(sack), pass(incompletion), run, punt. If our gameplan isn’t working early, we are good as done. Good defenses have shut us down ever since the Mora/Knapp tandem arrived. Mora may be twice the idiot for allowing this to happen for so long under his watch. This just in……Mora & Knapp are officially on notice. The honeymoon period is over. These guys better get creative and deliver now or the NFL will be something they watch from the comfort of their living rooms. This is not a 10 year experiment. Blank likes Vick alot and will drop Mora & Knapp well before he entertains a Vick trade. He is a smart man and must see some of the same things we have noted.

By Jeff

October 19, 2006 10:07 PM | Link to this

Oh, boy … now Dunn is complaining about the play calling and the lack of passes coming his way. Yup, Knapp’s a goner!

By This gets old

October 20, 2006 06:17 AM | Link to this

Either you have a well coached passing game or you don’t. The Falcons don’t and it shows. You’re not going to be able to “fix” it now anymore than they were able to fix the tackling problem last year.

It’s game planning time now, there’s no time to make big changes in the passing attack. We have a lot of speed on offense but we sure as hell don’t know how to use it. They never “attack” the defense.

One thing missing from Knapp’s Atlanta offense that he had in San Francisco - Steve Marriucci.

By Jerry

October 20, 2006 10:30 AM | Link to this

I read what Vick said on HBO. He’s still superman, just needs better coaches and players, maybe even a better team like Indianapolis. He’s great and yet he is humble.

By Astro Joe

October 20, 2006 10:48 AM | Link to this

One of the reasons Milloy was brought here was not just to lead the defense but to be a vocal team leader. Vick is not a very good team leader IMHO. I personally have ZERO confidence that he has taken his concerns about the offense to either Knapp, Mora, McKay or Blank. Instead, he goes to Chis Carter. He threw his coach under the bus during the Pro Bowl and he’s at it again.

I agree that Knapp is not the answer. But a team leader does not go after his coach in the media. Especially after losing badly at home last week and on the eve of another home loss Sunday. Sure, the offensive line, receivers and play calling all need work. But so does his accuracy with the pass. If I were Knapp, I’d script the Steelers game by passing the ball 8 out of the first 10 plays. Let’s get Vick in rhythm and see what happens.

By Jerry

October 20, 2006 10:56 AM | Link to this

I read a lot of the west coast offense. The west coast offense was Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. It’s been imitated, never duplicated. They would have made any offense great. We got the Roller Coaster Offense.

By mo

October 20, 2006 11:09 AM | Link to this

This whole thing is definitely blowing up into a mess. The HBO interview is a classic case of a star firing his coach. Vick’s people (and Vick does have “people”) would not have him do that if it wasn’t intentional.

In short, it looks like Knapp tried to throw Vick under the bus with Blank and Vick fired back. It looks like there’s a scramble for job security and all coaches has been properly served notice that they can all be replaced.

See, the only guy in this equation that has job security is Vick. Vick makes Blank money. Vick makes the NFL money. Vick makes the City of Atlanta money. If he leaves, it will be chaos.

But Knapp’s job looks like a revolving door. If the Falcons come out flat on offense, Knapp will definitely be fired.

By crs

October 20, 2006 11:15 AM | Link to this

Vick needs to shut his mouth and just play football and stop yapping. I don’t care who is he throwing to, Vick is a terrible short to mid range passer. If his herpe ridden butt spent more time working to get better rather than crying about personel he might be the leader this team needs. Seems like Big Ben won a championship without the worlds greatest recievers so do Trent Dilfer. I think you can see where Marcus Vick learned his nonsense. Vick will always be the quarterback that never met his potential.

By Jeff

October 20, 2006 12:02 PM | Link to this

crs - “seems like Big Ben won a championship without the worlds greatest recievers so do Trent Dilfer.”

Have you heard of Hines Ward? How many years has be been selected to the Pro Bowl? How about Randle El? Ever heard of him? Also, when the Steelers and Ravens won the Super Bowl, they had the league’s top defense. Do you recall either of those defenses allowing over 250 yds rushing in one game?

As for Knapp, how in the world can Mora/Knapp expect Vick, or any QB for that matter, to succeed if he’s not allowed to check down or audible? That’s just setting the QB up to get killed.

Maybe that’s the reason the OL performs so poorly in pass protection. If Knapp hasn’t called the appropriate protection, the offense is in trouble. So long as Vick is not allowed to audible, there will be breakdowns in protection.

By Whiteboy

October 20, 2006 12:08 PM | Link to this

Vicks Number One Problem is he is black, I hate him He is so stupid, he is not a real qb Any dumbass can play running back and get pointed to a direction and run there THATA WHAT THE BLACKS SHOULD BE DOING, the whites should be playing qb because they are smart enough to play the position. Get vick out and start schaub.

By Whiteboy

October 20, 2006 12:09 PM | Link to this

Vicks Number One Problem is he is black, I hate him He is so stupid, he is not a real qb Any dumbass can play running back and get pointed to a direction and run there THATA WHAT THE BLACKS SHOULD BE DOING, the whites should be playing qb because they are smart enough to play the position. Get vick out and start schaub.

By Whiteboy

October 20, 2006 12:09 PM | Link to this

Vicks Number One Problem is he is black, I hate him He is so stupid, he is not a real qb Any dumbass can play running back and get pointed to a direction and run there THATA WHAT THE BLACKS SHOULD BE DOING, the whites should be playing qb because they are smart enough to play the position. Get vick out and start schaub.

By A-Town Vet

October 20, 2006 12:20 PM | Link to this

CRS, You mean to tell me that Hines Ward is not a great Reciever. what about the dependable Randle El. I guess the steelers excellent running game had nothing to do with setting up all those long play action passes the steelers so often complete. Before you down Vick please know what the F@%& you are talking about.

By Lynne

October 20, 2006 12:49 PM | Link to this

It must really hurt these country azz, Jim Bob Bubba, rebel flag waving, pseudo fans to see this 26-year-old african-american, diamond blinging, cronrow wearing, tatooed, Bentley driving, hip-hop loving multi-millionaire. It probably hurts more that clearly 75% of the jerseys in the Dome are for #7. That 37 million in guaranteed money must cause some of you nightmares. It shouldn’t….the real money comes from Nike. Yeah, most of these blogs could just start out with “Do you hate Mike Vick because he’s a black QB making bank the likes most of you can’t even dream about” and call it a day.

By Madden King

October 20, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this

Crs and Whiteboy shut the fk up and eat a fat dk. Whiteboy you need to work on your spelling, you Albino alien nonspelling limp dk mothaf*a. Now for all you Racist trailor park trash fking your mother and 8 dy old infant a bashers all I have to say is 2001, falcons is 7-9, white pocket passer Chris Chandler was 5-9, Vick was 2-0, 2002, Vick was 9-6-1, 2003, white pocket passer Doug Johnson and Kurt Kittner were 2-10, Vick was 3-1, 2004, white pocket passer Matt Schaub was 0-2, Vick was 11-3, 2005, white pocket passer Matt Schaub was 0-1, Vick was 8-7, seems to me that the black mobile QB is winning more in the ATL than the white pocket passer. As far as that interview that Vick had I agree with him 100% if he had better receivers he would have better numbers, when Vick goes to the pro bowl receivers like Randy Moss, Santana Moss, Steve Smith, Javon Walker, Terrell Owens, Anquan Boldin, have no problem catching his balls, I saw a pass that Vick threw high and Larry Fitzgerald went up and got it over Champ Bailey, I also saw a pass that Vick threw to Torry Holt and Holt caught it behind him with one hand and it was a bullet. Those pro bowls prove to me that if we had those type of receivers there would be no drop balls in the game and we would be 4-1, oh and didn’t Vick win MVP of the pro bowl in 2003 for throwing for over 250 yards completing 17-21 of his passes and running for another 75 yards. Take that, take that.

By Jerry

October 20, 2006 02:01 PM | Link to this

Lynne, what kind of car you got, a 1972 Chevrolet Caprice?

By black and gold

October 20, 2006 02:51 PM | Link to this

is name says it all whiteboy key work boy

By black and gold

October 20, 2006 03:11 PM | Link to this

word

By rick o'neil

October 20, 2006 03:37 PM | Link to this

they should have kept Philips as head coach and not hired Mora.

By knowitall

October 20, 2006 03:41 PM | Link to this

Everyone is focusing on what Vick said but Dunn basically said the same thing. When a running back thinks you should throw more, you really have to question the play calling.

By David

October 22, 2006 12:46 PM | Link to this

Great pick in Mora, Mr. Blanks. You should have been keeping a great coach (Dan Reeves) instead of hiring your boyfriend to try to act like a coach.

By willysee in n.c.

October 22, 2006 09:43 PM | Link to this

Today M.Vick played qb he was accurate,had touch,picked up his receivers,held the pocket,avoided the sack and ran when needed.Lets hope we saw the future and not an anomaly.