Falcons playing power ball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Falcons are off to a 3-2 start because they have played some good old-fashioned power football.
All of the folks in Lambeau Field knew the Falcons had to run the ball with under two minutes to play. The Packers knew the Falcons were going to run it.
Even the ghost of Vince Lombardi himself knew the Falcons were going to run the football.
Green Bay defensive coordinator Bob Sanders put 10 players near the line of scrimmage. Even with the extra manpower, the Packers still could not stop a determined Michael Turner and the offensive line from carving out 11 yards on three plays.
Turner powered his way behind good blocks from Sam Baker and Todd McClure to pick up the first down with 1:42 left.
The Packers were punched in the mouth by a team they were expected to kick dirt on.
It must be noted that the Packers were without three defensive starters in safety Atari Bigby, cornerback Al Harris and defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins. Also, A.J. Hawk, who got beat by Justin Peelle on a touchdown pass, was playing with a groin injury.
On Roddy White’s 22-yard touchdown pass, for some reason the Packers had their top cornerback Charles Woodson on rookie Harry Douglas. Will Blackmon was left in man coverage on White and got roasted.
In short, this was not the Packers team that went 13-3 last year and went to the NFC Championship game. They repeatedly helped the Falcons out with bone-headed penalties, including a holding call that took a field goal off the scoreboard.
But when the Packers tried to give the Falcons this game, they made enough plays to take it.
Last week in Carolina, the Panthers were stumbling about, but the Falcons couldn’t come up with the plays to take the game.
Against the Packers, they made enough plays, overcame a torching of their secondary for 313 yards passing, and then ran the ball to close out the game.
The Packers’ nine penalties for 97 yards were also helpful. The Falcons only had two penalties for 15 yards.
Now, with the Falcons sitting 3-2 and waiting for a 3-2 Chicago team, do you have to recalibrate your projections?
Did you have the Falcons 4-2 going into the bye week?
How do the Falcons get things tightened up in the secondary?
Which receiver is going to step up and become a factor when teams try to take Roddy White out of the passing game?
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Falcons face ghosts of Lambeau Field
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For most of the 1990s, I covered the Green Bay Packers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with colleagues Bob McGinn and Tom Silverstein.
The memories still flow. Saw Sterling Sharpe’s last game when he inexplicably went to the field at old Milwaukee County Stadium with a career-ending neck injury.
Was at training camp as Ron Wolf trotted through a parade of NFL quarterbacks, of course Brett Favre, Mark Brunell, Ty Detmer, Aaron Brooks and even a young Kurt Warner. Met all of the assistants - Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci, Jon Gruden, Ray Rhodes and Mike McCarthy - before they become head coaches. My favorite was offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis, he’d diagram West Coast offense plays for me and tell me how they worked or were supposed to work.
Got to see Reggie White toss around linemen at practice when Mike Holmgren wasn’t mad at the media and kicked us out of practice. I think that’s why I still migrate to the one-on-one lineman drills at Falcons practice.
Got to cover the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots in New Orleans and the still stunning Super Bowl loss to the Denver Broncos in San Diego.
So this isn’t a football pilgrimage for me. I’m just glad it’s not December. My challenge will be not to eat too many brats in the press box.
But for a young Falcons team that’s looked shaky on the road, this is a pilgrimage to one of the great football Meccas in the nation. The truth is, despite all of the Packer injuries, the Falcons may not be ready to pull off this road win.
They might be taken aback by coming through the tunnel and looking up to see the names of all the Packer greats — Lombardi, Starr, Taylor, Davis, Wood, Lofton, White, Hornung and Nitschke - on the stadium façade.
Whether if the Falcons win or not, I suspect the fans of the Packers, perhaps the most knowledgeable group in the league, are going to like the Falcons style of play. The Falcons have played hard, mean and nasty under Mike Smith. The Packers’ fans will respect that.
A rookie quarterback in Lambeau Field doesn’t equal success. Michael Turner must run the ball with authority and hope the Falcons can deploy their “Shock and Awe” strategy on the road. Against Detroit and Kansas City they jumped out to big leads of 21 and 24 points to shock their opponents and put the local crowds in awe of the young team.
Now, if they can do that in Green Bay, the original Titletown, U.S.A., they may wake up some of the ghosts of Lambeau Field.
What do you, think about the game? Do the Falcons have a shot? Can they put some licks on Aaron Rodgers if he plays? How’s the secondary going to shut down Greg Jennings and Donald Driver after last week?
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The Green Bay curse of Samkon Gado
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There have been several intervening events, but the Falcons have not been the same franchise since their last meeting with Green Bay during the 2005 season.
In the season after their trip to the NFC title game, the Falcons were off to a 6-2 start when the Packers came to the Georgia Dome on Nov. 13, 2005.
The Packers were hurting. Running backs Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport were injured and then Coach Mike Sherman had to start rookie running back Samkon Gado.
Gado, who was making his first NFL start, rushed for 103 yards and score three touchdowns, sending the Falcons fortunes spiraling.
The Falcons closed out the season 8-8. The 2006 season started out fine as they jumped out to a 5-2. But the Falcons dropped consecutive games to Detroit and Cleveland on their way to a 7-9 mark and the end of the Jim Mora’s tenure.
We don’t need to review what happened next starting with the magic water bottle through Bobby Petrino’s exit.
But since the day Gado rampaged through the Falcons run defense, the franchise has gone 14-29 and have not made it back to the playoffs.
The Packers are banged up again and could have a backup running back ready for the Falcons. Stephenson High’s Kregg Lumpkin is one of the backups who could play if Ryan Grant’s hamstring doesn’t improve.
What do the Falcons have to do to turn around their fortunes? They handed the Packers their first playoff loss at Lambeau Field in 2003. Is the historic stadium the place where they post their first road win in the Thomas Dimitroff-Mike Smith era?
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Quarterly Report: The Big Fix
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the end of his opening statement after the Carolina game, head coach Mike Smith said the Falcons woes are “fixable” and that the Falcons are 2-2.
“We’ve got to feel good about that,” Smith said.
Let’s look at the Falcons’ Quarterly Report by position group:
QUARTERBACKS: Matt Ryan has taken all of the snaps and completed 52.5 percent of his passes. He’s functioning well and looks good running the no huddle attack.
RUNNNING BACKS: Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood are off to good starts. Both have flashed big-play ability. Good to see the hard-running Jason Snelling get a catch against Carolina. Ovie Mughelli’s lead blocking is good when he’s in the lineup.
TIGHT ENDS: They are doing their job, blocking in the run game.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Roddy White leads the team with 18 catches for 322 yards, but just one touchdown. He needs to get in the endzone more. The group dropped too many passes against Carolina, but position coach Terry Robiskie will get that cleaned up. (He might have them doing some up-downs at practice on Wednesday!!!)
OFFENSIVE LINE: The big question was could they protect Ryan. He’s been sacked just seven times. That projects to 28 sacks. Last season the line gave up 47 sacks, so that would be a major improvement. They’ve got to handle eight and nine man fronts better. Baker’s injury (concussion/illness) is a major concern. He was off to a good start.
DEFENSIVE LINE: John Abraham has turned in a monster first quarter with six sacks and one blocked punt. Grady Jackson has three tackles for losses in three games. Abraham and Jackson need some more help from Jonathan Babineaux, Jamaal Anderson, Chauncey Davis, Kindal Moorehead and Kroy Biermann.
LINEBACKERS: Curtis Lofton is the real deal. He ran about 20 yards from the middle of the field to the sideline to stop Larry Johnson on the goal line in the Kansas City game. Michael Boley hasn’t made any big plays. Keith Brooking’s move back to weakside is off to a slow start. He has 22 tackles (off gameday stats, not coaches film review stats.) That projects out to 88, well below his average of 167.43 tackles from 2001 to 2007.
SECONDARY: The group needs to tighten things up. Detroit, Tampa Bay and Carolina had receivers roaming free through the secondary. The big lead against Detroit saved them and Milloy’s interception helped. Brian Griese was rusty in the Tampa Bay game and missed a lot of receivers. Jake Delhomme was on target and passed for 294 yards as Muhsin Muhammad and Steve Smith put on pass catching clinic.
SPECILIASTS: Kicker Jason Elam has made all nine of field goal tries. Michael Koenen is averaging a respectable 40.5 yards on his punts. The Falcons need to find ways to bust returners Adam Jennings and Jerious Norwood loose for some big returns.
How does your quarterly report look for the Falcons? Do you feel good about the 2-2 record after last season’s 4-12 debacle? How’s Matt Ryan doing? How’s Mike Smith doing? How can the secondary improve its coverage?
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Pearls of wisdom from BIG GRADY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pearls of wisdom from BIG GRADY
Defensive tackle Grady Jackson gets an up-close and personal look at the opposition’s offense and usually has an interesting view from the trenches.
He wants to take away what he calls Carolina’s “double-edged sword.”
“We can’t go in there with them having a double-edged sword, the running game and their passing game,” Jackson said. “We have to take one of their weapons away from them and make them one dimensional.”
One good thing for Big Grady and the Falcons is that DeShaun Foster is gone. He signed with San Francisco in the offseason. Of his seven career 100-yard games, four of them came against the Falcons. In 2005, he rushed for 131 and 165 yards against the Falcons.
However, rookie Jonathan Stewart is off to a good start and is a better change of pace to DeAngelo Williams. Stewart is a power runner with enough speed to be the kickoff returner.
To take away the other sword, Carolina’s passing attack, the Falcons will have to control wide receiver Steve Smith. This might be the first game that the Falcons miss DeAngelo Hall. He always got fired up for this matchup, even though his blowup last season took the team out of game at the Georgia Dome. Lost in Hall’s madness was that he was in the processing of shutting Smith down. He had a superb going before he lost his cool.
One interesting fact is that the visiting team has won the last five matchups. The Falcons won in Carolina last season when Joey Harrington found Alge Crumpler on a seam route for a 30-yard touchdown in the final minute for a 20-13 final.
Which sword can the Falcons take away from the Panthers? Will Big Grady work out Wharton like John Abraham used to when Wharton played tackle? Is Stewart the real deal? Can Abraham take away the passing sword by sacking Delhomme about four times?
Latest comments
A lotta good comments here, perhaps we can agree — 1) Jennings is woeful and erratic returning punts — give Harry Douglas a shot or someone else more consistent. 2) Linebacker play is still sub-par and TD will certainly be looking for... read the full comment by froggy | Comment on Falcons playing power ball Read Falcons playing power ball
My two favorite scenes of the game: 1/ McClure spiking the ball in the endzone after a Burner score and 2/ Coach overcome with emotion signaling to move the chains, first down. Gotta like it!... read the full comment by Singletary | Comment on Falcons playing power ball Read Falcons playing power ball
If Vick were in the game, he would not have thrown a KKK style INT that nearly cost them the game. I hope Ryan gets exposed for being a pedophile and Vick returns to win this franchise a Superbowel. Daunte Culpeper can be his back up and DJ Shockley... read the full comment by FreeMikeVick | Comment on Falcons face ghosts of Lambeau Field Read Falcons face ghosts of Lambeau Field
With this stirring of the fledglings in the FALCON nest, the draft picks available in ‘09 may not be as juicy as this year’s crop. Therefore the availablilty of trades may not be as great either. I know the ‘SKINS were pleased with their... read the full comment by richbrave | Comment on Falcons playing power ball Read Falcons playing power ball