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December 2008
Ryan’s next rookie season starts Saturday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — Not to put pressure on Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who operates like a veteran despite just receiving NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, but it’s like this: He is under pressure.
Whether it’s fair or not, the legacy of a quarterback is determined by his efficiency in playoff games along the way to Super Bowl rings. That other stuff doesn’t matter. I mean, Dan Marino also looked pretty during his first NFL regular season.
This is the same Marino with a gigantic asterisk next to his records, Pro Bowl selections and bust in Canton.
Speaking of bust, that’s what Marino was during the postseason, because he never won a world championship. He also was brutal in his first playoff game as a rookie when his Miami Dolphins were upset by the Seattle Seahawks. He was better the next season when he literally threw the Dolphins into the Super Bowl, but they lost. Not only that, he never reached the Super Bowl again during his 17-year career.
See where I’m going? It would help Ryan’s ultimate resume and psyche if he finds a way to push the Falcons to victory Saturday against the Arizona Cardinals in his first playoff game.
“I think there is perceived pressure on quarterbacks as they get a little long in the tooth, because that’s when they realize the opportunities [to win championships] may be limited,” said Bill Musgrave on Tuesday, speaking as one of the definitive experts on the subject. He is Ryan’s top mentor as Falcons quarterback coach, but he also was a backup to Hall of Famers Joe Montana, Steve Young and John Elway. Oh, and there was that season he played behind some rookie named Peyton Manning, a future Hall of Famer.
Among that quartet, Montana was the only one that got it right in a hurry. He reached four Super Bowls, and he won them all, including the one that followed his first regular season as a full-time starter for the San Francisco 49ers.
There were legendary postseason struggles for the other three, particularly for Elway, who once was 0-for-3 after Super Bowl trips. Falcons kicker Jason Elam nodded with the memory on Tuesday from his locker. “Before we got those two Super Bowl wins [after the 1997 and 1998 seasons], there definitely was a stigma attached to John,” said Elam, who played with the Denver Broncos from 1993 through last season. “John was a phenomenal quarterback regardless of what happened, but if you’re a quarterback in the NFL, you’ve got to win in the Super Bowl. It defines your career.”
Take Tom Brady. Courtesy of complications with knee surgeries, he may never play again. He’s already a Canton resident, though, with three Super Bowl rings. So this is interesting: Falcons safety Lawyer Milloy sees a lot of his old teammate with the New England Patriots in Ryan. Now consider this: During Brady’s first playoff game ever, he threw for 312 yards in a victory over the Oakland Raiders that began a world-title run.
“It’s the little things. It’s just a lot of things that you can’t coach that they both have,” Milloy said. “They have this presence that you can feel from day one. They’re also not guys that make themselves untouchables in the locker room. Sometimes guys get in that position, and they’re not even available to their own teammates.
“The other thing is that they both make quick decisions on the field. They’re not back there patting the ball and giving the defense time to get to them. They know the quickest way to their success is to get the ball to guys who can help them.
“Lastly, they both have the ability to make everybody around them better. That’s the biggest trait. Matt is a guy who makes people want to fight for him.”
Yeah, well. We’ll see, starting Saturday when it counts the most.
Permalink | Comments (42) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Falcons’ detailed approach results in the “p” word
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So you wish to know the anatomy of this ongoing Falcons miracle? Well, it begins with the mentality of their coaches. For instance: They’ve never discussed wins and losses publicly or privately. They’ve also refused to utter the “p” word associated with playoffs until recently.
It’s called throwing a fresh spin on that tired cliche about taking each week, game and second at a time. More specifically, it’s called focus. These Falcons coaches continue to have it, and they’ve demanded as much from their players.
“As a result, nobody wants to let the other guy down on this team, and it’s been like that all season,” said defensive end John Abraham, reflecting on the Falcons’ 11-5 finish to the regular season after surviving the St. Louis Rams 31-27 on Sunday at the Georgia Dome. Added Abraham, looking around a surprisingly businesslike home locker room, “It’s never been ‘I’ first with this team. It’s always been ‘we’ first, and whether we win or lose, we’ve learned to depend on each other.”
We’re back to that anatomy. For the longest time, those Falcons coaches were mum on their postseason expectations — if any — for a ridiculously young bunch that featured nearly half of its roster with players owning three years of pro experience or less. That silence went from Mike Smith’s arrival as a rookie NFL head guy in January, and then through organized training activities, and then through training camp, and then through most of the regular season.
Then their lips loosened on that “p” word just before their playoff-clenching game last week in Minnesota.
That said, Smith and his assistant coaches have mentioned everything else freely and loudly from the start. They’ve been little things, but they’ve become big things along the Falcons’ way to streaking into the new year as a wild-card team with a chance to shock reality even more.
And here’s the funny thing about those little things: They are so ingrained in most of the Falcons players these days that they just do them. As for discussing them, that’s another matter. Those little things are so simple that no Falcons player that I surveyed on Sunday remembered them all. Instead, most Falcons players remembered enough of them to explain why their team is sprinkled with pixie dust.
“From the start, (Smith’s) attitude was more along the lines of that, if you take care of those little things, the wins would come,” said offensive tackle Todd Weiner. “He just had a lot of specific goals that involved the way that we were going to play. It was about coming to work every day and working hard. He set goals that said we were going to be a physical team and that we were going to come out and be taskmasters.”
That’s sort of what Jerious Norwood recalled, but not quite. According to Norwood, “(Smith) said he wanted us to go out every game and play our type of football by imposing our will on opponents and just to have fun. He also wanted us to do our jobs in a detailed way.”
Wide receiver Michael Jenkins recited a bunch of other things. “(Smith) told us that one of our goals was to try to win every game at home,” said Jenkins, with the Falcons followed orders by finishing 7-1 at the Georgia Dome. “Then, going through the season, he broke it down to four quarters. If you do what you need to do as a team each quarter, then you have a good shot of having a good record at the end of the year. And the last goal was to win three in a row for us.”
They just won three in a row.
As for Smith’s playoff goal for the Falcons, he says, “Why not us?”
Why not?
Then again, that’s a big thing.
Permalink | Comments (82) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Falcons visit Minnesota with future in mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ten seasons ago, the Falcons did the impossible in Minneapolis. They won their only NFC championship. They did so against a loaded Vikings team that supposedly was roaring toward a world title with a record-setting offense, the new Purple People Eaters on defense and the look of destiny everywhere.
Now, the Falcons are back in Minneapolis on Sunday, but the Super Bowl isn’t four quarters away this time. At 9-5, and with much of the solar system fighting for a wild-card spot, the Falcons are trying to slide into the playoffs with two games and a bunch of tie-breaking scenarios left.
They’ll make the postseason, or they’ll fall within a chinstrap of doing so.
Whatever the case, the Falcons have the right attitude. That’s because one of their key players has the perfect attitude. His name is Keith Brooking, an accomplished linebacker, who cherishes everything involved with that other trip to the Metrodome, but who mostly is focused on right now.
Attitude. Focused.
Those are attributes of any team with true playoff aspirations. Said Brooking, “On Sunday, [the 1998 season] will be the last thing I’ll be thinking about. We have one of the best running backs in the league on our team [Michael Turner], but No. 28 [Adrian Peterson] for the Minnesota Vikings, he’s right up there with him. That’s going to be our main goal defensively. He’s a very big part of their whole equation. That’s going to be the main thing on my mind.”
Well, such will be the case for Brooking during the game. Before and after it, he will reminisce. He’s the only member of the current Falcons who played on that 1998 team.
“I’ll never forget the excitement in the locker room, and the feeling of what it’s like to celebrate with a group of men who knew you couldn’t accomplish something like that without the effort of everybody,” Brooking said, recalling the Falcons’ 30-27 upset in overtime. “Those are memories that I’ll have with me the rest of my life.”
The same goes for the season 2002, when the Falcons performed their Miracle in Green Bay, where they gave the Packers their first playoff loss ever at home. The same goes for 2004, when the Falcons reached the NFC Championship again before losing to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Other than that, the Falcons mostly were busts during Brooking’s 11 seasons. So, as the elder statesman on a predominately young roster, he is an expert on what you should do and shouldn’t do down the stretch of a playoff drive.
To hear Brooking tell, the “should do” list begins with peace and ends with quiet.
“The one thing that was common with all those other teams and this one is that there have been zero distractions,” said Brooking, whose 2007 Falcons had everything from Michael Vick and his dogs to Bobby Petrino and his Hogs. “Every player on this team, football means a great deal to them, and it’s right there at the top of their priority list. We’ve completely bought into what [first-year Falcons coach Mike Smith] has preached to us from Day One.”
As for the “shouldn’t do” list, Brooking said quickly, “Especially for a young football team, it’s very easy, starting with the coaches, to put a certain amount of pressure on individual players and a team as a whole in this situation. You can’t go into a game uptight or too emotional and too intense. Worry about the task at hand, and then take care of business.”
You also should ignore the past — at least after the opening kickoff.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Braves need to bring Furcal back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a no-brainer. The Braves need to bring back Rafael Furcal. If they don’t, they’ll need to bring in the paramedics - for themselves.
I mean, how much rejection during one offseason can what was a universally loved organization take? The answer: The Braves are at their limit, and you can’t blame their decision makers for any of it.
They’ve been victims of bad luck, awful timing and just crazy stuff.
There was that deal for Jake Peavy that was close, then not so much, then in the vicinity of happening, then gone. They had another standout pitcher, A.J. Burnett, pretty much with a tomahawk across his chest. That was before the New York Yankees used their pinstripes and dollar bills to yank him away.
The Braves did acquire Javier Vazquez, a master at throwing 200 innings or more each season, but they need more. They need another significant pitcher, and they need Furcal, their spark plug near the back end of their run to 14 consecutive trips to the playoffs through 2005.
Furcal spent his first six seasons in the major leagues with the Braves before bolting to Los Angeles as a free agent, and the Dodgers want him back. Thus the latest offseason stumbling block for the rebuilding Braves. After all, they’ve proven they can’t live without him.
Since Furcal left for the Dodgers, the Braves have lacked a leadoff hitter and a trip to the postseason.
Coincidence? Nope. It also hasn’t helped the Braves’ cause that their starting pitching has gone from Cy Maddux, Cy Smoltz and Cy Glavine to several aching question marks (Tim Hudson, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, etc.). And, no, Furcal isn’t a true exclamation point after missing most of last season after back surgery in July.
Still, Furcal is worth the gamble. He hit .357 during the 36 games that he played, and here’s the big thing: He had an on-base percentage of .439.
The Braves’ 2008 leadoff hitters had an on-base percentage of .356.
Here’s another big thing: Gregor Blanco led the Braves in stolen bases last season with 13 in 430 at bats. Furcal had eight stolen bases in 143 at bats.
Case closed.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Falcons catch fire from coach Smith
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Falcons’ steady path toward the playoffs continued on Sunday at the Georgia Dome after a moment for the ages in the fourth quarter. That’s when their head coach lost his usually calm look in public to display the inferno in his belly.
As a result, Tampa Bay’s Antonio Bryant got burned by a lot of Mike Smith, and it led to the Falcons climbing over the ashes of the Buccaneers along the way to a 13-10 victory in overtime.
“So coach Smith got in the face of an opposing player on the sideline?” said Falcons running back Michael Turner, laughing with wide eyes. “No, I didn’t see it,” Turner said, laughing some more. “I wish I did, because I know that would have been a sight to see.”
It was. Just after Domonique Foxworth knocked down a pass to Bryant on third-and-six near the Falcons sideline in that fourth quarter, the cornerback and the wide receiver shoved each other within centimeters of the head coach. Then came the inferno, with Smith rushing to meet Bryant nearly nose-to-nose, and with the fire from Smith’s tongue telling Bryant a whole bunch of things that aren’t printable for a family newspaper.
Well, I’m guessing. “Antonio was on our sideline, and I just politely asked him to go back over to his sideline,” said Smith, trying to keep his still smoldering tongue from burning the inside of his cheek.
As for Bryant’s side of the story, he wasn’t saying — at least not all of it.
“Just as long as the man didn’t put his hands on me, I don’t care,” Bryant said, shaking his head. “I don’t recall what [Smith] said. It’s nothing personal. That’s over with, and if he wants to get in my face, that’s great support of a coach looking out for his players. I don’t think he took it as anything more than being a Falcon, just like I’m always going to be a Buc. And I’m not mad at him for that.”
Neither are Smith’s players, which inspired the following: They forgot about the shaky day of the usually solid Matt Ryan (57.5 passer rating, two interceptions). They forgot about the brutal afternoon of cornerback Chris Houston in man coverage. They forgot about Jason Rader fumbling away a touchdown in the end zone to the Buccaneers. They forgot about the blocked punt that led to the Buccaneers’ game-tying field goal near the end of regulation that forced overtime.
They remembered Smith’s passion, though, and they found ways to overcome themselves. “Yeah, because that guy’s crazy,” Foxworth said, chuckling, forcing a visitor to ask: Which guy — Smith or Bryant? “I’m talking about coach Smith, because he gets so fired up sometimes during games. That’s the kind of competitive attitude that he has, and it bleeds over into the rest of the team.”
The result? The Falcons are shocking reality after last year’s horrors involving Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino. They are 9-5, and they are threatening to keep playing in January with a relatively inexperienced roster and a coach who is much tougher than you think.
This isn’t Jerry Glanville stuff. Back then, the only thing staler than the eternal black attire of that former Falcons coach was his attempt at intimidation. This isn’t the likes of rah-rah Jim Mora, who preferred to operate as the players’ pal, often to his detriment. This isn’t another Bobby Petrino, a college guy, whose idea of motivation was to ignore players by displaying even more of a bland expression to them — when they could find him.
This is Smith as Smith, and this is awesome.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Camden County’s resiliency wins out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long before the opening kickoff, there was a high school football game filled with wonderful story lines Saturday night at the Georgia Dome. The question was: Which of those storylines would drop-kick the rest to the back of the pile after Peachtree Ridge and Camden County battled for the Class AAAAA championship?
The winner? Well, it’s the story line that said Camden County was 14-0 for a reason before this one.
It’s called resiliency. So, it’s not surprising that the Wildcats managed a 21-14 victory after trailing Peachtree Ridge until near the end of the third quarter. It was the third time in their five playoff games this year that they needed to surge from behind. As a result, their 338-mile trip back home to South Georgia got a little shorter with their second state championship.
As for those other story lines, there was the young program vs. an old one. While Camden County fielded its first football team during the early part of the Eisenhower administration, Peachtree Ridge wasn’t even a school until 2003, the same season that Camden County won its first and only state championship entering this one.
As for Peachtree Ridge, it needed just three years to grab its first and only state championship entering this one.
There was that Georgia Dome thing. For the first time ever, the state championship games of all five classes took place under a neutral roof instead of below a familiar sky above the stadium of a participant from each class. No problem for the slew of fervent cowbell ringers from Camden, because the enclosed setting just made their continuous racket that much louder.
There also was that thing featuring Peachtree Ridge’s Bill Ballard going against his former boss, Camden County’s Jeff Herron. Then again, Herron is the mentor of many. In fact, 19 of his former assistants have served as head coaches through the years.
Only one of them mattered on Saturday night, and that was Ballard, along with his Peachtree Ridge team.
First, there was nothing throughout the early part of the evening. That’s because the defenses for Camden County and Peachtree Ridge flaunted their smash-mouth reputations by knocking the offense out of each other in the first half.
Then there was everything.
I mean, Ronnie Smith still is running for Peachtree Ridge, isn’t he? With the score tied at 7-7 midway through the third quarter, Smith burst in a hurry through the middle of his line for a sprint that didn’t end until he crossed the goal line.
Ninety-four yards later.
It’s just that Camden County countered with Christian Milstead’s spiral that stayed in the air forever before reaching DeAngelo Smith’s hands. The play went for 85 yards and a touchdown. Then the Wildcats carried that momentum for another drive to the end zone to finish the quarter and had enough potency on defense to finish the rest of the game. They just kept finding ways to survive themselves and a gallant Peachtree Ridge bunch.
Inside the final four minutes, with Camden County driving in the red zone while battling the clock more than Peachtree Ridge, the Wildcats actually did the ridiculous. They tried to pass. Milstead was intercepted, and Peachtree Ridge had new life at its own 23-yard line.
It didn’t matter. With Peachtree Ridge driving to the Camden County 42, and with the clock ticking toward the final minute, the Lions’ Nick Lombardo fired an interception.
Game over. Upset dream over for Peachtree Ridge.
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Dooley days of coaching long gone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vince Dooley was the football coach at Georgia for 25 years. They just put a statue of the guy on campus. Anyway, if he were starting his career today, and if his Bulldog teams were to perform exactly as they did during that stretch, he’d last maybe half as long, probably less than that.
I’d give him four years.
Tops.
“Well, I had a couple of crises to deal with,” said Dooley, laughing, while recalling his College Football Hall of Fame coaching stint at Georgia that ended after the 1988 season.
Before we continue, let’s jump to the present, where another college football coach likely got whacked while you were reading this. From Washington to Syracuse, and from Eastern Michigan to Miami (Ohio), we’ve already had 17 coaching resignations, firings or both at the Division 1-A level, and consider this: The bowl season hasn’t even begun.
It’s out of control. It only will get worse, too, especially if you wish to coach among the big boys some day.
“I think most people would say there is less patience [regarding the careers of college football coaches] in this day and time,” said Dooley, who also was a Georgia athletics director. “Maybe it’s salaries. Maybe it’s the generation — the so-called Now Generation, where there is less and less tolerance. Maybe it’s a new wave of athletics directors, where most of them have not coached. Maybe it’s a combination of all of those things.”
Maybe Dooley benefited as a pre-Baby Boomer. The same goes for the likes of Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno, still active as head coaches with Florida State (33 seasons) and Penn State (43 seasons), respectively. Those from Generation X and beyond are in coaching purgatory. Which brings us back to all of those times when Dooley would have been yesterday’s news in Athens. You know, if the climate around college football coaches back then resembled that of now.
He once had his likeness hung in effigy at Sanford Stadium — after just his fourth season with the Bulldogs, and after they’d captured the SEC and the Cotton Bowl the year before. Courtesy of an average of seven victories for three straight years through 1974, there were “Dump Dooley” stickers everywhere.
There also was that Jan Kemp scandal during the 1980s that featured Georgia football players ignoring the “student” part of a student-athlete in embarrassing ways.
Dooley survived. As for what would happen to a coach with such a resume today, he said, “There is no allowance for a bad season, or even for a bad game.”
For verification, you have the SEC of the last few weeks. Tommy Tuberville was forced out of Auburn despite an 85-40 record after 10 seasons. His Tigers regularly whipped Top 10 foes, but among other things, they lost the Iron Bowl this year to dreaded Alabama. It didn’t matter that they had won the previous six.
Phillip Fulmer grabbed a national title, two conference championships and seven divisional titles in 17 years at Tennessee. He was fired — a season after reaching the SEC championship game.
Then there was Sylvester Croom, who resigned at Mississippi State after a mighty shove from his bosses. Never mind that he inherited a probation-filled program that sits in the middle of nowhere (as in how can you bring talent to Starkville?). He left after five years despite taking his 2007 team to eight victories, including ones over Alabama, Auburn and rival Ole Miss.
Guess Tuberville, Fulmer, Croom and the rest were born at the wrong time. Or Dooley was born at the right time.
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: UGA/SEC
Falcons were right on Ryan, I was wrong
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No way did it seem wise for the usually NFL draft-challenged Falcons to use their No. 3 pick overall during the spring on quarterback Matt Ryan instead of defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.
No way did it seem likely that Ryan would do anything more than become your typical rookie at that position and stumble when he wasn’t rumbling or bumbling.
No way did it seem possible for the Falcons to go from sorry to solid within a year courtesy of that same rookie quarterback.
OK, I was wrong. Then again, so were a slew of others, including a Hall of Fame quarterback who still rubs his eyes while watching Ryan become, well, let Steve Young tell you.
“Frankly, what this guy is doing is unprecedented in the history of the game, and to be honest with you, I really can’t fathom it all,” said Young, now an ESPN analyst and a Ryan groupie, failing to contain his glee over the phone from his home city of Palo Alto, Calif.
This is a guy who owns two NFL MVP trophies. He has the league’s highest career passer rating. He was a Super Bowl MVP after throwing a record six touchdowns. He won six league passing titles. This also is a guy who shuns hyperbole, so this is significant: Young said without hesitation that, ‘“Even though it won’t be a bed of roses along the way, Matt Ryan already has shown me enough to say that he’ll be one of the all-time greats.”
Wow.
Let’s catch our breath. Young rarely did during this interview. He was so eager to discuss Ryan that he continued to talk on his cellphone while jogging.
Said Young, recalling the Falcons’ chaos of last season involving Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino, “It was almost a year ago to the day that I was in Atlanta for a Monday night game, and I thought the Falcons were flat on their backs. There already had been among the worst teams in the NFL for years, and given everything that happened last season, there was absolutely no way you could expect this.”
Here’s what “this” entails: Ryan, Ryan and more Ryan. He has helped the 8-5 Falcons double their 2007 victory total to become playoff contenders. He throws every type of pass well (short, medium, deep, impossible, improbable and unbelievable). He is a master at handling the blitz. He inspires his teammates. He looks as poised now as Young did at the height of his career with the San Francisco 49ers.
Although the Falcons lost in New Orleans last Sunday, Ryan still was impressive with 315 yards courtesy of clutch throws. His passer rating of 92.0 is ninth-best in the league, but it remains 6.8 points shy of Young’s career mark.
So Ryan isn’t there yet.
Young laughed, saying, “Just wait. Dan Marino had success as a rookie, but he had a Dolphins team that already was a playoff contender. Ben Roethlisberger had success as a rookie, but his Steelers team also was a playoff contender already. This guy was drafted by the worst team in football, and he’s like a bolt of lightning.”
That bolt needed a spark, and it came from Young’s old backup with the 49ers, Bill Musgrave, now the Falcons quarterback coach. “Billy knows football and quarterbacks as well as anybody I’ve ever met, and he’s into details,” Young said. “If you want to be the consummate quarterback, Billy is your guy, and you can see his influence here.”
Young stopped jogging to add, “These are just flat-out facts in my mind. (Ryan) passes the eyeball test.”
He passes every test.
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Permalink | Comments (200) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Blank enjoying a great ‘08
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Courtesy of that pit bull thing leading No. 7 to prison and overmatched coach Bobby Petrino bolting in the middle of the night to call Hogs in Arkansas, no NFL owner had a worse 2007 than Arthur Blank.
Now look: Courtesy of astute hires everywhere and a rookie quarterback with veteran tendencies, no NFL owner is having a better 2008 than Blank.
Here are four reasons why Blank is flourishing during his eighth season as Falcons owner.
The general manager
Logic says you don’t hire somebody to run your hemorrhaging football operations via webcam. Well, so much for logic. Blank hired Thomas Dimitroff, a scouting executive with the New England Patriots and a neophyte to an NFL GM job.
Dimitroff changed nearly half of the roster (22 players) that won just four games last year, and he joined Blank in hiring Mike Smith as head coach.
The result? Splendid. Despite Sunday’s loss at New Orleans, the retooled Falcons are deep in the playoff hunt at 8-5.
“When I spent time with him in that first video conference, I was struck by how creative he is,” Blank said. “He is a very clear thinker. He’s an extremely good listener. He pays a lot of attention to what people are saying, but he is not afraid to make up his own mind, and he is very decisive when he makes up his own mind.”
The head coach
Blank hired the wrong person in Jim Mora, the eternal players’ pal, and he blew it with Petrino, a college guy who, as Blank said he was told by Falcons players during last season, “His preference is to watch tape versus talk.”
This time, Blank let his football people deal with the X’s and O’s in the search for a new head coach. Then Blank went back to his successful days as the co-founder of Home Depot for the other stuff.
“There always was an emphasis (at Home Depot) on character, integrity and trust — people who understood the value of those things and who would work within the organization,” said Blank, with all of those things leading to Smith, a solid football coach with toughness behind his always quick smile.
The quarterback
More than a few eyes rolled around the NFL when Blank paid Matt Ryan $72 million after the Falcons made the former Boston College star the third pick of the 2008 draft.
“When you’re giving out that type of money, you want to make sure you’re making the right decision,” said Blank, chuckling, recalling how he allowed his football people do their thing again before he returned to his Home Depot playbook on the other stuff. “Is this a young man who not only is going to perform well on the field — in the opinion of the experts — but is he going to carry himself well? Does he have leadership qualities. … My conclusion was that there was no question that he was going to be able to do it.”
All you need to know is that Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Brett Favre have won Super Bowls, but they have lower passer ratings than Ryan’s 92.0.
The culture
Even before last year’s chaos (Michael Vick, Petrino, losing), the Falcons had become a needlessly edgy franchise after Blank fired Dan Reeves following the 2003 season. At one point, the PR staff even hovered over the shoulders of reporters during player interviews.
Now professionalism is back for the Falcons, along with victories.
“I think it’s the new coaching staff, and just the climate around the facility has been completely different than before,” second-year offensive guard Justin Blalock said recently. Added Blank, “(Smitty) has recruited a fine coaching staff. He doesn’t get as much credit for that, and they don’t get as much credit for the success we’ve had this year, but they should.”
So should the owner.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Hawks finally have home-court advantage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The transformation continued Friday night at Philips Arena, where the overwhelming majority of those among the 16,366 kept acknowledging that the Hawks are the home team and that the Knicks aren’t from around these here parts.
It’s about time. Too much needless Southern Hospitality was directed from Hawks crowds to visiting teams. That’s a polite way of saying Hawks crowds made fools of themselves until recently.
This Hawks crowd, for instance, kept increasing its level of noise for the home team throughout the evening, but there was nothing like its racket down the stretch of what evolved into a Hawks’ 98-95 victory and a 12-6 record. They cheered themselves silly after the Hawks’ Mike Bibby nailed a 3-pointer, and then another. They cheered even louder after the Knicks’ Chris Duhon lofted a shot that hit only air.
Then, at the end, with the Knicks preparing for a potential game-tying shot inside the final six seconds, there were cries of “defense, defense” before the Knicks left their huddle after a timeout.
Granted, the Knicks are a dysfunctional franchise (Stephon Marbury, dismantled roster to entice LeBron James to come two years from now, zero defense). Still, this was another indication that Hawks crowds finally get it.
For just shy of forever, whenever the Hawks played anybody from Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Boston or New York, those in Philips Arena delivered sloppy hugs and kisses to the other guys.
That was before the Hawks nearly scared the lordly green off the eventual world champion Celtics last season in the first round of the playoffs. That also was before the Hawks brought all of that momentum into this season. They have the best starting lineup in the NBA’s Southeast Division. If you combine that with a bench for the first time since the Bush administration (the father, not the son), the Hawks are flirting with decency and beyond.
We’re back to the Hawks’ true home-court advantage — you know, compared to whatever they had before.
“When I came here, it didn’t surprise me, because of the teams I’ve coached in the past, like when I was at Philly, and we would come in here with [Allen] Iverson, and they would pack the place, and there would be nothing but Philly fans,” said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, in his fifth season. “Then, when I was with the [Detroit] Pistons, it was the same thing. They would root for us. It was very strange, so I wasn’t as shocked to that when I took the job.
“All I was thinking, ‘How in the heck can I get all the people next door [at the Georgia Dome], watching [Michael] Vick and that crew, to come over here to watch us?’ That’s the only thing that ever has been on my mind. And I knew that we had to win in order to get that accomplished. I thought we turned the corner last year.”
They did. It actually started before the Hawks’ near postseason miracle against the Celtics. Try two months earlier, when Philips Arena became Staples Center East for the Lakers. “Everybody was chanting ‘MVP, MVP,’ when Kobe Bryant was at the [foul] line,” said Hawks forward Josh Smith. Then he recalled how the masses quickly showered the Hawks with a loud dose of love as they surged to victory after entering the fourth period with an eight-point deficit. Added Smith, “We were able to overcome [the Kobe chants], and we definitely got everybody involved, and we just ran with it.”
They’re still running with it, and they’re winning with it, too.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Adding Vazquez, losing Hampton both good for Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, this is a nice beginning for the Braves. I’m referring to the addition of Javier Vazquez and the subtraction of Mike Hampton regarding their starting pitching rotation for next season.
As for the subtraction, they don’t come any friendlier in baseball than Hampton, a popular veteran with his teammates and everybody else around the franchise, but enough is enough. He always was another pull, sprain, twist, ache, strain or tear waiting to happen. He spent nearly three seasons between starts before taking the mound last season for his ever-patient bosses with the Braves, and after getting hurt a couple of times again before summer, he did OK.
If you consider that the Braves have missed the playoffs for three years and that they suffered from a creaky rotation filled with injuries last season, they needed better than OK from Hampton next season. They would have gotten worse than that from Hampton with his 36-year-old arm and his wretched medical past. So, when he decided to bolt the Braves as a free agent this week to take less money with the Houston Astros, that wasn’t a bad thing.
Neither was this: The Braves essentially trading splendid catching prospect Tyler Flowers to the Chicago White Sox for Vazquez. Others also were involved in the deal (including infielder Brent Lillibridge from the Braves and lefty reliever Boone Logan from the White Sox). Even so, Flowers and Vazquez were the primary folks on both sides.
Let’s start with Flowers, a rising star in the Braves farm system. He grew up in the Atlanta area, too. He spent his time in the Arizona Fall League this year pounding pitchers for a .387 batting average, 12 home runs and 23 RBIs in 20 games. He’s also just 22, but two things here: The Braves already have a perennial All-Star catcher named Brian McCann, and he’s just 24. Plus, teams have great prospects in their organization either to keep them around if those teams don’t have a McCann in front of them or to trade them for something that those teams need such as a Vazquez.
That’s one new starter down and one more to go in the Braves’ restoration plan by general manager Frank Wren. Although Wren said the Jake Peavy deal is dead, don’t stop believing they’ll get the former Cy Young winner from the San Diego Padres until you see the corpse. And, with baseball’s winter meetings next week, the Braves could grab another starter of significance, or they could win the free-agent sweepstakes for A.J. Burnett.
Whatever happens, they’ll still have Vazquez, and you should ignore his shaky numbers from last year (12-16 record and 4.67 ERA). He also had losing seasons after four of his previous nine years in the majors, stretching from the Montreal Expos to the New York Yankees to the Arizona Diamondbacks to the White Sox.
Vazquez’s thing is inning pitched. He has lots of them. He has thrown more than 200 innings every season but one, and after that one, he had 198 innings.
Innings pitched is among the most undervalued statistics in sports. The more your starter throws, the more your bullpen rests — and the more your team plays in games tight enough to win.
The Braves once had 200-inning machines every season in Cy Maddux, Cy Glavine and Cy Smoltz. The Braves had zero such pitchers last season. Worse, with injuries and age tugging either at their shoulder, elbow or both, Glavine threw 63 innings last year to Smoltz’s 28.
Hampton threw 78.
Get the picture?
Permalink | Comments (64) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Leave Willie Martinez alone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Leave Willie Martinez alone. The same goes for the rest of those on the Georgia football coaching staff.
That’s exactly what head guy Mark Richt said he will do this offseason, and that’s exactly what he should do.
In other words, it’s not the fault of Richt, Martinez or any other Georgia coach for the Bulldogs’ drop from national championship expectations to a 9-3 record this season. As football sage Bill Parcells likes to say, you often are what your record says you are, and the Bulldogs are 9-3. They always were nothing more than that.
Such was true, even before this season, despite all of Georgia’s No. 1 rankings and talk in the Bulldog Nation of going undefeated — or losing maybe once.
In case you’re wondering, my preseason pick for Georgia was … 9-3. You can look it up. It was based on the Bulldogs’ monstrous schedule that not even superlative coaching and great talent was going to overcome.
Here’s another thing: Richt is one of just seven coaches in college football history to win more than 80 games (81) during his first eight seasons. His Bulldogs are 30-4 in opponent’s stadiums. Not only that, with a win in Georgia’s upcoming bowl game, he will finish with a 10-victory season for the sixth time.
I mention this, because Richt obviously has a formula for success. It begins and ends with stability in his coaching staff. The only major departures during the Richt era at Georgia have been offensive coordinator Neil Callaway and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder. They’ve had capable successors in Mike Bobo and Martinez, respectively.
Yes, Martinez.
No question, the Bulldogs have gifted players on defense. So that means Martinez didn’t adjust well enough at times, especially with Georgia relinquishing a slew of points during the second half of this season. There also was that brutal gashing of the Bulldogs on the ground last Saturday by Georgia Tech.
It’s just that Martinez’s track record is solid. His unit led the SEC in overall defense last season and finished eight nationally in sacks and 14th nationally in total defense. The year before that, Martinez’s unit finished eighth nationally in total defense, and the year before that, Martinez’s unit was eighth nationally in scoring defense.
So it’s not the coaching. It’s the team, and it’s only good, not great.
Permalink | Comments (197) | Categories: UGA/SEC
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