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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > December
December 2008
Tech ‘lost by knockout’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One month ago, Georgia Tech won a football game in Athens that was considered such a significant moment in its history that players snapped off pieces of the hedges, seniors voted for the final score to be inscribed on rings and the head coach was given a new contract with a 53 percent pay hike.
I’m not sure exactly what happened between Nov. 29 and Dec. 31. But that must’ve been some pothole they hit on Northside.
Playing a bowl game two miles from campus, the Jackets seemed intent on smothering any life they had breathed into the program and the fan base. They followed a 9-3 regular season and a sweet month of post-Georgia nirvana with a 38-3, mother of all meltdowns to LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome.
This game was supposed to be a reward. It turned out to be some bad acid flashback to bowl flops of years past. But at least back then, the Jackets suffered their humiliation in Boise and nobody really cared. Or noticed.
“We got out played. We got out coached. It was a pretty good beating,” coach Paul Johnson said.
He summarized things nicely. If only his team was that efficient Wednesday.
Several weeks of hearing how great they were must have eroded the Jackets’ focus. Johnson never came out and said that, but he commented: “Clearly, we weren’t ready to play. So that comes back to me. But clearly they were bigger and faster than us, too, if I was watching the right game.”
He might be right. But after so many self-inflicted wounds, most people stopped watching.
It didn’t start well. Tech’s Scott Blair knocked the opening kickoff out of bounds, giving LSU the ball on the 40. The Tigers drove to a touchdown in three minutes.
Suddenly, it was like somebody kicked opened the lab door and a mutant virus escaped.
In a span of about 14 minutes, the Jackets were outscored 28-0 — and if only it were that simple and painless.
They were penalized for roughing then passer to kick start a 76-yard touchdown drive in less than four minutes; napped through an ensuing LSU onside kick; fumbled a punt return; allowed another touchdown drive (then again, the Tigers were on an implausible third straight possession); watched as the LSU quarterback, Jordan Jefferson, completed his first nine passes (Still with us? Get ready. Now it gets really stupid.); sprayed lighter fluid on this inferno with an ill-advised fake punt on fourth-and-8 from their own 22 (I’m assuming that didn’t trigger an incentive clause in Johnson’s reworked contract); allowed a 25-yard touchdown pass for a fourth score; gave the Tigers a short field with a short punt and a long return and then folded for a 17-yard TD run.
I tried to figure out a way to abbreviate that sequence. But it would’ve been like trying to get the full flavor of what the Wicked Witch’s flying apes did to the Scarecrow’s arms and legs and stuffing by saying just, “Well, he lost by knockout.”
Johnson again: “We self-destructed.”
This is the same LSU team that lost its final four SEC games — including one to Arkansas, which should count twice. The Tigers’ only victories in the final six games came over Tulane and Troy.
The Chick-fil-A bowl figured to be a huge letdown for the Tigers from last year’s BCS title game. If one team figured to lack motivation and focus, it was LSU, not Tech.
Oops.
What happened doesn’t erase the first 12 games. It doesn’t erase the wins over Boston College, Clemson or Florida State, or blowing the doors off of Miami and Georgia with a combined 86 points.
But it did take you back — back to a time you didn’t want to remember.
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Tuesday Countdown: Cowboys, Cards & Kate Walsh (hubba hubba!)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10: No Terrell Owens. No Brett Favre. No DeAngelo Hall, Jeremy Shockey, Pacman Jones or Chad Zippo-Dumbo. When is the last time the NFL playoffs kicked off on such a pure note?
9: The funniest thing about the Dallas Cowboys’ collapse — and there’s a long list — is the day-after proclamations by coach Wade Phillips that he is going to be a tougher guy with the players next season. Look, Wade Phillips is a pretty good defensive coordinator. Nice guy. Solid guy. But he is not George Patton. He’s not even Will Patton. He doesn’t get into players’ faces and he’s certainly not going to strike fear into anybody, like, say, Bill Parcells or Jimmy Johnson. Fact is, with Jerry Jones having such a high-profile position with the team, it’s going to be difficult for any coach to establish some semblance of authority.
8: Classy bunch in Dallas. The day after the final game, few players made themselves available to speak to the media. One of those who did speak: former Tech running back Tashard Choice, who emerged down the stretch while the stars around him went up in flames. So there’s one guy to build around.
7: Time out for baseball: Just saw where the Mets are talking to the Dodgers about Andruw Jones (who would play in right field in New York). L.A. apparently is willing to pick up a big chunk — if not most of — next season’s $15 million salary just to get rid of him. Question: Would this be such a bad thing for the Braves to look into?
6: I don’t know what Frank Wren has planned — and given the way this winter has gone, it may not really matter what he has planned. But right now the Braves starting outfield reads (left to right): Matt Diaz, Josh Anderson, Jeff Francoeur. Jones can still play defense and I have to think three home runs and 14 RBI last year is an aberration. What are your other options?
5: Also just saw where Kate Walsh is suddenly available on the open market. Forget Andruw.
4: The Arizona Cardinals had the lowest net points differential of 12 playoff teams: plus-one. They were the third-highest scoring team at 427 points but allowed 426. Only four teams — Detroit, St. Louis, Denver and Kansas City — allowed more. And they finished a combined 12-52.
3: When the Cardinals go down, they go down like Pompeii. Their four biggest flops this season came to the New York Jets (56 points allowed), Giants (37), Philadelphia (48) and New England (47). I know there’s all this conjecture about Matt Ryan being injured or tired, given the way he finished the season. But this would be a good time for a painkiller and a shot of B-12. In those four games, Brett Favre, Eli Manning, Donovan McNabb and Matt Cassel threw for a combined 15 touchdowns — and Arizona had 15 turnovers.
2: How good have the Hawks been so far this season? At 20-10, they need go only 17-35 the rest of the way to equal last year’s record.
1: NFL playoff oddity: The four road teams are all favored. Three will win: Falcons, Colts and Eagles. The exception: Dolphins over Ravens.
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Expectations about Tech hoops face reality
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In October, the team’s best defender and captain was shelved with a spinal condition. In November, the top scorer was declared academically ineligible. Two weeks ago, the starting point guard’s nose predictably lost a collision with somebody’s elbow.
If you are Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt, this probably isn’t the backdrop you would have wanted before the Jackets played even their first ACC game of the season. But isn’t that kind of the way things have gone?
As it turns out, a Final Four appearance five years ago didn’t come with guarantees. Go figure.
“We’ve gone to the tournament two of the last four years,” Hewitt said. “Would I have liked to have gone all four years? Sure, but we haven’t. So we’re going to work to get there this year. If we’re judging, ‘Is Georgia Tech basketball doing a good job?’ that’s really not for me to answer. What’s the standard? You can make that standard anything whatever you want. But I believe we’re doing a good job. If you’re asking me — on the court, I think we can do better. But if you judge us a whole and completeness as a program, I think we’ve done a good job.”
This shouldn’t even be an issue. I think I’ve just let too many e-mailers and message-board lunatics get to me. But Hewitt well knows that when a team wins, expectations are raised. When the Jackets advanced to the championship game of the 2004 Final Four, before losing to Connecticut, some folks — fans, media, whomever — apparently perceived that kind of thing would become commonplace.
That hasn’t happened. Tech (7-3), which opens ACC play tonight against Virginia, has reached the tournament twice in the past four years, winning one game. What people don’t talk about are all of those things coaches don’t like to talk about publicly because they come off as whiny excuse factories: injuries, academic casualties, defections to the NBA. Everybody has to deal with those issues, some more than others. Yes, even Duke.
Two tournament appearances in the past four years aren’t up there with North Carolina (four), Duke (four) or Boston College (three). But it beats just about everybody else in the ACC. Only N.C. State also has two.
Four ACC teams reached the tournament last season, and two of them were Miami and Clemson. What does that say about today’s landscape?
Hewitt has felt no heat internally. He shouldn’t. He does it the right way and always has. He raises men, not athletes. He preaches academics. And yes, he can coach. Teams don’t go to the national finals by accident.
“When I recruit, I’ve never said to a player, ‘Come help us win,’ ” Hewitt said. “I tell them to come here to get a great education. Come here and hopefully you can be a good enough basketball player that you can earn a living. I know from experience that winning games for these guys in the long run really means nothing. You have a degree. You have a skill. Our job is to try to help them make the most of those two things.”
The lost art of collegiate athletics.
The college football coaching circus has become the extreme example of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, particularly in the South. Basketball isn’t there yet. But things have moved in that direction.
Hewitt shrugs.
“It’s the coaching business. It’s the way it is. I love my job. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
He likes his team this season. He probably liked it better two months ago. But then: D’Andre Bell, a senior, was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and lost for the season; Lewis Clinch was declared academically ineligible for the fall, mandating he miss the team’s first seven games; point guard Moe Miller suffered a nasal fracture and concussion when he was elbowed in the nose in a loss to Illinois-Chicago on Dec. 14.
But the team is in recovery. Clinch is back, eligible and thriving (three game average: 18.3 points). Miller has missed three games and will miss only a few more.
Expectations? Tech was picked to finish eighth by ACC media members. Perceptions have taken a hit.
But we’ve seen the upside with Hewitt. What happened in 2004 wasn’t an accident.
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Hope, cash dwindling for Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The worst thing for a sports fan is not a losing team. The worst thing is when there is no real chance for things getting any better. Bad decisions can be overcome by good ones. But a lack of commitment smothers all hope.
The Thrashers aren’t merely the 28th-ranked team in a 30-team league. They are a mediocre, even if hard-working, bunch put together with the primary objective of losing as little money as possible. The roster screams it. The payroll confirms it. Nobody denies it.
A franchise can’t possibly send a worse message to an already dwindling fan base.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where we sit in salaries in the league,” general manager Don Waddell said before Friday’s loss to Carolina — and it should be noted here that while he didn’t shirk responsibility for the way this team has devolved, it always helps to spread the blame.
The Thrashers held a 4-3 lead in the third period but lost 5-4 when Eric Staal scored two goals in a span of 1:16. They belabored another close loss. But bad teams lose close games because they have fewer gears than good teams.
Welcome to the discount table. Sad, isn’t it?
The Thrashers’ payroll is a bag of pucks north of the minimum. The NHL salary-cap ceiling is $56.7 million. The floor is $40.7 million. The Thrashers officially are at just over $44 million, but that includes about $2 million in potential bonuses for rookie Zach Bogosian, who won’t achieve any.
Fans want to know that their team can still win because help is on the way. They don’t want to know that ownership has other priorities.
Think of the Atlanta Spirit as an ATM right now. Because of automatic debits, the daily balance is bleeding. The account holders are headed for a court showdown (again) with alienated partner Steve Belkin in February. Nobody is in a buy mode. The withdrawal button just ain’t working.
Waddell would never come out and say that he’s handcuffed. He doesn’t have to.
When asked for 397th time if he was concerned about his job, he said enough between the lines to illustrate matters: “Every day is a new challenge. I’ll continue to do everything I can for the team and the Spirit. If you’re asking me if I’m worried about [my job], nothing has changed. We all have different expectations, not only from a team standpoint but from a financial standpoint.”
All of the problems obviously can’t be attributed to finances. Most of the problems can be traced back to year one. Waddell was here, the Spirit wasn’t. Even in budget-crunching times, a general manager can make things work to a degree if there’s a solid foundation. Waddell poured the foundation. It hasn’t been just about bad drafts or miscalculations in personnel. It’s mostly about never having a successful plan, a structure, an identity.
“I think we’re pretty solid when we’re playing an ugly, simple game,” said winger Colby Armstrong, and that probably sounded worse than he meant. “When we’re not physical, and we don’t win our battles, we’re dead in the water. We have to focus on being a tougher team to play against.”
They’re just not. Staal skated around Jason Williams and Nathan Oystrick for the winning goal.
The Thrashers won their season opener against Washington, then won one of the next 10. They won five in a row, then only two of the next 13. It’s not hard to figure out which is the aberration.
It wouldn’t be fair to blame coach John Anderson for this. He may or may not be an NHL-worthy coach, but there’s no way of knowing.
Anderson admitted the adjustment from winning in the AHL has been difficult. He joked that Washington coach Bruce Boudreau, his friend, threw off the curve last season when he won the Southeast Division after being elevated from the minors.
“It’s like following the animal act on Johnny Carson,” he said. “I want to put my head through the wall sometimes. We make mistakes we shouldn’t be making, but I’m a realist. I know where we are in the league.”
With little hope of getting better.
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John Abraham erases “bad guy” image
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch - It was easy to lose track of the number of times John Abraham limped off the field last week in Minnesota, only to return moments later. The injury report says, “Thigh.” But pick a body part.
“You don’t look so good,” somebody said to him after the Vikings game, as he struggled to dress.
“I’m still alive — that’s all that matters,” he said.
Imagine that. John Abraham, playing through injuries. John Abraham, thinking of a team and not his ego, thinking of a playoff berth and not his contract. What would they think in New York? What happened to that guy who was vilified for sitting out playoff games in 2004? (He said he had a bad knee. They suggested he was more concerned about his next contract.) What came of the brooding soul who grew so tired of the criticism that he started mocking them by having attack words stitched on hats?
“Bad Guy.”
“Overrated.”
“Selfish. Me Me Me.”
Today, Abraham laughs.
“I had some crazy hats,” he said. “I just wanted people to get off my back. People would say, ‘He’s selfish,’ so I thought, OK, and rather than say something back, I’ll just put it on a hat.’ I can’t be that bad, but you wouldn’t know it. I got into one situation in New York and suddenly I was the worse person ever. I had a DUI. Twenty-three years old. I did a stupid thing. Six years there and they were still talking about that. Is there anything else? Nothing about the Pro Bowls? Just, ‘He got a DUI three years ago. He’s a troubled guy.’”
He can recount this without anger. It tells you he has let it go. He has set a Falcons record for sacks in a season (16 1/2) despite playing on a relatively obscure defense in which he is the focus of opponents’ protection schemes. It speaks to his talent. He limped back in against the Vikings so he could sack Tarvaris Jackson and help the Falcons secure their first post-season berth. It screams something about his motivation.
“We’ve got to win, and I know I’m a big key to winning,” he said. “Everything that hurts feels better when you win.”
The Falcons acquired Abraham from the Jets in 2006. They gave him a six-year, $45 million contract. But nobody could really be sure what the Falcons were getting: An impact pass rusher, or an injury-prone end with a less than pristine image.
Abraham looked forward to being a Falcon. It gave him a fresh start. It got him back to the South (he grew up in Timmonsville, S.C.). But the nightmare only mutated. In 2006, a groin injury kept him out half the season, the Falcons slid to 7-9 and Jim Mora became bipolar. In 2007, Abraham stayed healthy most of the season, but everything else was a spectacular disaster. Michael Vick, Bobby Petrino, 4-12.
“It was tough, because everything I came here for was leaving - the coach, the quarterback, everything,” he said. “This year has helped me a lot. It got me loving the game the way I used to. Loving to play the game, playing hurt, playing when you feel like you can’t play, wanting to put it all on the line. I got that back.”
The last time he felt like this?
“It’s been a while,” he said. “It’s been an up and down road for me in the last four or five years. This is the most stable year I’ve had in a long time.”
Abraham has had at least one sack in 10 of 15 games this year, had three sacks three times and totaled more this year than in his first two seasons as a Falcon combined (14). Somehow, he wasn’t picked for the Pro Bowl.
He admits he was upset about it for two days. Now? “There’s another bowl I’d rather go to. It’s a little bigger than the Pro Bowl.”
The Falcons won’t use Abraham more than they have to against St. Louis. He could use the down time. As this subject came up, teammate Lawyer Milloy walked by.
“It’d be nice if he actually stayed in a game,” Milloy joked.
“Hey, 16 1/2 sacks,” Abraham said. “Imagine if I stayed in — I’d have 32.”
Nothing hurts when you win.
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Holyfield has no hope of correcting ‘injustice’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two days before his plans to celebrate a religious miracle, Evander Holyfield asked one of boxing’s sanctioning bodies to admit a mistake.
Might I suggest a change of venue from Venezuela to Bethlehem?
“I don’t know why the judges did that, but it’s an injustice,” Holyfield said of losing his latest bid to reclaim the heavyweight title, a majority decision loss to WBA champion Nicolai Valuev Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland. “We’re filing a protest that basically says, ‘We want you to overturn this.’ I just want what’s rightfully mine. I didn’t lose. I won.”
Holyfield and his manager, Ken Sanders, filed a protest Tuesday. To understand the odds of the decision being overturned, consider this: Even organized sports with real leagues and actual bylaws that don’t operate two neighborhoods over from South American drug cartels don’t overturn event results.
The best Holyfield probably could hope for is a rematch. (What then? Try to find a host more neutral than Switzerland?)
This is what happens when you’re 46 years old in a relatively young man’s occupation. Fans, judges, media — everybody looks at you funny. You say, “I feel great.” They counter, “You haven’t held a piece of the title in a distressed weight class in over eight years. Goodbye.”
Holyfield is fighting something worse than time. He is fighting perceptions. So many just want him to go away. It’s tough enough in boxing when everybody actually likes you.
By all accounts, Holyfield fought — and certainly moved — as well as he had in years against Valuev, a plodding Lerch-like figure at 7-feet, 311 pounds. He moved for 12 rounds. He seldom let Valuev get set. He jabbed and counter punched. One writer for SI.com scored the bout 118-110 in Holyfield’s favor. But officially, two judges gave it to Valuev (116-112, 115-114) and a third had it even (114-114).
“It was pathetic,” Holyfield’s trainer, Tommy Brooks, said Tuesday.
When asked if he believed judges were colored by cries for Holyfield to retire and his recent string of bad performances, Brooks said, “I don’t even think it was that. I think it was just some home cooking for a promoter’s fighter. I think somebody was just greasing somebody’s palms.”
That’s the great thing about boxing. Nothing ever changes. Every other fight plays out like, “On The Waterfront.” Every bad decision is manufactured in the shadows. Every bad-luck pug is Terry Malloy.
The WBA has offices in Venezuela and Panama. (I’m sure they’ve got dockworkers.) Gilberto Mendoza, the sanctioning body’s president, did not return an email Tuesday. Robert Mack, a WBA attorney based in Tacoma, said he had not yet heard of Holyfield’s protest but said, “We accept any protest and have our champions committee consider it.”
The process?
“It’s not a quick one. It could be weeks. Months.”
Can decisions be overturned?
“No. But if there is some concern about a decision, a rematch could be ordered.”
Of course. Sanctioning bodies make their money on fees associated with title bouts. Rematches are gold for them. They don’t get any residuals for overturning decisions. But if you would like to try, the standard paper bag deposit will do.
Holyfield doesn’t have a belt. But if he needed affirmation that he can still perform amid projections of doom, he got it. He kept his criticism of the decision to a minimum after the fight. But after returning home to Atlanta, he watched it on tape and saw himself do things and react in ways he hadn’t in some time.
Judge Holyfield scored himself winner, 10 rounds to 2 (rough translation in 10-point must system: 118-110).
“I think the judges were shocked I was whipping him so bad,” he said.
Has he ever felt this strongly about a bad decision?
“Yeah, the Olympics,” he said, referencing when he was disqualified by the referee in a semifinal for hitting on the break in 1984 in Los Angeles. “At least they let me keep my [bronze] medal. But everywhere I went, people cheered me like I was the gold medal winner.”
They don’t cheer Holyfield like a world champion now. Nor, apparently, do they judge him like one.
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Now batting eighth, the Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10 - The Falcon will be in the playoffs for the ninth time in 43 seasons. They’re batting .209, or eighth in the order. But say this for the Birds, when they get there, they usually do something.
9 - Got up this morning, remembered I was out of coffee and remembered I was supposed to blog (bad combination). But I did a little research this morning. (It happens.) Did you know the Falcons have won at least one playoff game in five of their eight postseasons, which is pretty impressive for a franchise that generally goes dormant in January.
8 - Look at the last three playoff years. 1998: Won the division, earned a bye, defeated San Francisco and Minnesota in the NFC, made a Dirty Bird dancer of Dan Reeves, then lost to Denver in the Super Bowl. 2002: Went to Green Bay and handed the Packers their first postseason loss at Lambeau, then lost to Philadelphia in the divisional playoffs. 2004: Won the division, earned a bye, annihilated St. Louis, then lost at Philly for the NFC title.
7 - Then again, there was that 12-4 record and NFC West Division title back in 1980, which gave way to a 30-27 first-round home loss to Dallas. But that was so yesterday. I mean, look at the Cowboys now.
6 - It was minus-8 when I left Minneapolis Monday morning. I couldn’t feel my toes until halfway over South Carolina.
5 - I’ll have more on this later today, but Evander Holyfield is upset about the decision that saw him lose in to WBA champion Nicolai Valuev Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland. The problem, of course, with trying to protest a decision is sanctioning bodies like the WBA answer to nobody. And their offices are in Panama and Venezuela.
4 - I guess Brett Favre is still immune to criticism because the only guy catching heat for the New York Jets’ funny collapse is coach Eric Mangini. Today’s back page of the New York Post had a picture of Mangini with the headline,”Win Or Else!” The back page of the Daily News had another shot of the coach with the headline, “Win Or Take A Hike!” Newsday merely advanced the story: “Cowher Power!” with a picture of, duh. And what of the saintly Favre …?
3 - Try this: In the last four games (three losses), he has one touchdown pass, six interceptions, nine sacks and a QB rating in the 50s. The four defenses he faced were Denver, San Francisco, Buffalo, Seattle. No greatness there. Favre has worn down. He has no arm left. He is making bad decisions. So why is nobody scolding him? Too afraid to admit it was a lame decision to bring him in?
2 - Richard Carrion, the IOC’s finance commission chairman, admitted the IOC has about $4.8 million at risk in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. The IOC’s most powerful Dept. of Slush Funds, Payoffs and Acquisitions is still calculating the impact.
1 - The Braves sent me a unique holiday card that could be unfolded and turned into wrapping paper. Of course, there was no pitcher inside.
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Moment to cherish for Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Minneapolis — As coaches hugged and players celebrated and the owner’s son jumped into the arms of his father, John Abraham was blindsided by a different kind of emotion, one that nobody could have seen coming amid the hopeless projections of summer.
“I teared up,” he said. “It all hit me. To have a year like this, to fight like this, after what everybody was saying about us — I actually teared up. Never happened before.”
These are the moments that an athlete cherishes, the moments that can make sports so special. These are the moments that make you say “huh?” and “wow” simultaneously.
The Falcons are in the playoffs. Huh? Wow.
Dallas collapses at home on Saturday. Tampa Bay collapses at home on Sunday. All around the Falcons, the dominoes fell.
The only team that didn’t act like it wasn’t supposed to be here was the team that wasn’t supposed to be here.
“It’s the week of miracles,” owner Arthur Blank said. “The first night of Hanukkah is tonight. Christmas is this week. And now this.”
It wasn’t the perfect performance. It didn’t need to be. The Minnesota Vikings had seven fumbles and lost four. It was like watching a team chain-smoke sticks of dynamite. But what does it say that the Falcons have spent a good part of this season watching their opponents self-destruct?
“Resiliency,” coach Mike Smith said when asked what surprised him most about this team. “We haven’t lost consecutive games all season. That says a lot about these men and their ability to bounce back.”
They are 10-5. At this point a year ago, they had dropped six in a row on the way to a 4-12 face plant. It was the third straight year out of the playoffs, far from the high of 2004, when the four corners of this franchise — owner, general manager, coach, quarterback — looked so stable and promising. Spectacular disaster followed. A franchise so accustomed to the bottom seemed to have found a new low.
Now, the Falcons are something else. Tough. Confident. Remarkably grown up. They walked into one of the NFL’s loudest buildings and played a Vikings team that had won eight of its last 10. They drove 74 yards for a touchdown on the opening possession.
While the Vikings’ showed their thumbs, the Falcons showed their resolve and their maturity. They built a 24-7 lead and only teased their opponent in the end.
Long after it was over, general manager Thomas Dimitroff stood against a wall in the bowels of the Metrodome, still in a daze. He could hear the college-like shouts of his players from the other side of the locker room door.
“I’m so proud of this group, the way everybody bought into this rebuilding idea, the way they bought into coach Smith, the way they formed a team,” he said. “Any time there’s been a mishap this season, there’s been somebody there to pick a teammate up. It’s been an amazing thing to watch.”
The shouts of Lawyer Milloy, the team’s acknowledged leader, could be heard through the walls.
“We’re not done!” he told teammates.
Later, Milloy smiled even as he went though the pain of putting on his socks (“I need a new back.”).
“I told these guys, you only get these chances every so often in a lifetime,” he said. “In training camp, you had people predicting us to win one game. Me being as old as I am, I told everybody, ‘Don’t let this be just a rebuilding year. I can’t go through that.’ “
He hasn’t had to. Milloy watched from the sideline as Abraham delivered the knockout punch — a sack of Tarvaris Jackson in the final minute, causing an eruption on the sideline.
“I know he was upset this week about not going to the Pro Bowl,” Milloy said of Abraham. “But I told him, ‘When you’re holding up that trophy at the end of the year, you won’t be thinking about the Pro Bowl.’ Hey, why not us? We feel like we can match up with anybody in the NFC. We’ve got a shot.”
There was a time you would’ve laughed at that statement. Not now. Because by now, it has hit everybody.
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Wren selling hope, but so far few are buying
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Once you get past that the general manager in San Diego might be a kook, and that A.J. Burnett says he wanted to be closer to his wife, who doesn’t like to fly, and that Rafael Furcal’s agent acted in a “despicable” and “disgusting” and “unprofessional” manner (source: John Schuerholz), there is one inescapable fact: The Braves went 0-for-3.
They used to be everybody’s destination.
Now they are everybody’s pawn.
They were used by the Padres’ Kevin Towers, who solicited the Braves’ best offer for pitcher Jake Peavy and then tried to weave a better deal with Chicago. They were used by Burnett, who probably would’ve pitched for the Braves if there were a significant difference in salary but preferred New York, which is closer to his Maryland home. They certainly were used by Rafael Furcal’s three-card-Monte playing agent, who only wanted to get comparable money in Los Angeles.
But you know what nobody’s talking about?
Furcal could’ve said, “Forget the Dodgers. I’m signing with the Braves.” He didn’t.
By Braves’ standards, this hasn’t been merely an off offseason. It has been a disaster. If one more general manager or player or agent says no to Frank Wren, I swear Turner Field is dropping into a sinkhole.
Asked about perceptions that everything has gone wrong this winter, Wren said: “I really don’t have that feeling. There are still a lot of things we can do. There are a lot of players out there. A lot of possibilities. We’re not at the finish line yet.”
Yes. There is still time. There are still players. There remains all of that unused payroll. If Wren finds it any consolation, he could really clean up in a three-day sale at Kohl’s with what’s left in his budget.
Do they carry pitchers there?
The Braves have a big problem. They are no longer the remarkable team of 14 consecutive postseasons, five pennants and a World Series. They are the team that has missed the playoffs three consecutive years.
They are the team that lost 90 games last season. They are the team with a thin lineup whose best player (Chipper Jones) will be 37 next season and whose once-sure-gold-prospect (Jeff Francoeur) is struggling to relocate his career.
Yesterday’s starting rotation: Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz-Doesn’t Matter-Who Cares.
Today’s starting rotation: Vazquez-Jurrjens-Good Luck-Still Developing-Pray.
The Braves used to be the product that sold itself. Players have left money on the table to be here. Now, they’re the hard sale.
Wren disputes the characterization. It’s what you would expect him to say. John Schuerholz, the team president, disputes this, though to a point. After praising all facets of the organization, he said: “There might be a few players who say they want to play for a World Series-bound team, and then scratch us off for that. But there are still a lot of good things about playing here.”
The anger over the Furcal non-signing remains palpable. Wren can’t quite believe it. Schuerholz vented, saying he told agent Arn Tellem (Paul Kinzer’s more-powerful partner) that the Braves never will sign another one of their clients.
“We’re a proud organization and we won’t allow ourselves to be treated that way,” he said. “I advised Arn Tellem that whatever players he represents, just scratch us off the list. Take the name of the Atlanta Braves off their speed dial. They can deal with the other 29 clubs and we’ll deal with the other hundred agents.”
Deals fall apart all the time. But these collapses have been high profile and public. The Braves aren’t used to that.
Wren said of the protracted Peavy trade talks, “That went on for six weeks. It was almost like the Florida ballot counting.”
Postscript: Peavy is still in San Diego. Could those talks be reignited?
Wren laughed. “No comment,” he said.
This isn’t Wren’s fault. He is a solid baseball man. He isn’t gullible. He has been aggressive. He simply isn’t dealing from a position of strength.
He says he isn’t feeling extraordinary pressure, adding, “I’d feel pressure if there weren’t still a lot of good players out there. I’d feel pressure if we didn’t have a solid foundation.”
He is selling hope. He has to. Right now, that’s all the Braves have.
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Johnson happy at Tech, no matter who calls
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes, a coach doesn’t need to say he had options to go elsewhere, even when everybody knows he had options to go elsewhere.
Did Auburn call?
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Paul Johnson said, smiling.
So what you’re saying is, Auburn called?
“I try not to talk about that stuff. It doesn’t serve any purpose. Once you’ve answered that, you have to answer that all the time. So what if they called? What good does it do to tell everybody? It doesn’t help me. It doesn’t help them. So it’s best to leave it at that.”
But if Auburn didn’t call, wouldn’t you just say that?
“I’m happy at Georgia Tech. And that’s where I plan on being for a while.”
Georgia Tech has a football coach. A good football coach. A very good football coach who suddenly finds himself as the flavor of the month.
Would you have expected all three back in August?
The Jackets defeated Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Miami and Georgia this season. At 9-3, a win over LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl would give them a double-digit win total for the first time since 1998, and only the third time in 52 seasons.
These kinds of results get a coach noticed. So it wasn’t surprising that: 1) Johnson’s name was dropped into coaching searches, most notably Auburn; 2) Dan Radakovich is moving quickly to significantly upgrade his contract, which averages about $1.6 million per year in guarantees, relatively modest for a coach who beats Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Miami and Georgia in his first year.
“It’s being in this market,” Radakovich said. “It’s part of college football. You have to know that when he has the year that he had, and with his track record, at some point people will come knocking on the door, and he becomes a hotter commodity than he was a year ago.”
Johnson, chatting the other day before a bowl preview luncheon, didn’t have to confirm Auburn was interested. That’s kind of obvious. (Radakovich’s non-denial denial: “I don’t want to comment on somebody else’s coaching search.”)
But it’s just as obvious that Johnson wasn’t interested. He is happy here. He likes the school, the administration, the players. He likes being back in the South after six winters in Annapolis, Md., at the Naval Academy.
There’s also this: “I’ve been here one year. It wouldn’t send much of a message to anybody if you bolted on people after one year. I’d like to think I’ve got a little more about me than that.”
Georgia coach Mark Richt recalled that when he was an assistant coach at Florida State he was offered the Pittsburgh job. He asked his wife, Katharyn, whether she could see herself living in Pittsburgh the rest of her life. When she said no, he turned the job down, even though he wanted to be a head coach.
In that sense, Richt and Johnson are bookends. Neither seems consumed with the next destination. They are the anti-Petrinos.
“I’ve never been a job-jumper,” Johnson said. “An old coach told me once you don’t have to take every job that’s offered to you. That’s pretty sage advice. When you get into a good situation and you like the people you’re working with and you like where you live, then it takes something special to get you to leave.”
That old coach: Erk Russell.
Johnson has achieved a lot in a short amount of time at Tech. But his greatest accomplishment is changing the mind-set of the program. This is the campus where former athletics director Dave Braine used academic standards as a crutch for limited expectations.
Johnson came to Tech, not merely because he felt he had accomplished all he could at Navy, but because, he said: “I felt like we could win a championship here, and that’s something I wanted to accomplish.”
And he’s not answering the phone.
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Rational thinking at Auburn? No way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10 - Racism is the only logical explanation for the dearth of African American head coaches in Division I college football. Four out of 119 coaches is beyond embarrassing. It’s shameful. It’s certainly more than plausible at a Southern school (Auburn) that has never had an African American head football coach and rejects probably the strongest job candidate (Turner Gill) who happens to be black and is married to a white woman. There’s just one problem.
9 - To assume Auburn gave the job to the overmatched Gene Chizik (5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State) sort of assumes they know what a good football coach is anyway. Remember, this is the same school that secretly [met behind an airplane hanger with Beelzebub’s first lieutenant, Bobby Petrino, when the Tigers already had a great football coach (Tommy Tuberville). When Tuberville went undefeated, they were forced to give him the world or have him walk (which he should have). After one bad season - during which, by the way, Tuberville manned-up and accepted responsibility for hiring the wrong offensive coordinator - Tuberville was fired.
8 - So now Nick Saban turns around Alabama in roughly a week, wins its first 12 games before losing to Florida for the SEC title, and Auburn panics. This is an administration that’s incapable of clear, rational thoughts even in normal circumstances - what would you expect when the heat’s on?
7 - Final word on Auburn. We really can’t know for certain how Chizik will fare as a coach. But there’s no question he’s going to get flattened in recruiting for at least two years, and only 10-win seasons will enable him to make a dent in Alabama’s class. Gill, a young African American with an offensive mind, at least would’ve given Auburn something Alabama doesn’t have in a recruit’s living room.
6 - Letting Rafael Furcal go was one of the biggest mistakes the Braves ever made that nobody wants to talks about. It follows that the possibility of bringing him back, as reported, would be a huge boost for general manager Frank Wren, whose offseason I think is running second only to Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs. The signing would free the team to deal Yunel Escobar in a package for a pitcher, and right now the staff is too dependent on medical miracles.
5 - There was a rumor in a Canadian tabloid this week that Thrashers general manager Don Waddell is close to losing his job. This makes so much sense on every level, except for two obvious ones: 1) The franchise has nobody in the organization capable of taking over at mid-season. Assistant general manager Larry Simmons is a numbers guy, nothing more. The organization lacks hockey minds. 2) To hire a replacement from the outside would necessitate spending money - which isn’t real high on the Atlanta Spirit’s agenda right now.
4 - One final hockey thought (sorry, I know it doesn’t move the meter). The Thrashers are tied for the worst record in the league and, with 22 points in 29 games, are on a pace for 62 points. That would be the fourth lowest total in team history, behind 39, 60 and 54 in the franchise’s first three seasons. Way to build.
3 - The Georgia Force announced it will not play this season. No word yet on whether that will affect attendance.
2 - Evander Holyfield fights Nikolai Valuev Saturday for the WBA heavyweight title. The bout will be held in Zurich, Switzerland. It was moved from halftime of a Force game.
1 - Auburn just gave $5 million to Tommy Tuberville to walk away and $2 million a year to a coach, Chizik, who finished the season with a 10-game losing streak. They’re one board meeting short of being General Motors.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: UGA/SEC
Hawks forgot to roll out King’s welcome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When LeBron James walked into Madison Square Garden two-and-a-half weeks ago and introduced the deranged, $140 sneaker-buying corner of the world to his new candy apple red, Big Apple Nike Zoom LeBron 6’s, most viewed it as foreshadowing.
The shoes arrived in 2008.
The rest of him gets there in 2010.
“Funny — everybody knows what I’m going to do except me,” James said Saturday.
OK, so maybe this obsession with where James will earn his next max contract is a bit much. Even online sports books have posted odds. Cleveland is a slight favorite at 6-5 over New York (5-2). The Hawks are 50-1. The odds would have dropped Saturday, but, alas, he didn’t show up at Philips Arena with the Big Peach Zoom 7s.
“Maybe next time,” he said, laughing.
Next time, maybe all the buildup won’t be for James and the visitors. We saw the good Hawks Saturday, the ones that can defend and play under control and, most importantly, play with the NBA’s elite.
This is how you open a homestand. After showing signs of backsliding following a 6-0 start, the Hawks — the initial roadkill in Cleveland’s 11-game winning streak — knocked the Cavaliers back a step with a 97-92 win. It doesn’t mean they’re nearly at the level of the Cavs, who at 20-4 can live with a setback. But this game did illustrate the Hawks’ upside.
“It was definitely a big win for us, especially coming against one of the top teams in the league,” said Mike Bibby, whose three-pointer with 2:19 left gave Atlanta a 92-90 lead. “I think this just showed how good we can be when we help each other defensively.”
James. He wore normal shoes and finished with a relatively pedestrian (for him) 33 points. Fans expecting him to take over the game instead saw a strong defensive effort from several Hawks, including Marvin Williams, who played against James in high school in AAU tournaments.
“Just physically, he’s a tough dude to stop,” Williams said. “You take someone like Dwyane Wade, who’s 6-4 and can run and jump and dunk. But LeBron is 6-9, 250, 260 doing the same thing. It’s scary.”
The Cavaliers are where the Hawks want to be. They started the season 1-2, then won 19 of their next 20. They suddenly defend as well as anybody. They have added Mo Williams.
But James is remains the centerpiece, of this team and this league. He is redefining the game. He is the youngest and fastest player ever to 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals, 300 blocks. Michael Jordan had been the fastest. Kobe Bryant had been the youngest.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since being a part of the Cavs organization,” James said before the game.
It hasn’t all been fun. The Knicks/free agency speculation has spun out of control, and James is partly to blame. No, he couldn’t control what people thought when New York cleared salary cap space, and fans and media immediately projected him as a Knick in 2010. But it was James who chose to crash Gotham like a blowtorch. He landed in New York, launched the red shoes and said nothing in press conferences to defuse the situation.
Charles Barkley, the former player turned free-speaking analyst, didn’t like it. “If I was LeBron James, I would shut the hell up,” Barkley blasted, saying James disrespected the game, his teammates and Cleveland fans.
Barkley had a point.
James didn’t think so. His response: “He’s stupid.”
Didn’t even use the whole 24 seconds.
“My teammates know I have to go through so much talking about free agency and everything,” James said. “I think they get tired of hearing that and they want to go out and prove people wrong. I just go out and do my job. I don’t care what people say about me or what they think my future is before I even know what it is.”
For now, he’s with the Cavs, who remain at a level the Hawks aspire to. For one night, James was just north of mortal, and the Hawks looked like Cleveland’s equal.
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McDavid’s fight would’ve been nice to see
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the Hawks steadily drift back to the pack and the Thrashers reaffirm their place among the worst run franchises in sports, do you wonder what it would’ve been like with an owner who spent more time, money and brainpower on the actual product than, say, attorney’s fees?
I do. David McDavid doesn’t. He knows he would’ve done better.
“Do you know what a camel is? It’s a horse designed by a committee,” McDavid said Thursday when asked about the Atlanta Spirit ownership group. “Those franchises are being run by a committee. They’re a camel. If I had taken over, nobody would be fighting, unless I was fighting with myself.
“Does that guarantee anything? No. But I will always believe I would have done a better job. Look at their history. None of them had run a business like that in their life.
“If you look at sports, you’ll find a lot teams that have been run by automotive people. They’re similar businesses. You have a product to sell. You try to make it as pretty as you can. You deal with people. You make it a good experience. I mean, you can buy a Honda anywhere.”
A jury ruled Thursday that McDavid should have been allowed to purchase the Hawks, Thrashers and the operating rights to Philips Arena in 2003 from Turner Broadcasting. He was awarded $281 million. All that money - and, as a bonus, he’s not mocked for his power play.
McDavid called the trial and the years leading up to it a “phenomenal burden.” He believes he has lost his desire to own a team. What he hasn’t lost is his wit, his opinions or his Texas-twang, blast-furnace delivery.
In a wide-ranging phone interview Thursday from Fort Worth, McDavid unloaded on Turner and the Atlanta Spirit, the dysfunctional group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers. He also disclosed some of his original plans for the teams, including:
• To bring in partners, claiming “six to 10” interested parties. “I would’ve kept controlling interest,” he said. “That’s one of the problems with the Spirit deal. I’ve never seen a palace coup be a success against someone who owns 51 percent of the stock. You listen to input from partners, but at the end of the day you say, ‘Thank you very much’ and make your decision.”
• To consider an offer from an undisclosed party who wanted to buy the Thrashers for “what we were paying for everything” and keep the team in Atlanta. “I don’t know if we would’ve done it but it would’ve immediately wiped out all of our debt.”
• To hire Doc Rivers or Mike Dunleavy as Hawks coach. He had conversations with both, and counts Dunleavy as a friend.
McDavid also believes the franchises and arena are worth “far more than [the Spirit] paid for it,” adding, “Our verdict validates that.”
He said Turner put in a “[Fool] Clause” in the original sale contract. “It said after the deal, we couldn’t sell the teams for 12 months,” McDavid said. “The reason we referred to it ‘The [Fool] Clause’ was because they didn’t want to look like [fools] if we bought the teams for $96 million and then turned around and sold them for $500 million. I thought it was kind of funny.”
He doesn’t know estranged team owner Steve Belkin personally, but said, “It’s clear from what he’s asking for his 30 percent that he also thinks the teams are worth a lot.”
And while he is not taking sides in the battle between the feuding owners, the lawsuit makes for an amusing spectator sport.
“Any time you have insiders not getting along, you can’t run a business,” he said. “It goes further than just trying to make it a successful team. If I was the head of a corporation and people wanted to talk to me about sponsorships, and then they saw us all fighting with each other, why would I want to be a part of that? Nobody wants to get into that mess.”
Would Belkin be a better owner than the non-Belkins?
“My personal view is that those teams would be better off with anybody except those guys,” he said. “Anytime you have all this crap going on … they just don’t seem to get it.”
He says he felt a connection with Atlanta. His daughter nearly enrolled at Georgia. His best friend owns an auto dealership in Athens. He remembers receiving a phone call from his friend after the 1984 Cotton Bowl when Georgia rallied to defeat Texas, 10-9.
McDavid laughed. “He called and said, ‘Kiss my behind, 10 to 9.’ “
He loves sports. He’s no fan of corporate ownership.
“A team is such a personal item for [fans], they want a face to go with it,” he said. “They want to know there’s somebody who cares. They want somebody they can walk up to and say, ‘Are you a moron or something?’ “
We can’t be sure he would’ve won championships. But look what he just did to Turner in court?
“They were not pleasant to deal with,” he said. “It was the world according to Turner. Whatever they say the truth is, the truth is. That’s not the way the world works. The jury foreman said, ‘All of McDavid’s witnesses were on the same page, and none of the Turner witnesses were.’ My response is, it’s real easy to be on the same page when you’re telling the truth.”
He claimed Turner representatives told him before the trial, “We’ll embarrass you. We’ll make you look like a pretender.”
McDavid paused after that recollection.
“I’m not going to say the money’s not important,” he said. “But what we really wanted was to not let them get away with it. Vindication is sweet. I don’t take well to threats.”
An owner who fights. An owner who wins.
It would’ve been nice.
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Unfortunately, Jan Kemp’s impact fading
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charles Knapp had read about the trial and had a sense of the hangover on campus. But it took an impromptu meeting with Georgia’s most famous English instructor to bring inglorious history back into focus.
“It was one of the first times I was at the university,” Knapp, the former Georgia president, said Monday. “I was giving a talk to the faculty, and a number of people came forward when it was over. I remember the line moving up and a bunch of photographers suddenly moving into position. Then a lady comes up and extends her hand and an entire bank of flashbulbs went off. I just laughed and said, ‘You must be Jan Kemp.’ “
This was in 1988, two years after Kemp sued Georgia for wrongful termination and exposed academic irregularities regarding student-athletes.
UGA wasn’t the only campus where the athletic department’s footprint mutated far beyond its ideal size. But the Kemp suit was clear and tangible. It was something people could touch and feel and debate. It became talking point on all matters related to reforming college athletics.
Jan Kemp died of complications from Alzheimer’s at the too young age of 59. She passed knowing that she helped affect change at Georgia and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, that change now looks like a small clean spot on a greasy factory floor.
An army of Jan Kemps wouldn’t make a difference today. Whistleblowers may catch the occasional corrupt academic counselor, or the football coach whose car keys somehow keep winding up in a recruit’s pocket.
But today’s problems dwarf those of two decades ago. They’re created by hypocritical college presidents who preach academics one day and yield to a booster’s whims to fire the football coach the next. They say yes to 12-game regular seasons, conference championship games and late-night bowl kickoffs and basketball tournament tipoffs — but no to a football playoff because it “sends the wrong message.”
Jan Kemp had the right idea at the right time. But the issues were simpler in the 1980s and barely applicable today. It’s like dropping an expert on eight-track technology into a digital world.
“The days of the $50 handshake and the grade-changing — there’s a thousand ways to keep an eye on those things now,” said Knapp, who came from Tulane following the resignation of president Fred Davison and an interim term by Henry King Stanford. “The battlefield has changed. The amount of money involved with everything from coaches salaries to advertising and BCS bowls — it’s really accelerated everything.
“In my days, the question was, ‘What are our minimum academic standards for athletes?’ Now I hear less and less about those standards. It’s about the trajectory of athletics in the face of so much money. It’s college presidents talking about trying to maintain some semblance of amateurism. I remember when there was no advertising at Sanford Stadium. We had a long discussion about putting up two itsy-bitsy signs on the scoreboard, one for Coke and one for Delta. We had all this hand wringing over the issue before we decided to do it. Now you go into the stadium and it looks like a video arcade.”
There is nothing wrong with making money. The problem is, making money surpassed a university’s primary’s mission long ago.
Kemp was the voice that screamed, “We’ve lost control. Priorities are out of whack.”
Georgia listened then. It implemented changes. But in the big picture, nobody listened. Or nobody cared.
We should have known what really mattered. The Bulldogs were giving football scholarships to non-qualifiers because of their size, speed and strength. This was reaffirmed when Kemp’s superior, Leroy Ervin, was secretly taped at a faculty meeting, saying recruits were “used as kind of a raw material in the production of some goods to be sold as whatever product, and they get nothing in return.”
There was the dreaded opening statement by the school’s attorney, Hale Almand, who acknowledged: “We may not make a university student out of him, but if we teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbage man …”
So much for the mission statement.
Kemp won her suit. She eventually returned to teaching. Some on campus saw her as a pariah, others as a savior.
“If you view it through a sports scope, there was some sense of killing the messenger,” Knapp said.
Today, unfortunately, the message has been lost.
More on Jan Kemp: Obit • Photos • Guestbook
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Because of Ryan, Falcons had a chance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans — There was just over three minutes left in the game when New Orleans finally got Matt Ryan into a position they could deal with.
On the sideline.
The Falcons lost big Sunday. They lost a division game to the Saints. They lost ground in the playoff race to almost everybody that matters. They lost a game with their most important player — Ryan — not being given a chance to make something happen — again.
“We knew if we could get a [defensive] stop there that he was going to take us down and get some points,” center Todd McClure said. “It’s tough when you don’t get that opportunity.”
Even before Sunday, Ryan already had transitioned this season from a rookie with an upside to an uncommonly poised and effective NFL quarterback. But he took things to another level against the Saints. He became the player a team just wants with the ball in his hands. He became the playmaker, the difference maker.
He became, strangely enough, Michael Vick.
Ryan completed the passes that overcame penalties. He converted the third-and-longs that led to scoring drives. He made the plays when the protection broke down, scrambling to buy time so he could find an open receiver (including a Vick-esque 59-yarder to Roddy White).
And when nobody was open, he ran 12 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
“He keeps giving us a chance to win it,” Lawyer Milloy said.
But Ryan needed one more chance Sunday, and he wasn’t given it.
Coach Mike Smith put the game in the hands of his defense in the final minutes. Those were the wrong hands to be holding the Falcons’ fate on this day.
Ryan’s touchdown run with 7:51 left provided a short-lived 25-22 lead. Pierre Thomas returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards to the 16. Five plays later, New Orleans had the lead back, 29-25.
With 5:47 remaining, Ryan had more than enough time to lead the Falcons back. But on second-and-3 from the 37, he was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on a quarterback draw. On third down, he threw behind Brian Finneran over the middle.
On fourth-and-5 from the 35 with 3:23 left and two timeouts, Smith opted to punt. It was a significant gamble because the Falcons’ defense had been shredded all day by the Saints’ rushing attack (184 yards). After an early punt, New Orleans scored on six out of eight possessions — the last two for touchdowns.
The decision backfired. The Saints got first downs on three of their first six snaps and ran out the clock.
It was too easy.
Smith later said he was concerned what would happen if the Falcons didn’t convert on fourth down. “You have to play the odds,” he said. “If they get one first down, they’re kicking a field goal.”
But it was a surprising call from a coach who has been aggressive much of this season, especially given the way the Saints were moving the ball.
“Our defense — you know, I felt like they hadn’t stop those guys the whole game,” White said.
He spoke not as a guy who meant to second-guess anybody, it just sort of came out that way.
“I was rooting for us to go for it,” he said. “I wanted to go for it. Give us a chance to roll one more time. Unfortunately, we didn’t get our chance. [Smith] thought we could stop them and we punted. That’s the head guy and that’s his decision.”
Ryan typically accepted all blame. “At that point,” he said, “we should’ve made plays on second and third down. Then you don’t have to worry about fourth down.”
The fact is, the Falcons were only in this game because of Ryan. The Saints exposed a defense that has been doing it with smoke-and-mirrors much of the season. Special teams flopped on coverage.
Ryan nearly won this game on his own. He bounced back from an early interception to complete 24 of 33 for 315 yards. He engineered a second-quarter touchdown drive out of the no-huddle offense. He helped overcome three penalties with a six straight completions — three on third down — during a field goal drive in the third quarter
Given one more chance, maybe he wins this. We’ll never know.
Permalink | Comments (223) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Looking at the SEC title game, Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was 75 years ago today when the U.S. ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition. It was made largely because it turned out closing down distilleries neither reduced crime, nor stopped drinking, nor cured “the social ills of husbands,” as hoped for by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, as well as organizations that never got invited to parties.
It’s further believed Prohibition actually drove men crazy, including Roy Kramer, who was said to be 67, deranged and very thirsty when he first thought of the BCS in the early 1900s.
Alcohol-related dementia also could explain why invertebrate officials at Auburn would fire coach Tommy Tuberville, and then claim they were “shocked” when the coach resigned. (Shocked! Thank you, Captain Renault.) Last I checked, coaches don’t resign when a school president and athletics director ask them to stay. And they certainly don’t give a “resigned” coach $6 million to rent a U-haul.
Congratulations, Auburn. You have succeeded in making Alabama look like the state’s rational thinkers.
Where was I?
Oh yes. Drinking! Plan on it.
No matter how Saturday’s games turn out, the bowl season again will cry for a swan dive into the bathtub gin. The BCS and its mutant predecessors, the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance, have been here since 1992.
This makes 17 seasons. That’s longer than prohibition.
Fortunately, we still have Alabama vs. Florida for the SEC title. The winner probably goes on to the BCS title game, although I assume nothing before the third martini.
‘Bama is ranked No. 1 by the BCS. Florida is ranked No. 4 and is a 9 1/2-point favorite. Perfect!
Since losing to Mississippi by one point, Florida has scored 38, 51, 63, 49, 42, 56, 70 and 45 points, winning eight straight by an average of 39.6 points. This would be like betting against the Death Star when it pointed that big laser thingy at Alderaan, a tiny peaceful planet that meant no harm.
‘Bama means harm. It just won’t matter. And Georgia fans: I suggest you drink heavily. Gators cover.
Value Menu
(Add fries and an Auburn knee-jerk for 99 cents)
ACC/Is-Anybody-Home Bowl? Jacksonville is feeling a lot better about things. Imagine if the ACC had finally got a title game anybody cared about the year the game moved to civilization (or at least Tampa)? Boston College vs. Virginia Tech: The first 10,000 fans get in half-price. The next 10,000 fans will be in your imagination. Eagles win a pick ‘em.
Big 12: Texas’ reward for finishing 11-1, losing one game by six points and beating Oklahoma and Missouri by a combined 35 points is not making it to the conference title game, which of course matches Oklahoma and Missouri. You know, if the Big 12 can tweak its tiebreaker system just a little bit, it might get Iowa State and Baylor next year. Sooners cover the 16 1/2.
NFL Six-Pack
(Drank one)
Bumetanide Bowl: New Orleans is missing three players who were suspended for taking a banned diuretic. The Falcons’ Grady Jackson also was suspended. But he’ll play, pending appeal, after a simple defense: He walked into Roger Goodell’s office with his favorite babes, Dolly Madison and Laura Scudders, and declared: “Dude, do I look like I use diuretics?” Birds are getting 3 Twinkies. Take ‘em. But they’ll win this straight up.
Cowboys at Steelers: Consecutive wins over the fading Redskins, and two Pacific floaters, Seattle and San Francisco, have Dallas fans thinking their team is good again. By the time this is over, they’ll be back to blaming Jessica Simpson for their softie at quarterback. Steelers cover 3.
Eagles at Giants: Philly’s dead in the NFL, but one more tie and they’ll pass the Sabres in the NHL’s Northeast. Giants cover 7 if they don’t shoot themselves. (I know. Cheap and easy. But that’s just me.)
Vikings at 0-12: Wouldn’t it have seemed a lot more fair if the Lions had made Matt Millen play in one of these games before firing him? Or at least a public stoning. Men of Thor cover. (Line on hold pending more appeals of StarCaps junkies.)
Bucs at Panthers: Georgia fans: Want to know what Monte Kiffin has planned for your quarterback next year? Watch what happens to Jake Delhomme. Take the 3 — and Tampa in a mild upset.
Financial ledger
(On a roll lately, particularly with Tech pick last week. Several of you are in arrears with my 10 percent fee/5 percent for W.P. Goldcard members. Please settle all accounts before Matthew Stafford finishes packing.)
Last week: 9-2 straight up; 7-4 against the line.
Season to date: 97-44 straight up; 72-67-2 against the line.
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Falcons have formula of playoff team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They had a young quarterback as a first-year starter. They didn’t talk about the season before. They didn’t care about the gloomy projections. Or they fed off them.
The 2008 Falcons? No. The 2001 New England Patriots.
“A lot of similarities,” said Lawyer Milloy, the Falcons’ safety and a starter on that Patriots’ surprising 2001 Super Bowl team. “The teams are similar because of the bond the players had with each other. There were low expectations. But we just focused on getting stronger every week. Nobody ever saw us getting some place. But at the end there we were against the Rams in the Super Bowl, getting it done. That was the best. That’s the way you’re supposed to win games.”
This doesn’t mean Matt Ryan is Tom Brady. It doesn’t mean Mike Smith is Bill Belichick, or Lawyer Milloy at 35 is Lawyer Milloy at 28, or the Falcons of ‘08 are the Patriots of ‘01 and they’re going to the Super Bowl.
But if any team in the middle of a December jumble had the look of a playoff team, it’s the Falcons. At this point, the surprise would be if they didn’t get in.
They are 8-4. They have a quarterback, Ryan, who isn’t prone to rookie meltdowns. They have a team that already has won road games at Green Bay and San Diego. They have beaten two of the NFC’s most physical teams, Carolina and Chicago. Their running game is second only to the New York Giants’. The defense gives up plays but is improving and opportunistic. Overall, the team is healthy at key positions and has steadily improved from game one to 12 — which differentiates them from almost everybody in the NFC.
In four weeks, we’ll find out for sure. But right now, the feeling here is that they’re a playoff team.
Milloy is not the type of person to say he is surprised. To acknowledge surprise would be to acknowledge doubt. Leaders don’t do that.
But when asked about his satisfaction level, he admitted the obvious.
“At age 35, in year 13, this is the kind of year I needed,” he said. “Last year took a toll on me. Kurt Warner said it best: Seasons like this make you feel young again.”
It’s easy to get spoiled. Milloy made the playoffs in his first three NFL seasons. He started in a Super Bowl as a rookie in 1996. He won a ring in his sixth season in 2001.
He hasn’t been on a playoff team since.
Last year was a train wreck. From Michael Vick to Bobby Petrino to all the morass in between, the Falcons’ season ranked as arguably the worst for any franchise in pro sports history.
So imagine how an 8-4 season is being received by Milloy.
“We have a group of guys who were willing to work,” he said. “From the beginning, there was never any talk about last year, even from the college guys who knew what had happened. If anything, that kind of galvanized our individual relationships. You build your foundations through tough times. We brought in the right guys, whether off the street or free agents or in the draft. Then Smitty had a fresh new attitude. In that first meeting with us, he said there were going to be hiccups, but we would get through it. Everybody just went from there.”
Asked about the difference between a playoff team and a non-playoff team, Milloy listed talent, health and leadership. But the most important factor?
“Chemistry,” he said. “In this league, teams are changing players every year. The teams that can build relationships and find their identity the fastest are the ones that succeed.”
He saw this happen once before.
That story ended well.
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Overrated UGA also underachieved
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10 - I am having a hard time getting worked up over Mike Hampton taking less money to sign with Houston than he would’ve received from the Braves. I’m just wondering if his old locker is going to be renovated, or they’ll keep the gurney and nurses call button there as museum pieces.
9 - Mark Richt is a very good football coach who probably understands that even national championship coaches in the SEC have limited honeymoon periods (Tommy Tuberville, Les Miles, Phil Fulmer). If he wants to remain loyal to Willie Martinez, that’s fine. But understand that if things don’t get fixed, eventually the piano falls on his head - and understand exactly what just happened.
8 - Even with the hindsight acknowledgement that Georgia was overrated coming into the season, the Bulldogs underachieved. Excluding wins over Georgia Southern and Central Michigan, the Bulldogs’ other seven victories came over teams that sit: 7-5, 5-6, 5-7, 6-6, 7-5, 6-6 and 5-7. They beat a bunch of mediocre teams. Georgia’s “signature” wins came at Arizona State and LSU - who finished the year as a chalk line outlines on the sidewalk.
7 - The problems aren’t limited to Martinez and the defense. The biggest problem is overall attitude. This team lost the edge it had down the stretch in 2007. It had little resolve. It was that four-letter word dreaded by football players: soft. One smackdown by Alabama revealed it. Another smackdown by Florida confirmed it. A little more fire-breathing in Athens would help.
6 - Meanwhile, on The Flats: Paul Johnson’s nine wins is the most of any of the 18 first-year Division I coaches, just ahead of Houston Nutt (8-4 with Mississippi) and Nebraska’s Bo Pelini. And how does Johnson’s salary compare to Rich Rodriguez’s 3-9 with Michigan and Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino at 5-7?
5 - It was fixed by the time I checked this morning, but for a while Monday Martinez’ Wikipedia bio read: “Willie Martinez (born February 21, 1963) is the soon to be fired defensive coordinator and secondary coach of the Georgia Bulldogs football team. Martinez has been the defensive secondary coach at Georgia since 2001, head coach Mark Richt’s first season at Georgia, and was promoted to defensive coordinator before the 2005 season. His defensive scheme is widely considered to be weak and lacks any of fundamental tools to be a defensive coordinator in the SEC.”
4 - Plaxico Burress’s defense lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, argued for no bail, saying: “He has 35 million reasons to come back to court,” referring to the player’s contract with the Giants. He’s making a lot of assumptions there. My guess: Burress has played his last game for the team — and he’ll never see most of that $35 million. Doofus.
3 - After seeing this picture of Brafman, I’m just wondering if he also represents the Corleone family.
2 - So, the Thrashers now have Ilya Kovalchuk on a line with Marty Reasoner and Chris Thorburn. Would this be to entice him to re-sign here?
1 - Welcome to the Capital One Bowl’s biggest nightmare: Inviting a university (Georgia) with a fervent but irate fan base that may not want to travel to a bowl game.
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