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Sunday, September 18, 2005
Falcons can’t keep their birds straight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Seattle — In this era of NFL parity, it is all about now. Too much emphasis on the past will dig you such a hole against your next opponent that you won’t have even a Michael Vick of a chance to climb your way out. So the Falcons have some issues at the moment. Let’s just say that it was as clear as the brilliant sky on Sunday above Qwest Field that they had a flock of birds flying inside their heads.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, the birds that they were thinking about during much of the afternoon were Eagles (as in the ones from Philadelphia who lost Monday night to the Falcons at the Georgia Dome) instead of Seahawks (as in the ones from Seattle who ripped the Falcons in the first half and held on down the stretch).
Sounds like this supposedly mature Falcons team is actually a work in progress when it comes to remembering that everybody in the league these days can play a little, which means that you can’t afford not to concentrate a lot.
“Whether the reason we lost this game was because [we still were celebrating that victory over the Eagles], I don’t know if that was the case. I really don’t,� said cornerback Jason Webster, after the Falcons spent the first half looking more laid back than the seagulls gliding over Puget Sound. In contrast, Jim Mora wasn’t exactly laid back at intermission.
The typically frantic Falcons coach told his players that he wondered if these were the same guys who rode with him on the team charter from Georgia to Washington. Courtesy of listless play from every aspect of the Falcons’ game, Mora watched the Seahawks roar to a 21-0 lead before surviving 21-18.
Now back to Webster, who thought again about the possibility of an Eagles’ hangover before saying, “I just hope that wasn’t the case.� Actually, it was, and this isn’t good news for the Falcons. Not unless they correct their inability to have collective amnesia no matter what they do from week to week. You have to believe they will, because they’ve done it before.
For instance: There was their Kansas City Massacre last season. “Man, I don’t even remember that game,� said Falcons safety Bryan Scott, shaking his head, with offensive tackle Todd Weiner doing the same and adding, “I know we did lose that game, and we lost pretty badly, but I can’t remember exactly how it went.�
It emphatically went the way of the Kansas City Chiefs during a 56-10 blowout, but the Falcons responded with seven consecutive victories and momentum toward reaching the NFC championship game. This loss wasn’t as ghastly. Still, after the Falcons kept discovering ways to survive the Eagles during that emotional season opener for both teams, this was within another Shaun Alexander burst through the Falcons’ underwhelming defense from moving to the vicinity of grotesque.
The excuses don’t fly here. Yes, the Falcons were without defensive end Brady Smith (leg injury), a master pass rusher, and consider that the Seahawks’ Matt Hasselbeck often had days, weeks and months to find his receivers sprinting free in wide-open spaces.
And, yes, the Falcons were without Allen Rossum (hamstring), the prolific punt returner, who could have helped the Falcons’ shaky field position during much of the first half.
Mostly, when it comes to the possible excuses for the Falcons, there was the horror of Vick becoming Vick late in the fourth quarter during another one of his miracle runs before he grabbed his left hamstring. Even so, Vick stuck around long enough to put the Falcons in a position for a comeback that never happened.
It couldn’t happen, because the Falcons awoke from their sleepwalk about two quarters too late.
“I think we’ve learned some things from this experience,� said Webster, who was particularly brutal during the first half before he did more than a few impressive things after halftime.
“We showed that we’re going to fight as a team. We showed that we don’t just lay down. But we also learned that we can’t put ourselves in this kind of a situation in the future.�
Then Webster chuckled, saying, “Well, I hope we’ve learned that.�
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