AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2005 > October > 07
Friday, October 7, 2005
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Even the mightiest fall eventually. I mean, once the Roman Empire went kaput, all bets were off. Sure, they thought they were invincible, but then the personnel guy insisted on drafting some hotshot named Caligula, and, well, that didn’t turn out too good. Makes the Ryan Leaf pick look like nothing.
But the New England Patriots aren’t taking this decay thing real well. Couple of weeks ago, Bill Belichick stepped beyond even his usual cloak-and-dagger persona when he shooed away another team’s medical personnel away from a Patriot linemen. And all the guy wanted to do was make sure Matt Light wasn’t, like, dead.
Then last Sunday, the Pats got pounded by San Diego. That noted smack-talker, Marty Schottenheimer, who holds a doctorate in vanilla, made a seemingly harmless comment about injuries and player turnover sometimes catching up with a team. But Tom Brady reacted as if he said, “Marcia Brady throws a better spiral.”
Some people think there’s no way the Patriots could lose to the Falcons today because they lost last week and, therefore, they’re really, really mad.
Dude. These are football players. They don’t need a reason to hit somebody. They’re either good or they’re not good. The Patriots are still good. But they’re also 2-2 for a reason. Standard half-truths on the injury report notwithstanding, they are beat up and they have lost players. (They list 14 on the injury report.)
Michael Vick looks like a go. So does the Falcons’ running game. That should be enough here.
Out on a limb, Romulus: Falcons cover three.
FOUR BAGS • Steelers at Chargers: LaDainian Tomlinson already has eight touchdowns, which I think is more than my entire Fantasy League team, which of course is why I hate him. Go with Pitt (coming off a bye week) and 3.
THREE BAGS • Eagles at Cowboys: Donovan McNabb on Philly winning four of the last five meetings in Dallas: “Although I don’t have a star on the side of my helmet, it feels good to be in that place.” Puts him ahead of Bill Parcells. Eagles cover 3.
• Bucs at Spruce Goose: Vinny Testaverde, 41, is expected to start for the Jets, although it could depend on how his backup, Earl Morrall, looks in warm-ups. Tampa covers 3 on the road.
• Redskins at Broncos: Sorry, I’m just not feeling that Clinton Portis-Champ Bailey grudge match. Has any higher profile trade done less for either team? Denver wins, but take Wash and 7.
TWO BAGS • Dolphins at Bills: So if you’re J.P. Losman’s backup, where does that put you on the food chain? Just above plankton? Kelly Holcomb to the rescue! Bills cover 2 1/2.
• Colts at Phoney Niners: There’s this rule of thumb in the world of hypothetical sports wagering that you never lay two touchdowns in an NFL game with your hypothetical bookie, unless you want to lose your hypothetical hiney. But that thumb never saw the Niners’ secondary. Indy covers 141/2.
• Saints at Packers: Green Bay is 0-4 and Brett Favre (left) is on pace to throw 32 interceptions. I say we all let him get back on Vicodin. Ease the pain. Pack wins and covers the 3.
• Seahawks at Rams: Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck said of the team’s offensive struggles: “I just do what I’m told.” So he’s passing the buck to a coach (Mike Holmgren) whose won Super Bowls? When did Hasselbeck start channeling Jeff George? Take the Rams to cover 3.
• Bengals at Jaguars: Some 4-0 teams are shams. Cincinnati isn’t one of them. Take the gift 3 but Cincy wins in straight upset.
• Panthers at Cardinals: Arizona is 0-3 in the U.S. and 1-0 in Mexico. It follow the Cards have petitioned the league to reverse the Mexican-American War, which of course is within the NFL’s authority. Carolina covers 2 1/2.
DON’T LOOK, YOU’LL GO BLIND • Ravens at Lions: Detroit’s Charles Rogers was suspended for four games after testing positive for drugs. Given his numbers, I’m assuming they weren’t performance enhancing. Take Baltimore and the 1 1/2.
• Titans at Texans: The first touchdown you see will clinch the game. The second touchdown you see is a message you’ve had too much beer. Take Houston to cover 3.
• Bears at Browns: Cleveland’s next five opponents are a combined 4-12. Chicago’s next six opponents are a combined 7-14. The problem with both stats: They stink themselves. Take the Bears and 3.
PROFIT MARGINS Last week (ugh): 8-6 straight up, 8-6 against the line.
Overall (feh): 35-24 straight up, 29-29-1 against the line.
Peerless Price Cowboys Up: 4 weeks, 2 DNPs, 1 catch, minus-1 yard.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Going nuts good gameplan for Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Houston — For Game 3 of tonight’s National League Division Series at Minute Maid Park, those inside the visitors’ dugout will turn the place into a yelling, dancing and jumping mess.
Good. Consider this from Eddie Perez, among the Braves’ old heads, who shook his head on Friday before a workout and pointed across the way to Blaine Boyer, among the Braves’ young heads. “That guy never stops screaming and saying, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ on every pitch of the game,” said Perez, referring to one of eight rookies on the Braves’ playoff roster. “You’ve got Pete Orr and Kelly Johnson, all of them screaming, and it makes you want to do what they’re doing. It makes you want to get into the game. You go crazy. It’s way different from what I’ve seen here.”
That’s good, all right. Maybe the Braves finally get it. Then again, since another early and brutal collapse in the playoffs by this tease of a franchise isn’t acceptable, they haven’t a choice.
Contrary to whatever silliness the Braves thought before, emotion is needed in baseball, especially after September. So here they are flashing signs against the Houston Astros, understanding what others have known: Forget that stoic approach in the postseason. Go nuts. Follow the lead of Brian McCann, another one of the Braves’ young heads, who was ripping a three-run homer off the great Roger Clemens one moment on Thursday night and chest-bumping Andruw Jones, another one of those old heads, the next.
Such enthusiasm was wonderfully contagious for the Braves. Exhibit A: Those pumped fists combined with wild eyes from old heads Chipper Jones and John Smoltz down the stretch of the Braves smacking the Astros into a 1-1 tie during this series. “For sure, all of those guys are more enthusiastic than they’ve been in the past, with a lot more energy,” said Jeff Bagwell, among the old heads for the Astros. “You could have a 21-year-old kid on your team, but he might be quiet. They have a bunch of kids that age who are really enthusiastic. I’m sure it makes things fun for those guys who have been around a long time, and it makes them feel a little younger.”
Whatever works. Remember that among the slew of reasons why the Braves keep evolving into the Great Pumpkin before Halloween is that they usually have the enthusiasm of Charlie Brown during the playoffs. It used to send Gary Sheffield into a quiet rage. “You don’t even get the feeling around here that it’s the postseason,” groaned the accomplished slugger who nevertheless vanished in October during his two years with the Braves.
Now Sheffield is back to prospering this time of year with a Yankees team that is dominated by those who get it. Not coincidentally, despite the Braves’ ongoing record streak of 14 trips to the playoffs, the Yankees have four world championships during that period to the Braves’ one. None of the Braves’ young heads have any world championships, and they wish to change that. Which brings us to something from either the Bible or Yogi Berra that goes, “A little child shall lead.” In the Braves’ case, we’re talking about several big children, who can hit, field, pitch and work themselves into such a frenzy that it is making their elders do the same.
Maybe it was only a coincidence that the Braves suffered a blowout loss in Game 1 against Houston with only one rookie in their starting lineup but rolled to a blowout victory in Game 3 with three playing, including McCann along the way to his blast against Clemens.
“It’s fun to be out there, and it’s fun to bring a new attitude to this team, but at the same time, I think (the old heads) are helping me and Brian and helping all of us to be calm and not be too excited,” said Jeff Francoeur, another one of the Braves’ young heads. “We still are a very business-like team, and I like that. We carry ourselves professionally, but to see Smoltzie and Chipper pumping their fists, that really is huge.”
Yes, it is, and now all the Braves have to do is the following: Keep turning emotion into victories.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Cold wind blows Blank’s way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So Atlanta’s generous offer to host another Super Bowl has been given another cold (hidden meaning there?) shoulder by the grand old owners club of the National Football League. Is this the second or third time? I lose count.
Now, far as I’m concerned, they can take their dad-ratted Super Bowl anywhere they choose, preferably out of town. It messes up traffic. Can’t make a dinner reservation. A legal resident can’t get a ticket, if he could afford the $375, or whatever the next price may be. And, besides, I’d prefer a World Series anyway.
But that’s not the point here. What is the point: Are they taking it out on Arthur Blank? Johnny Come-Lately owner, new guy on the block and everything going for him. Just snapped his fingers, and the Falcons were right up there in the playoffs. And who’s the talk of the league? His quarterback, Michael Vick.
Of course, he inherited Vick. He inherited a Georgia Dome with its usual stack of vacant seats, too, but turned on his marketing charm, and Atlantans came running. He just cut a wide swath a little too quick for a guy who’d made his fortune selling pots, pans and plywood.
He looks like walking success. He dresses for success, smooth as a single malt Scotch, it has been written. But is he too smooth, too slick for the fraternity he has pledged?
You see, the owners of NFL teams are sort like a brotherhood, and sisterhood, including Ms. Frontiere of the St. Louis Rams. There is a hard core of old-liners still holding steady in the league, seeing that the boat doesn’t get rocked around. The Rooneys, the Maras, the Browns, the Spanoses, Ralph Wilson, Bill Ford and all those resident owners of Green Bay.
Rankin Smith was one of them, moved in, knew his place, when to salute and how to follow the leader, which for most of his time, was Pete Rozelle. So when Atlanta built a dome for him, the members of the club gave him the Super Bowl game they’d promised. He was responsible for the return game in 2000, indirectly.
His son and successor, Taylor, appeared before the owners meeting and made an impassioned appeal in the name of his father. Rankin was dying, as one final tribute to him, bring the game back to Atlanta.
The faithful brethren responded. The Super Bowl of 2000 was awarded to Atlanta. Rankin had been dead about three years by the time it was played, but he lived long enough to know how the decision was made. He had manned his oar, pulled his weight, and his fellow owners rewarded him for his loyalty.
You wonder if Arthur Blank might come across more genuinely if he came in drinking beer from a long-neck bottle, wearing boots and jeans and a denim shirt open at the neck. Or, if he stayed off the field and out of camera range. Jerry Jones has sort of worn that sideline act raw in Dallas, but you know Jerry’s an old football player and he responds to the sight of blood and the smell of sweat.
I don’t know, maybe it’s not the old owners fraternity giving Blank his comeuppance. But the weather? You’re not selling me that bill of goods. The wintry blast that struck town the week of the 2000 Super Bowl was the only real winter we had that year in Atlanta. Nothing even close to the blizzard that blanketed Pontiac the year the game was first played in Michigan. Now, by gum, here they go back again, south by 25 miles, to the icy shores of Lake St. Clair.
Arthur Blank is a man of vigorous ambition. He’s a great promoter, a benevolent host and exceedingly conscious of media values. Maybe he moved too swiftly for his fellow club members. Maybe this is their way of hauling him up short. Wait your turn, big boy.
Whatever it is, you’ll never convince me the Super Bowl is being steered out of town on account of the weather. Better be nice, guys, you may not be invited back.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
Batterymates give Braves a charge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
If there was a going to be a moment when the course of a playoff series would change, it had to go like this.
It had to have bizarre story lines. It had to have a 38-year-old pitcher throwing to a 21-year-old catcher. It had to have rookies looking out to the mound and thinking, “Hey, that’s Roger Clemens. Cool! OK, now I’ll get a hit.”
It had to have a manager — slammed for a lineup decision the day before — treat Game 2 like do-or-die-yet-again by asking his No. 5 hitter to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the second inning.
Most of all, it had to have John Smoltz. Six years after his last postseason start — six years that saw injuries, reconstructive elbow surgery, a spectacular career rebirth as a closer and a re-rebirth as a starter — Smoltz was back in his comfort zone Thursday: On the mound as a playoff starter.
One day after the Braves looked comatose in another playoff game, Smoltz and Brian McCann acted like two electric paddles in an operating room. Smoltz didn’t look anything like a guy who had been having shoulder problems of late. He yielded a run in the first inning, then shut down Houston in the next six. McCann, his rookie batterymate, clubbed a three-run homer off a future Hall of Famer in his first postseason at-bat.
The Braves dumped the Astros 7-1 to even their divisional playoff series at a game apiece. So much for how this team would react in yet another postseason survival test.
At this point, maybe the atypical recipe for success shouldn’t be considered so atypical anymore.
“I’ve got a thousand emotions going through my head right now,” Smoltz said. “Just the teeter-totter of all the things that were being said about this team. But now we go on for another day.”
It was Smoltz’s 40th postseason appearance, but his first start since the 1999 World Series (he lost to Clemens and the Yankees). McCann was making his postseason debut. He was 7 in 1991 when Smoltz started his first playoff game.
So how’s this for a story for McCann to tell his grandkids: “Yeah, back in 2005, when gas was only $3.05 a gallon, I caught John Smoltz, and on my first swing in my first at-bat in my first playoff game against Roger Clemens, I hit a three-run homer.”
The Braves trailed 1-0 in the second. Bobby Cox (criticized for starting Brian Jordan in left field in Game 1) clearly was thinking: any run, any way possible, against the dominating Clemens.
After Andruw Jones singled, Adam LaRoche sacrificed him to second. A walk and a strikeout later, McCann stepped up with two on and two out.
The first two pitches from Clemens were balls. The third was a dream: a fastball over the plate that McCann clocked 409 feet into the right-center field stands.
The reaction from Houston manager Phil Garner to Clemens giving up a playoff homer to a rookie: “It’s a surprise.” (So where’s he been?)
Suddenly, the Braves had a 3-1 lead. Suddenly, they had life.
Suddenly, it was up to Smoltz.
He had waited a long time for this. His last October start was six Octobers ago. The spring of 2000 brought elbow problems and elbow surgery. He missed a year, came back briefly as a starter, the elbow rebelled and eventually he was moved to the bullpen.
Smoltz might have remained a closer, but this time it was the Braves’ run of postseason futility that interceded. The team needed a power pitcher back in the rotation.
The staff’s restructuring was built around his return to starter. It all pointed to these playoffs.
Recent shoulder problems threatened to wreck this moment. Cox slid him back to Game 2 and moved up Tim Hudson to the opener. More waiting.
But it was worth it. He threw 25 pitches in the first, then settled down. Houston managed just four hits in the next six innings.
“The first inning was going to be my biggest inning,” he said. “I waited a long time to start a playoff game of this magnitude.”
The shoulder wasn’t a problem for Smoltz. The stage wasn’t a problem for McCann.
Given this season, what else would you expect?
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
Loss will cast shadow on Gailey’s future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
On a damp and foggy night, everything was suitably hazy from the get-go. Georgia Tech worked itself into trouble. Then it clambered out. Then, in the span of 13 seconds, it backslid. Then, on the cusp of victory, it authored an agony-of-defeat moment you had to see to believe. And even then you asked yourself, “Did that really happen?�
Reggie Ball had one of those halves in which he did almost nothing right, followed by a second half in which he looked like Joe Montana. (With Calvin Johnson playing the part of Jerry Rice right up until the excruciating end.) Just when Tech looked to have stopped everything North Carolina State could do, the Wolfpack threw a simple slant that went for 80 yards, retaking a lead that seemed lost forever.
Just as no Tech game is complete without an anxiety attack, no Tech season can pass without a loss that shouldn’t have been. This was one of those games it was supposed to win, and that alone should have told us the Jackets were swimming upstream. Tech seems better suited to being a fearless underdog, and on this night the Jackets only managed to abdicate their favored status by falling 10 points behind. Then they righted themselves, as they often do.
Tech played a powerful third quarter and nosed ahead two snaps into the fourth, and midway through the period it was driving for the touchdown that would put the Wolfpack away. But the drive died, and Travis Bell missed from 24 yards — earlier he’d missed from 27 — and on the next snap quarterback Jay Davis hit Brian Clark in stride. Clark flashed between Jackets to score the 80-yard touchdown that gave an already weird game an astonishing twist.
Behind again, the Jackets saw one drive fizzle. Then Gerris Wilkinson dropped Toney Baker on third-and-1 when a first down could have won the game for State. Then Ball, who infamously forgot what down it was in Athens last season, found Johnson for 12 yards on fourth-and-5 with 1:28 remaining, and from there it seemed ordained. Ball would throw it high and Johnson would rip it from the darkened sky and Tech would win at the end.
But, no. Ball ran the Jackets into position, dashing to the State 2 with 32 seconds left, and here Tech messed up in a way nobody could have imagined. Ball faked a handoff to P.J. Daniels, then raised up and threw to Johnson, who not only didn’t catch the ball but also managed to deflect it to defensive back Garland Heath, whose bizarre interception finally decided it. How’s that for an ending? You get the ball to your best player, and he spits it out.
This nutso game could have ended no other way. Ball had gone from being booed in the midst of a 6-for-25 first half to hearing his name chanted as he led the Jackets goalward in the final minute. He did everything he could do, and still it wasn’t enough. Tech contrived — and that’s the proper word — to lose to a team it should have beaten by two touchdowns, and that, sad to say, remains the signature of this program under Chan Gailey.
Tech wins a game it probably shouldn’t, then loses one it absolutely couldn’t. This loss will remove the Jackets from the Top 25, a perch they’d labored long to reach, and will again cast all manner of doubt on Gailey and his stewardship. This was a game that was nearly lost twice and nearly won twice more, and finally it was lost in the strangest way possible. The great Calvin Johnson had the ball on his fingertips in the end zone, and he shoveled it to the other team.
Permalink | Comments (106) | Categories: Mark Bradley
Loss will cast shadow on Gailey’s future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
On a damp and foggy night, everything was suitably hazy from the get-go. Georgia Tech worked itself into trouble. Then it clambered out. Then, in the span of 13 seconds, it backslid. Then, on the cusp of victory, it authored an agony-of-defeat moment you had to see to believe. And even then you asked yourself, “Did that really happen?�
Reggie Ball had one of those halves in which he did almost nothing right, followed by a second half in which he looked like Joe Montana. (With Calvin Johnson playing the part of Jerry Rice right up until the excruciating end.) Just when Tech looked to have stopped everything North Carolina State could do, the Wolfpack threw a simple slant that went for 80 yards, retaking a lead that seemed lost forever.
Just as no Tech game is complete without an anxiety attack, no Tech season can pass without a loss that shouldn’t have been. This was one of those games it was supposed to win, and that alone should have told us the Jackets were swimming upstream. Tech seems better suited to being a fearless underdog, and on this night the Jackets only managed to abdicate their favored status by falling 10 points behind. Then they righted themselves, as they often do.
Tech played a powerful third quarter and nosed ahead two snaps into the fourth, and midway through the period it was driving for the touchdown that would put the Wolfpack away. But the drive died, and Travis Bell missed from 24 yards — earlier he’d missed from 27 — and on the next snap quarterback Jay Davis hit Brian Clark in stride. Clark flashed between Jackets to score the 80-yard touchdown that gave an already weird game an astonishing twist.
Behind again, the Jackets saw one drive fizzle. Then Gerris Wilkinson dropped Toney Baker on third-and-1 when a first down could have won the game for State. Then Ball, who infamously forgot what down it was in Athens last season, found Johnson for 12 yards on fourth-and-5 with 1:28 remaining, and from there it seemed ordained. Ball would throw it high and Johnson would rip it from the darkened sky and Tech would win at the end.
But, no. Ball ran the Jackets into position, dashing to the State 2 with 32 seconds left, and here Tech messed up in a way nobody could have imagined. Ball faked a handoff to P.J. Daniels, then raised up and threw to Johnson, who not only didn’t catch the ball but also managed to deflect it to defensive back Garland Heath, whose bizarre interception finally decided it. How’s that for an ending? You get the ball to your best player, and he spits it out.
This nutso game could have ended no other way. Ball had gone from being booed in the midst of a 6-for-25 first half to hearing his name chanted as he led the Jackets goalward in the final minute. He did everything he could do, and still it wasn’t enough. Tech contrived — and that’s the proper word — to lose to a team it should have beaten by two touchdowns, and that, sad to say, remains the signature of this program under Chan Gailey.
Tech wins a game it probably shouldn’t, then loses one it absolutely couldn’t. This loss will remove the Jackets from the Top 25, a perch they’d labored long to reach, and will again cast all manner of doubt on Gailey and his stewardship. This was a game that was nearly lost twice and nearly won twice more, and finally it was lost in the strangest way possible. The great Calvin Johnson had the ball on his fingertips in the end zone, and he shoveled it to the other team.
Permalink | Comments (118) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
