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Monday, July 17, 2006
Falcons good enough for playoff bounce
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
If the Falcons weren’t quite as good as they looked in 2004, they weren’t as feeble as they appeared the last half of last season. A lot of informed folks are using that 2-6 finish as cause to dismiss the Falcons’ chances in 2006. This team, which convenes next week for training camp, should not be dismissed. This should be a playoff team.
What happened over those eight deflating games was that some cocky players and their cocky coach couldn’t right themselves after the first sustained reversal of the Mora era. What happened was that the gusher of football luck inherent in the run to the NFC championship went bust overnight. What happened was that the roster’s deepest flaws - inexperience at receiver and along the defensive front, ineptitude at safety - were laid bare at the worst possible time.
And that was all it took for a team that was 6-2 and positioned to be the NFC’s No. 1 or 2 seed to finish a seedy-seeming 8-8. The second and seventh games of the slide had a cruel symmetry to them: Both were against Tampa Bay; both saw the Falcons waste late leads because their safeties couldn’t tackle Cadillac Williams; both were lost in overtime. The first Buc loss came as a punch to the gut; the second arrived with a shrug of resignation. Remember? The Falcons recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff of OT … and Todd Peterson’s 28-yard field goal was blocked not because of a missed assignment but because a low kick found the arm of the one Buc who jumped highest.
Says Rich McKay, the GM: “When that happens, you’re not meant to win.”
But that was last year, and NFL predictions assign too much value to last year. McKay again: “Since free agency came along, the ability to pick games [over the offseason] is almost non-existent.” Teams now have the chance to reconfigure themselves in a hurry, and the Falcons eradicated two failings by landing John Abraham, the Pro Bowl defensive end, and two new safeties in Lawyer Milloy and Chris Crocker. This team should again be able to stop the run, and that’s a very big deal.
These being the Falcons, every discussion must eventually turn to Michael Vick, who wasn’t very effective last season because his knee hurt or because his many critics hurt his feelings or because Greg Knapp is a raging dolt. Vick will be better this season because he’ll have learned from his latest set of tribulations and because Michael Jenkins and Roddy White are no longer so green. “They’re in a lot better position to help,” McKay says. “When Michael got nicked [in Week 4 against Minnesota], all he had [among wideouts] were young guys.”
And surely Jim Mora took something from the disintegration of last season. He was the NFL’s bright young thing in 2004, but by October of ‘05 his self-assurance had grown to outsized proportions. His dismissal of the careers of Mike Kenn and Jeff Van Note - how good could they have been if they never knew consecutive winning seasons? - was the height of chutzpah, and it was only fitting that Jimbo himself failed to stack winning seasons back to back.
Mora has to prove he can handle failure, but he seems smart enough to figure it out. If Knapp and Vick are indeed working at cross-purposes, Mora must intervene on the side of the quarterback. (Completion percentage doesn’t matter. Winning percentage does.) If the team is going through turbulence, a coach prone to tantrums isn’t going to calm any nerves. But to assume the snippy Mora of last season is the Mora we’ll see this autumn is to fall into the trap of memory. Says McKay: “The longer I’m in this, the more I realize that every year is unique unto itself.”
This time a year ago, Mike Holmgren was thought to be on his way out in Seattle, where the 2004 Seahawks had lost eight of their last 14 games. Today Holmgren and his men are coming off a Super Bowl. The 2006 Falcons might not bounce quite that high, but they’re due a bounce.
