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Sunday, November 5, 2006
Flashback to a past fiasco
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Detroit — This was bad. You had a medical cart hauling Kevin Mathis from Ford Field with his damaged neck after the opening kickoff. Then you had a visibly peeved Michael Vick grumbling on his way to the Falcons’ post-game locker room: “We deserved to lose” (well, that was the edited version). Then you had Jim Mora’s news conference that lasted 83 seconds.
Then you got the feeling that this was another Green Bay.
Uh-oh. I mean, was this really another Green Bay, when the Falcons went from promising to pitiful last year at midseason after a loss to a shaky Packers bunch? Tight end Alge Crumpler paused before he replied in a Falcons locker room that was equal parts somber, confused and angry: “That Green Bay game is out of my mind, because we have Wayne Gandy, Lawyer Milloy, Morten Andersen, some of the older guys we have now. We have too good of players and too good of a mind-set to let that happen again.”
Sounds convincing. It’s just that several Falcons spoke with Crumpler’s same conviction last week when they said they wouldn’t take the Lions lightly. Which they did. Just like last season when several Falcons swore during the week that they wouldn’t take the Packers lightly. Which they did. Back then, the Falcons were soaring at 6-2, only to get rocked at the Georgia Dome by the sorry Packers (1-7) to finish 8-8 and out of the playoffs.
This time, the Falcons were 5-2 before they did all sorts of brutal things to make what was a 1-6 Lions team resemble somebody actually good. No, great. The final score wasn’t indicative of how much these usually cowardly Lions yanked away the curtain to expose the supposed Wizards of Flowery Branch as wannabes when it comes to a championship team.
To evolve into the real thing, the Falcons must correct a slew of issues. Like having receivers who can’t catch with consistency (eight dropped passes). It also didn’t help the Falcons offense to have Michael Vick go from an average passer rating of 115.0 during his previous two games to less than half that (52.0) against the Lions. He also reverted back to his sloppy days by failing to protect the ball during one of his dramatic sprints and losing a fumble that led to a touchdown. He also had one of his two interceptions become another touchdown, but as you probably can tell, he had plenty of company in misery.
The Falcons secondary still hasn’t stopped the Lions’ receivers. Or those from the Cincinnati Bengals or the Pittsburgh Steelers or the New York Giants. If you’re counting, the Falcons have relinquished exactly 1,200 yards through the air during their past four games. Not only did the Falcons turn the Lions’ Jon Kitna into Joe Montana by allowing a ridiculous 321 yards passing, but they watched Kevin Jones become Barry Sanders with 110 yards rushing.
Now these Falcons are on the verge of becoming those other Falcons. The ones who turned as stale as the cheeseheads they couldn’t handle.
“Everybody has to look at themselves and ask if they are giving their all, and if they are preparing and doing everything that they can so that we won’t go in that downhill slide,” said cornerback Jason Webster, among the more significantly maligned in the Falcons secondary. “We just have to stay together as a team.”
Thus Mora’s task this week: To keep backbiting away from his players while trying to make them realize that they also have the capacity to lose their next game to the hapless Cleveland Browns if they lack another week of focus.
Mora didn’t take the Lions loss too well, by the way. All you need to know is that the Lions scored their three touchdowns in 92 seconds, just nine seconds longer than Mora’s news conference.
Permalink | Comments (112) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Aussie reigns at tournament set to change
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So we take our leave of the old United States golf tour as we have known it since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and Paul Runyan was leading the money list — with $6,767. It will be taking all sorts of crooks and turns down the road, leading us to heaven knows where.
And there will be changes in midstream, and bickering, and charges and counter-charges, but at the end, one player will be standing there cuddling this new thing called the FedEx Cup.
Until then, Adam Scott shall remain the king of the hill, the 2006 winner of the Tour Championship. Scott is a native of Australia, schooled at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, with a listed residential address in Switzerland. He was making his third run at this brass ring event of the tour at grand old East Lake Golf Club, and as he said in his confessional, “trying to make up for opportunities I’ve thrown away.”
Truth to tell, he was giving himself an undeserved picture of a failure. He is only 26 years old, is in only his fourth full year on the PGA Tour, and this is the fifth time he has won. One of those bears an asterisk, for the Nissan Open which he was leading in Los Angeles last year was shortened by rain, but he was paid in full. He might even consider himself a bit unlucky by winning this edition of the Tour Championship, instead of 2007. He takes home a check for a little over $1 million for this one. Win next year, after all the new gimmicks have been woven into the championship, and he could take home a check for $10 million. That’s right, ten as in T-E-N.
Just about everything about the Tour Championship will change, including the grand prize. It will be played in mid-September, before the leaves have changed, and temperatures will be uncomfortably summery. And it will be the climax of a four-tournament playoff for a trophy known as the FedEx Cup. The $10-million will be the payoff not just for the one tournament, but for the points accumulated in the four events that compromise the FedEx Cup championship.
At least that’s how it’s projected. Stay turned for later developments, for this thing will be subject to change.
As it was, there sat Adam Scott, young, handsome, almost schoolboyish in his recital before the media, his new crystal trophy before him, surrounded by a wreath of roses. “It has been a long time since I’ve been here,” he said, referring to himself as a leader who too often failed to close the deal. “Christmas is going to be great.”
If there was one key stroke in the round he played in the company of a slumping Vijay Singh, it was a 20-foot putt on the 17th hole. It followed three previous strokes of less than championship caliber and saved his par. On the 13th hole, he blasted out of a bunker into the cup for birdie. “The hole just got in the way,” as he described it.
After many years of home-bred champions, Scott becomes the fourth non-American winner of this grand finale. Singh, Mike Weir and Retief Goosen preceded him, Fijian, Canadian and South African, though Weir schooled at Brigham Young University and Singh has lived in Ponte Vedra, Fla., for years.
Now, on to ‘07 and the “new” PGA Tour, whatever that will turn out to be. One thing for sure, since Tom Cousins resurrected this world of East Lake, and the surrounding community, and the Southern Company and Coca-Cola have joined arms, the Tour Championship at East Lake is a fixture, and under the new rules, moves up in stature as the World Series, Super Bowl and Final Four of golf. That one feature of the revised and upgraded PGA Tour will not change.
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Johnson’s stock never higher
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Raleigh — If this goes down as a special year for Georgia Tech’s football program, it will be less because of any one game as it will be because of one player.
That’s something that would be difficult for any coach to say. Football is a team game, they say. One missed block, one blown assignment, everybody looks bad.
But a question: Where would Georgia Tech be without Calvin Johnson?
The junior receiver, likely never to be a senior receiver, caught two more touchdown passes Saturday night and covered 168 yards with his nine receptions. Tech won 31-23. The Jackets (7-2) already have equaled Chan Gailey’s win total in any of his previous four seasons, and they still have as many as five games remaining, including a possible ACC title game and an Orange Bowl.
If it all doesn’t amount to a goodbye present from Johnson, it would be a miracle.
Pro scouts are not permitted to comment on college underclassmen. But one NFL scout attending Saturday’s game said of Johnson, “As I see it, he’ll be the top player taken [in the draft] if he comes out.” When asked if there was any reason to believe Johnson won’t turn pro after this season, the scout said: “There’s always the chance he won’t. But he’d be stupid not to [come out]. His stock will never be higher. You see him on the field. They triple-cover him sometimes and it doesn’t matter. They double him and he still goes up and scores a touchdown.
“I haven’t seen anybody like him, ever. You don’t see guys who are that big and that fast. He’s a 6-5 receiver. He’s a freak.”
This Tech season can be remembered for a number of things before it’s over. But consider the impact of a Yellow Jackets wide receiver being taken first overall in the NFL draft. Programs are defined in part by the players they produce.
Every Calvin Johnson catch on ESPN is a free advertisement for Georgia Tech. So will every catch he makes in the NFL. Great players want to follow the paths of other great players.
When told of a scout’s comment that he could go first in the draft, Johnson laughed, then paused before responding.
“I’m not even going to think about that until the season’s over,” he said. “We’ve got potentially five more games, so I’ve got some time.
“It feels good that people see you and like what they’re doing.”
Johnson was informed by media members he already had broken or tied school touchdown records (his 24 tie Kelly Campbell’s school career mark, and his junior season isn’t nearly complete). He didn’t seem fazed. But when somebody was handing out stat sheets in the interview room, Johnson asked for one. Why?
“Hey, everybody’s talking about what happened,” he said. “I wanted to see it, too.”
Tech has produced its share of NFL players. Running back Eddie Lee Ivery often is mentioned as the best. Maxie Baughan and Larry Morris, college centers who played linebacker in the NFL, also are mentioned.
Johnson can surpass them all. His first touchdown against N.C. State, a 25-yarder from Reggie Ball, saw him sandwiched between two defenders but leap high near the goal line to make a catch where only a 6-foot-5 “freak” could make it.
He continued to leave scorched bodies in the secondary. Later in the first, he had an 18-yard reception down the left sideline, then a few plays later simply blew past everyone in the State secondary to cradle a Ball pass for a 43-yard score (his 11th of the season, a school record).
The Jackets almost blew this one. They had leads of 14-3 and 21-13, only to fall behind 23-21. But in the fourth, the game’s most harassed player made catches on consecutive scoring drives. A 10-yarder at the Wolfpack 9 set up the go-ahead chip shot field goal. A 33-yarder at the 8 set up a touchdown pass to James Johnson and a 31-23 final.
“He forces defenses to do things that they don’t normally do,” Gailey said. “They were playing some unusual coverages that they had not shown all year. We semi-expect it now.”
For possibly five more games, he is Georgia Tech’s gift. Enjoy him while you can. Then get set to enjoy the ripple effect.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
