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November 2006
Predictions you’ll flip over
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Let me just start by saying I had no problem with Michael Vick extending his middle finger last week, although given the way things have gone this season, it might be a good idea to keep all five wrapped around the football.
See, it’s sort of like reading defenses. Young quarterbacks can’t tell where the problems are, and they throw the ball in the direction.
Similarly, the problem is not that Vick gave somebody the symbolic equivalent of, “Hey, you not the man.” He just flipped it in the wrong direction.
Mike, buddy, those people up there help pay your salary, buy your jersey, wear your shoes, kiss your posters, fly your AirTran. Those people pretty much ran over Chris Chandler for you. Although, granted, you were only about reason No. 97 to run over Chris Chandler.
I mean, dude, if you want to extend the finger, there are plenty of creatures to salute.
Your receivers. Your blockers. Your coaches.
Donald Rumsfeld. Donna Shalala. Al Jazeera.
The BCS.
Me. For every time I wrote: “Falcons cover.” Never again.
The Falcons have dropped four straight. It’s their longest losing streak since Vick had a broken leg. You can walk around Flowery Branch these days, point any finger in anybody’s direction and say, “He’s lost it.” The most recent example is the poor maligned receivers coach, George Stewart, who, like the rest of us, was under the misguided assumption that anybody who made it to the NFL shouldn’t have to be taught how to catch a pass.
Addressing the receivers’ drops, Stewart said the other day: “For anything to grow, it has to die.”
I’m sorry. Is he forecasting a resurrection? (Apologies to my rabbi.)
Forget the healing hands. The Falcons are in Washington. The Redskins are favored by two fingers. Read this: ‘Skins cover.
Bowl Appetizers
ACC: Nothing against Georgia Tech or Wake Forest. But when Miami and Virginia Tech joined FSU in the ACC, conference officials envisioned something flashier than “Morticians Convention” on the marquee this week. Empty sections of All-Tel stadium may be converted to picnic areas. And now for something completely different: Tech can win a conference title. I’m banking on no Georgia hangover here. Jackets cover 2 1/2.
SEC: In two previous title games, Arkansas lost to Florida and Georgia by a combined 64-6, give or take a kidney. The Bulldogs led 23-0 in 2002 before the first oink. I hadn’t seen so many depressed Arkansas fans since Golden Corral ran out of cheese sludge. The Gators seldom overwhelm, but it helps that their strength (run defense) counters Arkansas’. On to the Who’s No. 2 debate: Florida covers 2 1/2
Pac-10: Pete Carroll might’ve been a chucklehead in the NFL, but he should be college coach of the year for what he’s done after losing 11 players to the NFL draft last year (including Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart). UCLA, conversely, might’ve been better off if it lost 11 players. Trojans win. But I’ll jump on 13 1/2 in a rivalry game.
Pros and Ex-Cons
Cowboys at Giants: Michael Strahan threw a teammate (Plaxico Burress) under the bus on his radio show, blamed the media for trying to “create” a situation, then said he had cleared the air with Burress, which, of course, was news to Burress. Meanwhile, Eli Manning is back to just being Peyton’s brother. And you thought the Falcons were a mess. Cowboys cover 3 1/2.
Bucs at Steelers: For any Iron City-soused Steelers fan (including my wife) who believed Ben Roethlisberger might get better as the season wore on, chew on this: The Dude has 15 turnovers (12 interceptions, three fumbles) in the past five games. Pitt wins this, but forget covering seven.
Raiders of the Lost Minds: Warren Sapp claims people have tried to poison his room service meals. But judging by the profile, I’m assuming he kept the food down. Oakland covers three against Houston.
Jaguars at Dolphins: Nick Saban says he doesn’t want the Alabama job. Guess he figures after winning four straight games with Joey Harrington, one miracle is enough. Fins cover 1 1/2.
Seahawks at Broncos: Mike Shanahan is the best offensive coach in the league. But a 7-4 team switching quarterbacks (Jake Plummer to Jay Cutler) in Game 12 ranks somewhere between risky and lunacy. Seattle in an upset (but take the gift three).
Boo Chip Indicators
(Talk to our debt consultants about refinancing options.)
Last week: 5-5 straight up, 3-7 against the line.
Bottom line.: 76-43 straight up, 54-63-2 against the line.
(Record against the line reflects adjustment after alert reader Mary noticed I actually went 4-6-1 two weeks ago, not 6-5, as my accounting department indicated. And I’m so grateful to Mary for catching that. Really. Honest. Hey, Mary: Don’t you have to be somewhere?)
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Thinking out loud
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Here’s yet another in the occasional series of “I think” things. I think they’re sort of fun. You might think otherwise.
I think Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame until someone proves — as opposed to suspects — he used steroids. And I doubt anybody ever will. (And yes, I feel the same about Barry Bonds.)
I think Josh Smith needs to distinguish between a shot and a good shot.
I think — actually, I know — I was wrong about Tech beating Georgia. Perhaps one or two of you noticed.
I think Tech will beat Wake Forest.
I think Arkansas will beat Florida.
I think the Falcons will beat Washington. If they don’t, I think Jim Mora had better start polishing the ol’ resume.
I think the thing that bothers me most about the Falcons is that, in a league where seemingly every game comes down to the last minute, they’re not getting beat by a field goal at the gun. They’re getting pounded. Of their six losses, only one has been by single digits. I think that’s a bad, bad sign.
I think the Gator Bowl trying to weasel out of taking Tech is typical bowl behavior.
I think the Braves should never have let Tom Glavine go, which isn’t to say they should sign him now. Two wrongs don’t … well, you know.
I think Michael Vick was utterly sincere in his apology. I don’t claim to know him well, but I’ve been around him for six seasons and I’ve never once thought he was anything but a good guy.
That said, I think I’d like to see him complete more passes.
Speaking of which: I think Rich McKay has gotten a comparative pass in the Falcons’ blame game. He did, after all, draft Roddy White and Michael Jenkins in consecutive Round 1s. And wasn’t Marques Colston, the presumptive NFC rookie of the year, available when the Falcons took Adam Jennings, a wide receiver, in Round 6 last April?
I think Mark Richt proved how good a coach he is by holding this team together and, not incidentally, by allowing Mike Bobo to call plays.
I think I’m all thought out.
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Johnson’s polish makes Hawks’ future brighter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As historical days go, Aug. 19 has some cachet. The Allies liberated Paris in World War II. News broke of a California gold rush in 1848. The Soviet Union collapsed, which Mikhail Gorbachev learned as he was placed under house arrest in 1991. Morten Anderson was born on Aug. 19, and as we know he would later become a top NFL kicker, forcing the Saints to cut his roommate, Lou Groza.
More recently, it was Aug. 19 of last year when the Hawks completed a sign-and-trade deal with Phoenix for Joe Johnson. Historians will cite this as the moment when the Hawks attempted to rejoin the NBA.
Now, we can’t be certain where this goes. After losing six of their previous seven, the Hawks defeated Charlotte 99-90 on Wednesday night at Philips Arena. They saw a 24-point lead in the third quarter dwindle to three in the fourth. But they held on to beat the only franchise seemingly in the midst of a greater love affair with cap room.
They’re 6-7. That’s not quite the great early-season tease, when they opened 4-1 and members of Atlanta Spirit began to hyperventilate. But when a club has gone seven straight seasons without a playoff game, you take what you can.
The Hawks are not nearly a finished product. They’re like a house that has been framed, and only one room has sheetrock and carpeting. The room’s name is Joe Johnson.
He scored 36 against the Bobcats. He scored 22 points in the second quarter on 9-for-10 shooting, including three straight from three-point range. “I just got into a little zone,” he said.
Who knew Philips Arena even had a zone?
having a career season. He began the night seventh in the league in scoring at 27.1 points per game, nearly double anybody else on the team. After only 13 games, he already has taken 267 shots, 113 more than the next closest teammate (Josh Smith).
“This definitely is the best I’ve played in the league,” he said. “I know that I’ve got a lot more on my table now, and I’m just trying to step up. I’m trying to be more of a leader, on and off the floor. A lot is on my back, but I’m trying to carry the load.”
It forever will be debated whether Johnson was worth what the Hawks sacrificed in salary ($70 million) or trade with Phoenix (two No. 1 picks and Boris Diaw). But there’s little question he has emerged as one of the league’s elite players.
It’s possible the Hawks will act as a sort of cloaking device and Johnson gets snubbed at All-Star time. “I can’t worry about that. If I handle my business, everything will take care of itself,” he said.
Then again, the miracle will be if Johnson is still standing at the All-Star break, with all of the minutes he’s playing. Coach Mike Woodson didn’t want to pull Johnson out of this game, playing him over 42 minutes. “He was on fire,” he said. “You try not to extend his minutes like we were doing. But when a guy gets going like that, you milk him.”
The Hawks went 26-56 last season, which isn’t the way a free agent imagines things when he signs a $70 million contract. But this season Johnson seems to have adjusted and accepted a bigger role.
“The losing has been tough at times,” he said, “but we’re a young team, so I pretty much knew what I was getting into when I came here.”
This team remains a playoff long shot, even in the decrepit East. Notwithstanding Tyronn Lue’s 25 points Wednesday, they still need a point guard. (The good news is you don’t have to whine about the Hawks not drafting Chris Paul anymore. Now you can whine about Deron Williams, who has led Utah to a 12-3 start.)
But the Johnson trade looks like a rare step forward in Hawks history. At least they have one room in the house finished.
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Shame on the Falcons’ head honchos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Michael Vick got it right. The NFL also got it right. As a result, members of the Falcons’ ownership and management teams are looking ridiculous for getting it absolutely wrong regarding the Dirty Bird from their quarterback toward fans on Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
In case you haven’t noticed, members of those ownership and management teams have said nothing.
Not a word.
Nary a comment to the public such as “Michael Vick’s actions were totally inappropriate,” or “We respect the fans’ right to boo, and we want our players to feel the same way,” or “We assure you that this will never happen again.”
So much for a franchise that supposedly is “fan friendly,” as it likes to boast. This also is a franchise that is about to jack up prices on suites and club seats after making renovations to the dome. You would think that members of those ownership and management teams would be yelling from the corner of every Peachtree street and road about their disgust over the face of their franchise embarrassing himself and the entire organization.
Oh, well. To Vick’s credit, he followed an apology that he issued Sunday night through team officials with a news conference the next day to express his regrets. He sounded and looked sincere.
Then came the NFL’s punishment on Tuesday. According to ESPN, he was fined $10,000, twice the amount that Jake Plummer and Randy Moss received for similar gestures, and the league also requested that Vick give another $10,000 to his favorite charity.
Maybe the NFL should fine members of the Falcons’ ownership and management teams for silence.
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Falcons show smudges at the edges
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
The world was coming to an end. You could tell by the tone of the voices. You could tell by the volume of distress that gushed out of the airwaves. It was like an overwhelming surge of gloom. There was no way back. The Falcons had not only lost four games in a row, their quarterback had had a brain cramp and employed one of the fingers he uses to throw passes to tell the fans to kiss his posterior. Once they cheered him vociferously. Now they booed him. How dare they!
In the swirling scene of this mirage — it couldn’t be real — stood the stalwart, sartorially proper figure of Arthur Blank. He owns the team. Bought it five years ago, never expecting to face such a roiling resurgence as this. You’d never have seen such an uprising as this at Home Depot, where his team never lost a game. Look at his old partner, Bernie Marcus. He took his money and gave the city an aquarium, and you’d never hear any such revolt as this from happy fish, floating around in their luxurious glass house.
Remember what a gregarious arrival Blank made? This was to be the team of the people. He moved in with an impressive flourish, his new style of management polished to a glistening shine. He made his presence felt. He was visible everywhere, on the screen in the Georgia Dome admonishing his employees to make the fans feel like this was home, as if they were in their own parlor. It was an impressive show of a compassionate management. That was before the bargain ticket prices had been raised. That would come later.
The message came on strong later when the new training complex opened at Flowery Branch. There’s a message board out there on which is written, “If you are not here to win a championship, you are in the wrong place.”
There’s another that reads, “There is no finish line,” whatever that means. You’re never through till the job is done, or something like that, I’d guess.
There’s another code name that I’ve really never come close to getting: “The Closer.” That’s a term of affection for the Bossman, I read. Surely not an applicant for a place in the Braves bullpen.
All of this was supposed to amalgamate into the finished product that Arthur Blank envisioned, a football team emerging from years in a doldrum into one to be feared. It all was being skillfully crafted by a man whose enterprise had been a glorious success in merchandising.
Selling football is another form of merchandising, but the results are more sudden. You ride the crest when you win, but losing is not to be tolerated. Fans had sloshed patiently through dreary years because they expected little else. But when they expect winning, with this vast investment in a $130 million quarterback and an expensive supporting cast — you know, “If you’re not here to win a championship, etc.” — patience runs thin.
The new owner fires the old coach, abruptly. He brings in a new one with an established name and an NFL pedigree, Jim Mora, who refuses to be “junior.” OK, have it his way, but it did become confusing last week when one Jim Mora approved of the label of “coach-killer” for Michael Vick. That’s when the younger Jim would have been more comfortable being known, at least, as “Jimmy.”
Anyway, here they are. Right back in the old Falcons slough. Losers again. Warrick Dunn, strangely, has lost his effectiveness carrying the ball. Vick, with his “cannon of an arm,” is throwing cannon shots that receivers can’t handle. (Not to forgive Roddy White for that changeup he booted Sunday.) Then exit stage left, Vick with the middle finger in the air, bush league stuff for a professional. Not once, but twice. Then a hastily prepared apology, a dead giveaway by the hand of a “ghost writer.”
It shouldn’t mean that the season is out of control, but this whole debacle does address itself, not to Arthur Blank — who should remove himself from the sideline — but to the guys who deal with the nuts and bolts of such an operation:
Rich McKay, who came here after the coach had already been hired; and Jim Mora, like it or not, upon whom it is now incumbent that, no matter how rough the water gets, he can handle the storm. This, I’d guess, is last call.
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Regrets? Too many to mention
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN
10: Sunday is give-a-finger-to-the-Falcons day. Feel free to flip off the TV.
9: Really, I don’t believe Michael Vick is a bad person, in the all-fans-can-just-kiss-my-butt sense. I do believe he wants to win. I do believe he can win. He has proven that. But receivers’ drops, pass protection problems and questionable play-calling notwithstanding, the kid still acts like a kid sometimes. He needs to grow up.
8: Quarterbacks are leaders. Maybe it’s something they say. Maybe it’s the way they act. That’s not the way to act.
7: And finally, to fans: Buying a ticket gives you the right to be as much of a drunk idiot as you want to be.
6: After only four months of marriage, was there something Pam Anderson and Kid Rock actually found out about each other that they didn’t already know? I mean, did Kid Rock wake up one morning and think, “My God! She’s a geranium!” Did Pammy expect that somebody named Kid Rock might be a poet, a nuclear physicist, or possibly have political ambitions? Or did he just leave the toilet seat up?
5: Career-decision of the day: Burger-flipper or Alabama coach. Hmmm.
4: Among the names that have been thrown against the wall as Mike Shula’s replacement: Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Jim Grobe. Are you kidding me? The Alabama program has been little more than a punching bag for a long time. It’s in the bottom half of the SEC. It’s in the bottom half of the state of Alabama. Maybe the program can do better than a Lesser Shula - but not by much.
3: Michael Irvin cracks a joke about Tony Romo being such a great athlete that he must, in so many words, have slave blood in him. I know. Locker room humor. I get that. But here’s the question: Why is it Michael Irvin keeps his ESPN job when you know — I mean, KNOW — that any white guy saying that would’ve been tossed out? And do you know who would’ve been the first guy calling for the white broadcaster’s firing? Michael Irvin.
2: You, the Georgia Tech fan: Starting 9-2 easily exceeded your expectations. So here’s the question: If the Jackets lose to Wake in the ACC title game after losing to Georgia, how do you feel about this season - regardless of whatever second-tier bowl you end up in?
1: You, the Georgia Tech fan: Put the finger away.
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Vick seems uneasy on the throne
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Flowery Branch — “It will never happen again,” a contrite Michael Vick said Monday, but the greater revelation was that it happened at all — that the man who has reigned as prince of his adopted city is now being heckled at home. For six seasons Vick has loved Atlanta and most of Atlanta has loved him back, and now this.
Apologizing twice in two days.
Looking not at all like the triumphant passer who exited Cincinnati a month ago having achieved what owner Arthur Blank deemed “a breakthrough.”
Six years on, you wonder if there are any breakthroughs left for Michael Vick. You wonder if he’ll ever find the right system or the right coaches, or if such things even exist. You wonder if the backlash that set in last season and reached full force with the elder Jim Mora’s “coach-killer” soliloquy has taken such a bite out of this buoyant man that he’ll never bounce quite so high again.
“From Day 1 this city has embraced me,” Vick said Monday. “There’s been a lot of love here for Mike Vick.” But then: “I never thought that, six years into my career, something like that would happen to me.”
He meant Sunday’s double-barreled postgame salute. (Directed, Vick said, to a single fan who was ripping the Falcons en masse, not No. 7 in particular.) We can get all self-righteous and say that nobody in such a prominent position should ever stoop so low in digital response, but let he (or she) who has never been cut off in traffic cast the first stone. Vick was wrong, yes, but the issue going forward isn’t what he did but why he felt moved to do it.
“I’ve never experienced a situation where we were getting booed and the fans were unhappy,” he said, and the displeasure doesn’t exist only on the periphery. Blank issued a call for accountability in Sunday’s AJC. Jim Mora the coach has had to answer for Jim Mora the ex-coach. Vick himself has grown so uneasy with the offense that he vented on HBO. The frustration index has reached a Blank-era high, and Sunday’s loss to New Orleans seemed a clear case of a tight team coming unstrung.
Longer-term Atlantans are used to seeing the Falcons fall to pieces, but times began to change on April 21, 2001. That was the day of Vick’s drafting, the day the future grew rife with potential. Lately, alas, potential has begun to yield to limitation. Can Vick ever be a pocket passer? (The Cincinnati game seemed to prove he could, but nothing good has happened since.) Can a team win at the highest level when its performance — and, being brutally honest, the performance of its $130 million quarterback — fluctuates weekly?
Six years on, you’d have thought Vick would have found an enduring happier medium. Six years on, it seems unthinkable that his best passing season came in 2002, his first as a starter. Six years on, is it possible we’ve already seen the best of Michael Vick?
It would be foolish to discount a player so talented and so driven, and indeed there are games — Cincinnati was one, Miami last year another — when Vick takes pains to refute the skeptics. But a career cannot run on pride alone; there must be precision involved. For all his gifts, he hasn’t thrown a fourth-quarter touchdown this season. Yes, his receivers are dreadful — who drafted these guys, anyway? — but at some point an NFL quarterback must complete the requisite passes.
Of Sunday’s game, in which he rushed for 166 yards but threw for roughly half that, Vick said: “I try to win. That’s why I ran the ball as much as I did. I put my heart into it.”
He has done as much from the first, but now he’s learning that heart isn’t enough. He’s learning that fans who happily buy his jersey are less happy when his team loses. He’s learning that the love of a city is a conditional thing.
The gestures he made Sunday and will rue for years to come? Those were fingers of frustration.
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Seriously flawed team embarrasses itself
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
If you go by the criteria set by Falcons owner Arthur Blank, his management and coaching staffs already have one foot out the door. Their other foot is right behind, depending on whether this seriously flawed team can do the unlikely and keep from embarrassing itself again.
It didn’t help the longevity of the Falcons’ current honchos to have quarterback Michael Vick do the inexcusable on Sunday inside the Georgia Dome. As he walked to the tunnel after their latest disaster, he repeatedly responded to those booing with hand gestures not used for audibles. His actions showed a lack of class, along with a lack of discipline. You know, like the way he is allowed by the Falcons’ current honchos to dangle the ball at his side during those spectacular runs that often end with ridiculous fumbles.
What a mess. We’re talking off the field and on it for the Falcons. Not only did they drop a fourth consecutive game, but doing so against their rivals from New Orleans gave the Saints sole ownership of first place in the NFC South. Conversely, the Saints knocked the Falcons further into oblivion at 5-6, with much help from the Falcons. Four dropped passes. Silly play-calling in the red zone that led to two field goals, despite having first downs at the Saints’ 7 both times. Another ghastly day of botched assignments by the secondary. A slew of Falcons (ahem) defenders watching the Saints complete a Hail Mary along the way to a 31-13 blowout.
Those were more than enough reasons to huddle with a visibly perturbed Blank after Falcons head coach Jim Mora ended another news conference with more questions than answers. To Blank: If this implosion continues, would you consider making a change at the management or coaching level before the end of the season? “Whatever I said, I said yesterday, and it was reported in [the AJC], and those were my feelings, and I can’t say more than that,” said Blank, who told the paper that everybody in the organization is under evaluation.
Well, that, and Blank gave the specifics of his evaluation. No. 1: The Falcons must play with “energy” and “hard football throughout.”
No. 2: They must make the playoffs, and then they must do more than just breathe afterward.
No. 3: They must have a combination at the end of a nice record and “a body of other things.”
Forget Nos. 2 and 3. Since the Falcons’ slide includes losses to pitiful Detroit and Cleveland, they’ve already flunked No. 1 on Blank’s list. They were so listless against New Orleans that they turned what usually is a vibrant crowd for a Saints-Falcons game into something more appropriate for a morgue. This went further than the Saints jumping to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Falcons players strolled on and off the field as if they’d just finished Thanksgiving leftovers. And remember: Since the Mora regime began three seasons ago, the emphasis has been on sprinting at all times, even between practice drills.
“No, man. It’s not a lack of effort,” said Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking, who has seen highs and many lows during his nine seasons with the Falcons. “No one is giving up, and we’re fighting to the end. There is not a magic potion to this thing. Defensively, we’re fighting our tails off, and we’re just giving up the big play, and that’s not from a lack of effort.”
It is, Keith, when you keep giving up the big play over and over again, especially since the Falcons’ current honchos supposedly are giving you the X’s, O’s and motivation not to do so.
Anyway, in the midst of the ugliness, Mora was asked about the Falcons’ playoff chances. “We’re looking forward to trying to win a game,” he said, repeating the legendary response of his father, the older Jim Mora (“Playoffs? Playoffs?”), only without the dramatics.
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Rookie quarterback outplays veteran
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Athens — Forget the first half. Forget it was ever played. The two played like awkward burglers trying to blow a safe. Georgia Tech will be able to tell their grandkids, “Well, we were leading them dang Bulldogs at the half, 3 to nothing. We had ‘em panting.”
It was like this: Georgia and Georgia Tech combined gained only 114 yards on the ground. All told, passes, too, they rang up only 150 yards. Only one team got as far as what they call the Red Zone. This is what happens sometimes when a game is so hyped, the atmosphere is so charged, that all the participants have to play awhile to get the lump out of their throats. So it was that Georgia and Georgia Tech gathered once more for one of their annual Football Hatefests.
When the second half began, Georgia grabbed hold of the moment and turned on its offense, and now we get around to the variations that decided that in the end, the Bulldogs should win, 15-12. Sorry to reveal the climax too early in our daily get-together, but the major difference in this game wound up in the hands of the two quarterbacks. Not to take anything away from the two defenses, for they played their gizzards out.
But it is in this kind of pressure that you expect to see the veteran grab the helm with a steady hand and the kid stumble over his own feet. Just the opposite. Reggie Ball has had his suicidal moments in games against Georgia, but he turned this one into a sort of a collection of flashbacks to forget. The kid, the freshman, Matthew Stafford, was the Cool Hand Luke. The steady one, or rather, steadier, for he, the Bulldog from Dallas, had some tenuous moments of his own.
Ball has one of the most publicized receiving targets in college to throw to, and to be perfectly blunt, no telling what kind of figures Calvin Johnson might have had with one of those pinpoint pocket quarterbacks throwing to him these three years. This game was no exception. Time and time again, Ball’s delivery was high and wild, or low and outside. For the night in Sanford Stadium, he was 6-for-22, for a pittance of 42 yards. Johnson had two catches for 13 yards, a wasted night for a draft choice treasure for some NFL team. True, he was closely covered by Paul Oliver, and occasionally double-teamed, but while Stafford found a way to get the ball to his catching cast for 171 yards, and the touchdown that decided the game, Ball would never have won a fuzzy doll at a county fair. You might say, cruel or not, that it was fitting that his last pass thrown in a Tech-Georgia game was an interception, pulled in by the defender who shadowed Johnson all the night, Paul Oliver, around midfield. All that was left for the Bulldogs was a couple of kneels and for the sixth time in a row, Georgia had Georgia Tech’s number.
Good as the numbers look, give Georgia’s offense no credit for its first touchdown. Sorry, Reggie Ball again, running a keeper at his own 27-yard line in the third quarter, fumbling under a pile of Bullldogs, out of which came Tony Taylor, the linebacker, who scurried into the end zone. Touchdown.
Tech took the lead back, mainly on the hoofing of Tashard Choice, and this was exciting stuff, making up for the dismal first half. Here came the rookie Stafford at his best, on a drive from kickoff to the Tech’s end zone. Danny Ware came off the bench with fresh legs, and in the decisive moment of the game, Stafford fired a bullet to the No. 1 on Mohamed Massaquoi’s jersey in the back of the end zone, and three Tech defenders stood nonplussed, as if stricken dumb.
This has been going on for six games in a row, a Bulldog streak, since George O’Leary’s last season at Tech. At one time, Georgia Tech ran off a streak of eight against the Bulldogs, when Bobby Dodd was there, and the rivalry had become so one-sided it seemed that Georgia might never win again. These are different times. This is a Georgia Tech team playing for the ACC championship next weekend, but that makes this no easier to swallow. Champion of its conference, perhaps, but not the champion of its own state. Egad.
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0-for-Georgia to be part of Ball’s legacy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens — Reggie Ball was checking his e-mail as he walked into the interview room. Perhaps he found encouraging words therein. Perhaps he found an answer for what has become — and will forever be — unanswerable: How could the quarterback who has presided over 29 collegiate victories never win the game that matters most to his constituency?
Not that Ball was willing to concede the point. “I want to win every game,” he said. “I don’t buy into that ‘rivalry game’ — that’s for [the media] to do. I go out [and] I don’t care if it’s two old ladies playing flag football — I want to win.”
He wants to win. Nobody disputes that. But this much is likewise indisputable: Handed chances to win against Georgia each of the past three seasons, Ball and Georgia Tech lost instead. What transpired Saturday wasn’t his most egregious moment in the series — that remains the fourth-down throwaway in 2004 — but it was his worst overall performance against Georgia and among the worst of his strange career.
Ball’s numbers this forlorn day: Six completions, 16 incompletions, 42 yards passing, minus-10 yards rushing, three second-half turnovers. This from a fourth-year starter. This from the guy who has Calvin Johnson at his disposal. (Johnson had two catches Saturday, neither in the second half, for 13 yards.)
Asked if Georgia had become a personal speed bump, Ball said: “Come on, dog. It’s a game. Georgia’s Georgia. They’re a good team, but they’re no speed bump.”
Ball finishes his career 0-for-Georgia. Chan Gailey, who hitched his program to the true freshman four years ago, is the first Tech coach to lose his first five games against Georgia, and at some point we need ask: Is Gailey a great coach for having won so many games with such an inefficient quarterback, or is he a silly coach for having gone so long with such an inefficient quarterback?
Of Ball, Gailey said Saturday: “He didn’t play as well as he has … I don’t think he was in sync.”
Yes, Tech still has a chance to win the ACC championship and play in the Orange Bowl, but a goodly quotient of luster fell away from Gailey’s best season Saturday. The Jackets absorbed a curious haymaker — Tony Taylor returning Ball’s fumble for a go-ahead touchdown seemingly hours after the fact — and took a fourth-quarter lead. When finally Tech’s defense buckled, the Jackets still had time to answer. They could manage only one first down on their final possession, that courtesy of a Quentin Moses personal foul, and then the chance died. Throwing off his back foot yet again, Ball was intercepted by Paul Oliver.
“We were trying to make a play on the next snap,” Ball said of the Moses penalty. Was he pressured on the throw? “That’s what happens in football.”
It would be easy to feel a twinge of pity for Ball — Georgia students mocked him Saturday with chants of “Reg-gie, Reg-gie” — but he makes it apparent he wants no one’s sympathy. He suffers media inquiries with something approaching scorn, and maybe we shouldn’t blame him. Few collegians have ever been held up to such scrutiny.
Still, that’s the price for playing quarterback at a school that takes football seriously. Ball has had splendid moments in his career — two victories over Auburn, two over Miami, one over Virginia Tech — but he has never beaten Georgia and never will. Said Tashard Choice, who accounted for 151 of Tech’s 188 total yards Saturday: “Sometimes things don’t go the way they’re supposed to. You have to roll with the punches, and we roll with [Ball]. And we’re going to take it as far as we can go.”
If Tech wins its next two games, Ball will match Shawn Jones as Tech’s winningest quarterback. But Jones won a national championship and beat Georgia twice. For the Jackets as led by Ball, it’s clear now that this was as far as they could go — they could win big games but never the biggest game on their schedule. Never even once.
Permalink | Comments (132) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Stafford doesn’t play like freshman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens — Two weeks ago at Auburn, the thought occurred that the kid had finally broken through. But how could anybody be sure? The same green-tinted freshman who completed 14 of 20 for 219 yards and a touchdown in intimidating surroundings had been intercepted three times only seven days earlier … in Lexington.
The answer came Saturday. There will be more mistakes by Matthew Stafford. But in the final regular-season game of his first season, Stafford reaffirmed he is that special kind of quarterback. Some crumble in these situations (see: Reggie Ball). Some don’t (the other guy).
Stafford threw five passes on Georgia’s final possession. The first three resulted in first downs. The fourth resulted in the go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes left. The fifth completed a two-point conversion.
Through it all, Stafford didn’t look like a freshman.
He barely looked like a college player.
“He was calm — he’s always calm,” tailback Kregg Lumpkin said. “At the start of that drive, he said, ‘This is our drive. We have to get in the end zone now.’ And that’s what we did.”
Georgia won, 15-12. But what happened Saturday in Athens wasn’t the result of one team thoroughly outplaying the other, as much as it was one quarterback thriving in pressure situations.
Stafford faced Tech’s blitzing defense all day but often responded with screen passes, frequently getting leveled just before releasing the ball. Quote: “That’s all right. It’s part of the game.”
With Georgia trailing 12-7, Stafford didn’t look like a guy trying to engineer a game-winning drive. He looked like he was taking a stroll on the beach. On the first play from the Dogs’ 36, he completed a 14-yard pass to Kenneth Harris. On the second play, he had a pump fake and then tossed a 10-yarder to Mohamed Massaquoi at the Tech 40.
The Dogs ran the next six plays with Danny Ware and Lumpkin, then faced a third-and-6 from the Tech 11. Stafford? He threaded a pass between two defenders to Massaquoi at the 4.
Two runs netted 0 yards, setting up another third down. Stafford? He sat in the pocket while Massaquoi got open in the end zone and fired on target for the touchdown and a 13-12 lead. The two then hooked up for a two-point conversion. Of course.
In the postgame, Stafford said everything he was supposed to. He credited his offensive line, his receivers, his running backs, his coaches. But his most comforting words for a Georgia fan came when he was asked about being in the huddle with the game on the line.
“Absolutely,” he said. “That’s what you dream of if you’re a competitor, especially at quarterback. You get the ball every play. You’ve got to want it at the end, and it’s something I do want.”
Stafford laughed when reminded he didn’t throw an interception for the second straight game after throwing eight in the previous three. “Yeah, it’s unexpected for me,” he said, smiling. “But that’s the way it should be. That’s the way you’re supposed to play here.”
But that’s not the way an 18-year-old generally plays. Georgia Tech defensive tackle Joe Anoai commented afterward, “He didn’t play like a freshman.”
Jackets linebacker Gary Guyton added in perfect understatement: “I told him after the game he’s going to be all right.”
It was about the quarterback Saturday. In close games, rivalry games, it’s always about the quarterback. One won it. One lost it. Stafford threw for 171 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. Tech’s Ball threw for only 42 yards on 6-of-22 passing with no touchdowns and three turnovers.
This has not been a great season by Georgia standards, just a strange win. Consecutive wins over Auburn and Tech followed a stretch of four losses in five games. The Dogs lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. They watched Tennessee score 37 second-half points on their home field. There will be no BCS bowl, no SEC title game, no Sugar on their tongue.
But we now know they have a quarterback who treats pressure situations like his own personal playground. And if you want to know how special that is, ask Georgia Tech.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
Jackets are better and more inspired
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They are just better. They also have more reasons (as in five consecutive losses to the woof, woof people) for motivation. Oh, and Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough provided the clincher as to why the Yellow Jackets will sting Georgia today between the hedges. Said Clough to the AJC, “It’s about time.”
It’s definitely about time for Tech to turn this rivalry that really isn’t at the moment into a rivalry again.
For those who keep insisting this actually is a rivalry, consider the following ugliness in white and old gold: The Jackets dropped the opening three games of their current losing streak to Georgia by a combined score of 116-41. Not the stuff of Auburn-Alabama. In contrast, Tech was within a touchdown of catching the Bulldogs during the waning moments in each of the past two seasons’ games. To which Tech defensive tackle Joe Anoai said to the assembled media this week on campus, “As everyone knows, you don’t go out there to play your opponent tight. You go out there to get a ‘W.’ “
Translated: These Jackets are obsessed with the concept of victory or bust, especially when Bulldogs are across the way. Added Anoai, speaking for his teammates in general, but for his fellow seniors in particular (who never have beaten Georgia): “Right now, we’re not even thinking about losing.”
There also was this from Tech running back Tashard Choice at that same news gathering: “We’ve played in hostile territory, so that won’t be a factor for us.” No, it won’t. The victory that propelled the Jackets toward the ACC championship game came earlier this season in noisy Blacksburg, Va., where they drilled Virginia Tech. The year before that, many of these same Jackets players helped orchestrate huge upsets at Auburn and at Miami. So, with most of the 93,000 or so squeezed into Sanford Stadium for this one barking for the other guys, Tech players won’t shiver at the sight of dogs in cleats and helmets.
Would you be scared with Calvin Johnson on your side? He’s the Jackets wide receiver who will be the most extraordinary player in Clarke County. Yes, Georgia stifled Johnson during the past two seasons, but this Johnson is operating from a totally different solar system than even those Johnsons from the past. Consider, too, that Tech coaches finally are getting the guy the ball more often than not.
The other Johnson (James) also is wonderful at catching passes. That’s in contrast to Georgia receivers who are wonderful at dropping them.
If you add that to Choice leading a Tech offense that has outrushed Georgia by an average of 30 yards per game, and to opportunistic players on Jon Tenuta’s blitzing defense producing 28 sacks to Georgia’s 13, the Jackets have the edge in personnel. Even so, that personnel is listed as a one-point underdog despite a superior record (9-2 to 7-4) and a national ranking (16th) to Georgia’s none. This is all good for the Jackets. This is just another reason why they are highly inspired to knock off somebody’s dog collar.
You also have that Reggie Ball thing. He’ll be the player on the field in search of the most redemption. As a freshman quarterback against Georgia, Ball had an interception, a lost fumble and a concussion. Then came his amnesia game, when he forgot it was fourth down instead of third down and threw away Tech’s chance for a comeback in the final seconds with a pass out of bounds. Then he tossed an interception near the goal line on his last play of last year’s squeaker.
This is a smarter Ball, though, with more touchdowns than interceptions during a season for the first time in his career. A smarter Ball means this will be a tougher Tech team to beat, especially with the rebirth of that rivalry and a mighty dose of pride on the line.
Permalink | Comments (72) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
QBs give Dogs the edge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
For some reason, Georgia and Georgia Tech have been viewed as separate colonies of divergent species. I don’t know why. They’re really pretty much the same.
Both play in major conferences. Both go to bowl games. Both give their coaches tangible incentives to win their annual rivalry game: If the Yellow Jackets win, assistants are given a $5,000 bonus. If the Bulldogs win, Willie Martinez is given an opportunity to make it out of the parking lot.
OK, so there is one difference: Expectation. Both want to win. But one school has come to view it as an ambitious project, like installing ceiling fans in Hades. The other sees it as a therapeutic jog on the beach to forget about whatever might’ve gone wrong that year. Like: “I feel better now. But are we ever going to beat Florida?”
Georgia wins today. Why? Because for as much as Tech likely has the better team (9-2 vs. 7-4), certainly has the only BCS hopes (Orange Bowl) and claims the game’s only real star (Calvin Johnson), there are too many flaws to assume logic — a sixth straight Georgia win — will get flipped upside down.
Tech believes this is the year. That’s based at least partly on the fact that Georgia already has lost four games. But then, the last time the Bulldogs lost four games was in Mark Richt’s first season in 2001. That year, Georgia won at Tech 31-17.
Richt is 5-0 in this game. Chan Gailey is 0-4. Neither is an aberration.
In Gailey’s four losses, the Jackets have averaged 11 points. Tech fans say: Yeah, but Patrick Nix is calling the offensive plays now. OK. But look at the quarterback he’s calling the plays for.
This is game 12 of year 4 for Reggie Ball, and he’s the same thing he always has been: an emotional, competitive and erratic quarterback who drives through a season like a Wiffle Ball through a wind storm.
Which way will Reggie go? I dunno. Go kick a fire ant hill and guess which way the ants go.
This is game 12 of year 1 for Matthew Stafford. After throwing eight interceptions in his previous three starts, Stafford was 14-for-20 with a touchdown and no interceptions in a stunning 37-15 upset at Auburn. Is this the time to bet on a backslide?
One start, one win does not make a trend. But if you had a choice right now, would you take Ball or what’s behind door No. 2?
Ball is 0-3 against Georgia. In those games, he has a 47.6 completion percentage. Folks, that’s the good news. The other totals: one touchdown, three interceptions, two fumbles, six sacks, one concussion and a throwaway on fourth down because he thought it was third down.
In Tech’s biggest win of the season at Virginia Tech, Ball threw interceptions on back-to-back throws from his own side of the field that could have cost the Jackets the game. At Clemson, with a chance to show a prime-time TV audience how far this program has come, Tech was steamrolled and Ball failed to complete even one pass to Johnson.
Two weeks ago at North Carolina, with the backdrop of clinching a berth in the ACC title game, Ball threw for 78 yards and the Jackets managed just seven points against a Tar Heels team that already had fired its coach and allowed 79 points to Furman and South Florida, thought to be a scientific impossibility.
The issue is not whether Johnson can shred the Bulldogs’ secondary — he can. The issue is what happens after Ball takes the snap.
Georgia is not a great team. It’s somewhere between the team that lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky and the one that beat Auburn. But rivalry games often come down to a quarterback either making a play to win it or not making a play that might lose it.
Reggie Ball is 0-3. Matthew Stafford is 0-0. But right now I think I’ll take that unknown and the Auburn game as signs pointing to an edge at quarterback and another Georgia win.
And when it’s over, the Dogs can once again wonder what went wrong in the Florida game.
Permalink | Comments (71) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Dogs will prevail in Athens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Buuuuuuuuuuuurp. ‘Scuse me.
Welcome to the gluttony post-mortem. If you don’t mind, I’ll just type here from the kitchen floor, where my dog is staring at me, waiting for me to doze off so she can grab the half-eaten sandwich in my bathrobe pocket.
First, congratulations. You made the wise decision not to get up at 4 a.m. so you can get a parking space by 5 a.m. so you can save 37 cents on Play-Doh at 6 a.m. I reward you with this two-step recovery program:
1) “The Detox Diet.” According to an alternative medicine Web site, you begin with lemon juice squeezed into a glass of warm water, followed by a tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water. Hmmm. We then move onto: a pear-rice milk-protein powder smoothie for breakfast; steamed broccoli with sesame seeds and beets sprinkled with lemon juice on brown rice for lunch; a milk-thistle supplement for a snack; and finish with curried lentils on quinoa for dinner.
2) Never mind. It’s so hard to get good milk thistle and quinoa these days.
Just sit there. Your layers are there for you. As it turns out, so is your La-Z-Boy. This week in Walnut Creek, Calif., a man was sitting in his recliner when his wife shot him in the head. I’m guessing she was upset that he wouldn’t get up to go Play-Doh shopping.
It turns out the shooter, Jan Kamp — no, Bubba, NOT Jan Kemp! — fired from behind, but the bullet was slowed down by the La-Z-Boy before kissing the back of her hubby’s noggin. He’s fine. She’s in jail. The moral of this story: If your wife is psychotic (duh), hide in you chair but make a sandwich ahead of time because she won’t be around for a while.
Which leads me to Georgia-Georgia Tech. (Blink and you miss the transition). This has been Tech’s season. It hasn’t been Georgia’s season. The problem is that the Trembling Chihuahuas are coming off a bye week, and the light bulb finally went on in Matthew Stafford’s head at Auburn. Tech may win in Jacksonville. But not in Athens. Dogs cover 2.
Full-retail picks
Saints at Falcons: Old Jim Mora called Michael Vick a coach killer, which is sort of amusing given that Old Jim Mora coached 15 seasons in the NFL and won exactly zero playoff games. So if Vick is a coach killer, was Mora a player killer? Falcons are going in the wrong direction. But, I dunno, Pickleface got me all fired up. Birds cover 3.
Notre Dame at Southern Cal: With apologies to the Bud-guzzling blind loyalists in the SEC, these are the only two other teams that have even a slight argument in the BCS title debate. Actually, make that one. Slapping around a good Cal team elevated Troy over the perpetually over- elevated Irish. Trojans win (but won’t cover 7).
LSU at Arkansas: The Piggies have won 10 straight since losing several organs in the opener to Southern Cal, and they have a chance to finish 8-0 in the SEC. People haven’t been this excited since they put a stoplight in Bentonville. Arkansas and 8-0? I need a Tums. On second thought, forget it. Tigers win a pick ‘em.
80 Percent Off!
(Some picks slightly irregular) Wake Forest at Maryland: Ralph Friedgen planned to have a dozen players over for Thanksgiving last night. The Terps’ injury report was being held up, pending the fool who reached for the drumstick. Maryland covers 1 1/2.
South Carolina at Clemson: Welcome to the Akron-Kent State of Southern rivalries. It’s too late for the Tigers to save ACC hopes, but a win keeps alive Tommy Bowden’s first potential 10-win season. On a related note, Steve Spurrier phoned from Coconut Grove to deny the Miami rumors. Tigers cover 5 1/2.
Kentucky at Tennessee: Phil Fulmer criticized officials and was reprimanded because he “violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics.” I seldom take Fulmer’s side. But who even knew the SEC had a Code of Ethics? Vowels cover 19.
Eagles at Colts: I can get past the fact Jeff Garcia is 4-11 as a starter since leaving the 49ers. I can’t get past the fact Philly allowed the Titans to score 31 points last week. I see dead people. Colts cover 9.
Panthers at Redskins: The Redskins have lost five of their past six, and Joe Gibbs all but screamed that the rest of the season will be devoted to player analysis. Let me save him some time: They stink. Panthers cover 4.
Giants at Titans: Tiki Barber blew up after the Giants quit running the ball in a loss to Jacksonville, saying, “I felt insignificant for the first time.” Just wait until his acting career. New York covers 3.
Boo-chip indicators
(Post No Bills)
Last week: 8-3 straight up, 6-5 against the line.
Fiscal season: treading water.
Specifically: 71-38 straight up, 53-55-1 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (64) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
The guide to Tech, Georgia fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Herewith we present the seventh installment of the almost-annual Field Guide to Tech and Georgia Fans. Read on and see if you recognize yourself. Or your idiot neighbor.
• Tech fans hope to see a victory in Jacksonville next week. Georgia fans hope to see a victory in Jacksonville again this century.
• The Tech fan’s biggest fear: Matthew Stafford has three more years of eligibility. The Georgia fan’s biggest fear: Reggie Ball is about to complete his eligibility.
• Tech fans wouldn’t trade Jon Tenuta for all of Georgia’s assistant coaches combined. Georgia fans would.
• Tech fans worry that their program’s worst-in-the-ACC graduation rate will sully the Institute’s image as an academic school. Georgia fans worry that concern over their program’s worst-in-the-SEC graduation rate will turn UGA into an academic school.
• Tech fans refer to Georgia as “UGAG.” Georgia fans refer to Bobby Dodd Stadium as “U-G-L-Y.”
• Tech fans really like their new athletics director. Georgia fans really liked their old athletics director.
• Tech fans are happy with the way Mansfield Wrotto has represented the Institute on and off the field. • Georgia fans are happier when Joe Tereshinski III does his representing off the field.
• Tech fans believe AJC endorsement of their team is long overdue. Georgia fans believe the AJC should be run by Sonny Perdue.
• The Tech fan’s favorite memory of Georgia’s season: Kentucky tearing down one set of goalposts. The Georgia fan’s favorite memory of Tech’s season: Clemson’s backs tearing through Tenuta’s defense.
• Tech fans believe this is the Jackets’ best chance of beating Georgia since the year 2000. Georgia fans believe this is Tech’s last chance to beat the Bulldogs until the year 3000.
• Tech fans are starting to reassess their opinion of Chan Gailey. Until the Bulldogs won at Auburn, Georgia fans were starting to reassess their opinion of Mark Richt.
• Tech fans are distressed when the ball is thrown to anyone other than Calvin Johnson. Georgia fans are distressed when the ball is thrown to any receiver who’s apt to drop it, which is to say any receiver on the roster.
• For once, Tech fans are excited about recruiting. As ever, Georgia fans are more excited about recruiting than about their actual team.
• Tech fans love to hear the band strike up the Budweiser song after the third quarter. Georgia fans hated it when Michael Adams tried to strike down the widespread consumption of Budweiser on game days.
• Tech fans wish their team would make more field goals. Georgia fans wish Vanderbilt had missed that field goal.
• The Tech fan’s favorite Hall: KaMichael. The Georgia fan’s favorite Hall: Butts-Mehre Heritage.
• The Tech fan’s worst-case scenario: The Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Georgia fan’s best-case scenario: The Chick-fil-A Bowl.
• Tech fans will celebrate the 100th birthday of Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2013. Georgia fans did not celebrate when Tennessee hung half a hundred on the Sanford Stadium scoreboard.
• Some Tech fans cringe when influential booster Taz Anderson criticizes the program. Some Georgia fans cringed when influential booster Don Leebern set up housekeeping with the gymnastics coach.
• Tech fans enjoy seeing the Rambling Wreck motor onto the field. Georgia fans would rather drink motor oil than see the Jackets celebrate between the hedges Saturday.
Permalink | Comments (95) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
My annual giving of thanks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Holidays, what a joy. I doubt that any country dives into holidays like us Americans, but that’s just supposition. Bastille Day is the only foreign holiday I’ve ever encountered, and France shuts down for that one, at least in Normandy, where I was in desperate need of an overnight accommodation. Approaching Caen, I noticed repetitive signs that advertised “Hotel de Ville.” Several of them. Must be a palatial place, I thought, and I kept following the markers. I was in luck, I chortled, when I saw only a couple of cars in the parking lot, but no sign of life. Then it hit me, right between the eyes.
Translated, I had arrived at the City Hall in Caen. No room in the inn. I spent the night in a telephone booth room over a small cafe, and gave thanks for that, which brings me around to the annual Thanksgiving Day mission of sharing these Thursdays with you, sometimes musing, sometimes flippant in nature:
I’m thankful for the cat’s meow — when that means he wants to get out.
I’m thankful for the sound of a waterfall, not some Niagara roar, but the trickle of water over rocks.
I’m thankful that in this twilight of my life, I still have enough hair to have to visit Cookie for a tonsorial treatment.
I’m thankful that the Oakland Raiders and Randy Moss finally got together, the hand of destiny at work.
I’m thankful for eye glasses; can you imagine what a blur the world would be without them?
I’m thankful for the sound of golf spikes — the real thing — on a gravel path.
I’m thankful when I get to church and see that the songs for the service are ones I know the words to.
I’m thankful, driving down the hill to home, to see a plume of smoke curling up from the chimney.
I’m thankful I grew up in the radio, not the television age.
I’m thankful I’ve grown to appreciate the railing on stairways more than I used to.
I’m thankful I’ve found out that “Bompa,” loosely translated means me, “Grandpa.”
I’m thankful I grew up when a corn-shucking was known as a social event.
I’m thankful for the driver who thinks to look before he backs up.
I’m thankful we don’t own a parrot, and so is the cat.
I’m thankful I can still find a place to get a typewriter ribbon.
I’m thankful for the sight of thunder clouds after a long dry spell.
I’m thankful that wrinkles don’t hurt, unless you look in the mirror.
OK, if life begins at 40, what happens at 80?
I’m thankful for the styptic pencil, something only a few of us old shavers can identify. But what happened to it?
I’m thankful for the mountain colors this year, which I seem to say every year, so who needs New England?
I’m thankful for the parent who seems to enjoy being one.
I’m thankful for the golden sun up across the marshes at St. Simons. God does paint with a beautiful brush.
I’m thankful for the disc jockey, the guy who played records and chattered away through your radio, like a neighbor across the fence.
I’m thankful for corned beef and cabbage, any time, any day.
I’m thankful the telemarketers can’t get to us any longer. Take that!
I’m thankful for ol’ John Shea, something a little private here for our best man and a friend like no other.
And I’m thankful that we’ve been able to share another Thanksgiving across the table, now don’t forget your nap.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Other
Meyer out of line with his whine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Memo to Urban Meyer: Shut up, sit back and enjoy Florida’s wonderful ride to wherever the BCS gods steer the Gators in football this January.
PS: Stop becoming another Tommy Tuberville.
What’s with these SEC coaches trying to whine their way into a national championship game? Tuberville still won’t let 2004 go. Back then, his Auburn Tigers went undefeated along the way to taking the conference title game, but they weren’t picked for the Big Game. Southern Cal and Oklahoma also went undefeated, and they both had tougher schedules than Auburn, and they both were ranked higher than Auburn.
End of story.
As for this year’s Florida team, it’s lucky to sit fourth in the current BCS standings after struggling against Vanderbilt and South Carolina. In general, the Gators have been so underwhelming that they could be upset on Saturday in Tallahassee by sputtering but talented Florida State, Florida’s archrivals.
Even so, Meyer is blasting anyone who remembers last Saturday’s classic in Columbus, Ohio, and wants a rematch between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan (Saturday’s loser) in the BCS championship game. Said Meyers of the BCS folks, “If they do that, there should be a playoff system next year. Those (Ohio State and Michigan) were great teams, but if that happens, then it’s over. Then the presidents need to put together a playoff system … and now.”
No, Urban. If an Ohio State-Michigan rematch happens, Florida needs to get better. No. 3 Southern Cal also joins the Gators with one loss. Still, you don’t hear Southern Cal coach Pete Pete Carroll moaning and groaning about what should happen in the BCS title game. Said Carroll to the media after the Trojans’ victory on Saturday over Cal, “I’ll be the last guy to campaign for us.”
Notre Dame has one loss, too, and the Fighting Irish play Saturday night at Southern Cal. Should Notre Dame win, here’s what coach Charlie Weis said in his Tuesday news conference about whether his team should face undefeated Ohio State: “When I’m so prejudiced and biased toward Notre Dame, why really go there? The bottom line is, if you wouldn’t have lost, you’d be like Ohio State, guaranteed a spot.”
Are you listening, Urban, to the wisdom and class of Carroll and Weis?
Tuberville doesn’t hear them, or he just doesn’t care. Even with Auburn out of the mix this season, Tuberville can’t stay out of this BCS thing. Of a possible Ohio State-Michigan rematch, Tuberville said Sunday, “I think Arkansas or Florida should get that opportunity. It shouldn’t even be close.”
Yeah, well.
Get over it.
Permalink | Comments (49) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Time right to return to Glavine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Four years ago, the split made sense. Tom Glavine was 36. He was coming off a playoff fizzle. He wanted one last fat contract, and there was a team in New York (duh) willing to give it to him.
Glavine’s negotiations with the Braves began with a lowball and ended with a high ball of flaming rhetoric. He, his agent, John Schuerholz and Stan Kasten could not have accomplished less if they had lined up in opposite corners of the room, ran to the center and slammed heads (not that we weren’t touched to learn later in Schuerholz’s Manifesto that he and Glavine: laughed, cried and “shared a great bottle of Silver Oak cabernet wine”).
Sometimes, splits make sense.
Sometimes, reunions make sense.
Like now.
Tom Glavine is a free agent, and re-signing him could be the simplest way for the Braves to start fixing their team. They could do it for relatively little money for a starting pitcher. They could do it for a relatively small concession — a no-trade clause that logically wouldn’t come into a play anyway for a face of the franchise that you’re bringing back home. (Seriously, what are the odds the Braves sign Glavine, fall out of the race next season, and then decide to dump him at the deadline? I mean, that’s below even Schuerholz, isn’t it? They laughed and cried over Silver Oak!)
I know. You say: The Braves don’t need a starting pitcher — they need a leadoff hitter, bullpen help, the occasional clutch RBI.
OK. Let’s look at that rotation. John Smoltz started 35 games and his elbow didn’t spontaneously combust. By process of elimination, that makes him the No. 1 starter.
Next? Tim Hudson was slightly disappointing in his first season as a Braves player (14-9, 3.52) and worse last year (13-12, 4.86). Horacio Ramirez: like the “Operation” guy, only without the flashing red nose. Mike Hampton: coming off elbow surgery, and by April he will have gone 20 months between starts. Chuck James is good but young. Kyle Davies might be good, also young.
Still confident?
In his first season with the Mets, Glavine went 9-14 with a 4.52 ERA, struck out a career-low 82 batters and made a career-high $11 million.
Of course, we all laughed.
By last season Glavine had rediscovered the strike zone. He won 15 games and struck out 131. He led the Mets to their first division title since 1988 and within one game of reaching the World Series.
Don’t get caught up on the age thing, or the been-there/done-that thing. This is what sports have become.
Loyalty is year to year. Building plans are year to year. Signing 40-somethings doesn’t mean a franchise is mortgaging its future.
Glavine would bring stability. He’d enable Schuerholz to deal one or two pitchers for needed help elsewhere. He’d add leadership in a malnourished clubhouse, and provide counsel for young pitchers.
The Braves wouldn’t even have to pay moving expenses. Glavine never left Alpharetta. He lives in the same house. He eats at the same bagel place. He drinks at the same Starbucks next door. He counts at the same bank across the street.
I know, because I’ve run into him at all three places.
Glavine phoned agent Gregg Clifton Monday night. “He wanted to make sure the Mets hadn’t picked up the $14 million team option,” Clifton said.
They want him back, but at a lower price. But they also know Glavine’s being pulled emotionally back to Atlanta.
With his family here but his body there, “It’s like he plays 162 road games,” Clifton said.
The Mets want an answer before the winter meetings Dec. 4. Glavine is vacationing with his family, and you sense they’re taking nightly votes around the dinner table. Clifton expects to have an answer by the weekend.
If the decision is made to stay home, it will be up to Schuerholz to formulate an offer.
There was a time I thought Glavine was playing this out just for the leverage. I don’t think that anymore. Four years ago it was about the money. Now it’s about everything but money. He is near retirement and 10 wins short of 300.
The Mets won 97 games last season, the Braves 79. Signing Glavine changes the equation. Because now it makes sense.
Permalink | Comments (194) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Hello lunacy, my old friend: $136 million for Alfonso Soriano. I’m so glad that baseball finally has its finances under control.
9: I’m not sure if this signals an AJC cover jinx. But since we lauded the resuscitation of the Atlanta Spirit and its two first-place franchises, the Thrashers (12-3-3 at the time) have lost four straight, the Hawks (3-1 at the time) have lost three of four and the non-Belkins lost a court decision.
8: It will be a seamless transition for Fox TV. The network has replaced O.J. Simpson’s dramatic reading, “My Hypothetical Murders,” with the “Charles Manson Christmas Special.”
7: Just wondering: 11 years after the acquittal, do you suppose any of those jurors regret their decision, or are we just assuming they don’t have a conscience, either?
6: Let’s solve some of the world’s problems: Give O.J. Simpson and Michael Richards blunt instruments, lock them in a room and put that on pay-per-view.
5: So Falcons guard Matt Lehr still denies taking steroids, and says he erred by not reading the label on his “supplements.” Well, doofus, if you hide your steroids in a supplements can from GNC, of course it’s not going to say steroids on the label.
4: Funny… For years I hid my heroin in the Nacho Cheese Doritos bag, and NOWHERE on the Nacho Cheese Doritos label did it say there was heroin in it.
3: I’m not saying this to resuscitate Falcons’ playoff hopes: But after watching Jacksonville pound one of the NFC’s better teams, the New York Giants, Tuesday - how bad is the NFC?
2: When Tom Glavine signed with the New York Mets, it was all about the money. If Tom Glavine returns to the Braves, it will be about everything but the money.
1: Yes, I am surprised that Georgia is favored over Tech - by only two.
Permalink | Comments (40) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Elder Mora fears son’s job tied to erratic Vick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch — If you go by the usual indicators such as wins, losses and championships, Jim Mora is in trouble as an NFL head coach.
So says the older Jim Mora.
To hear him tell it, the future of his son and the Falcons’ whole staff is mostly attached to the frequently erratic left arm of Michael Vick. Never mind that the smallish offensive line continues to implode. Or that the receivers haven’t a clue. Or that the defense remains brutal. Or that they’ve had a slew of injuries. Or that the play calling in this version of the West Coast offense is closer to stuff from Geri Walsh than Bill Walsh — you know, Geri’s husband.
The younger Mora is in trouble because No. 7 is just a gifted runner who happens to play quarterback. So says the older Mora in comments posted on SI.com. Courtesy of his penchant for brutal honesty, the older Mora agreed with the co-host of his radio show on Fox Sports Radio that Vick is a “coach killer.” Said the older Mora, responding to partner Craig Shemon, “I think you’re correct. And it worries me a little bit because my son is the head coach down there, ya know? But he’s a great athlete, my son likes him a lot, he’s a good kid. But he’s not a passer. And you need a passer at quarterback to be successful consistently in the National Football League. And he ain’t getting it done in that category. I agree with you.”
Here’s the bigger question: Does the only person who counts with the Falcons agree with the older Mora? Nope. Team owner Arthur Blank is a staunch Vick backer (as in a $140 million investment in the guy). Not only that, he suggested Monday that, despite the Falcons’ ugliest of three-game slides (did they really lose back-to-back to Detroit and Cleveland?) to 5-5, the younger Mora isn’t going anywhere soon.
Remember, too, that the Falcons are threatening to become turkeys before Thanksgiving for the second consecutive year after another flying start under the younger Mora. “But the coaches are still coaching hard, and the players are still playing hard,” Blank said.
This was after Blank spoke about his idea of misguided remarks from the older Mora regarding the plight of his son in relation to a flawed quarterback who nevertheless has reached three Pro Bowls.
“If Jim’s dad was sitting here, I would say this too, and I haven’t talked to him, but he has to understand that when you’re in the NFL, it’s not like in a private business,” Blank said. “It’s a very public world, and when he says something like that, particularly since his son is the head coach of an NFL team, it’s going to be taken in a very different way than if he was talking about somebody else.
“I think that, given his role in the media and given his expertise as a former head coach in the NFL, in my opinion, he needs to be very sensitive about things like that. It’s something else when you say it over a turkey dinner to your son that I feel this, this and this about your team. And it’s something else when you say it publicly.”
In case you’re wondering, Blank discussed his feelings about the older Mora’s comments with “Jimmy,” but whether father and son will caucus on the matter is unknown. The younger Mora spent his news conference Monday dissecting the Falcons’ final six games after their dismal Sunday in Baltimore. Afterward, when pulled aside, the younger Mora forced a chuckle before saying of his father’s comments: “Somebody told me about them, but I never talked to him about them. I really don’t know anything about this. I never asked him about it.” Then the younger Mora added, “I really haven’t talked to [the older Mora] lately. He’s media now.”
The younger Mora forced another chuckle. Maybe to hide that he was biting his tongue.
Permalink | Comments (194) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Falcons’ hopes are finished
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Baltimore — You could sense it when the Baltimore Ravens, after spending two quarters seemingly bent on keeping the Falcons breathing and interested, commenced with their smackdown.
You could sense when players walked off the field afterward, not looking particularly dejected or angry so much as a little too accepting.
Even the head coach’s familiar “fight on” post-game ramblings seemed unusually deflated.
It’s over.
At 5-5, the numbers say otherwise. At 5-5, with three division games left, the numbers say the Falcons can still make the playoffs. Win a division. Win a Super Bowl. Set themselves up with a boatload of I-told-you-sos. But at 5-5, they probably need to go 5-1 in the next six weeks to stretch this season into overtime. And 1-5 is looking closer to reality.
The way this season has evolved, from 2-0 to beaten up and beaten down, it’s likely that Sunday’s 24-10 loss to Baltimore will not be an aberration for the season’s remainder, but rather a blueprint: Play close for a half. Then watch as opponents expose holes and run over flailing body parts.
If the Falcons can lose to bad teams, they certainly can lose to a pretty good one like Baltimore. The only question now might be how far off the track they jump.
Among those watching Sunday was the owner. This was not the season Arthur Blank envisioned, which follows a previous season he didn’t envision. Game weeks, from this point on, will be dotted with speculation about the job security of coaches and personnel decisions. It goes with the territory.
When asked if he would pay close attention to how his players and coaches perform over the next six games, Blank said: “My focus is 12 months a year. It’s not just about the last six games, or the last two games. Is the train moving in the right direction?”
So. Is it?
“That’s the question you have to ask. But I’m not going to sit here at midseason and pick the team apart. They’re doing what I would want them to do, which is have the right attitude, playing hard.”
Even giving the Falcons that benefit of the doubt Sunday, it didn’t matter. It was 24-10. It could’ve been worse. In the first half, the Ravens missed a field goal, fumbled a snap in the red zone, had one possession wrecked by three false starts (in a span of six snaps) and spent too much time trying to throw to the right side of the field against cornerback DeAngelo Hall instead of the left, home of pod-corners Allen Rossum and Omare Lowe.
In the second half, only sympathy stopped the Ravens from scoring on every possession. The first four resulted in three touchdowns and a field goal. The fifth ended with Steve McNair taking a knee in the final seconds on the Falcons’ 17. (Turns out, Brian Billick has a heart.)
Offensively, things remain a mutating mess. Neither Michael Vick nor the offense had a turnover — a plus. But they looked lost. They had season lows in rushing (104) and total yardage (186). They managed only one touchdown for the third straight game. Warrick Dunn remarked on how the team seemed to abandon the running game in the second half. (“That’s a little bit uncharacteristic for us.”)
Vick, who needs to be a difference-maker, wasn’t. Again. He completed 10 of 14 passes in the first half, 1 of 7 in the second. He overthrew Alge Crumpler in the end zone. He also took a 17-yard sack that erased field-goal range.
This Greg Knapp-choreographed offense has only three touchdowns in the past three games after scoring eight in the previous two.
Blank was asked about Vick’s inconsistency. Predictably, he chose to spread the blame. “When an organization performs at a very high level and then doesn’t, it tells me that the capacity [to play well] is there and you have to ask yourself, ‘Why is there inconsistency?’
“We have the right people on board [to fix the problems]. They have to do it, though.”
This makes three straight losses. The problems aren’t being fixed. The schedule says there are six games left. Logic begs to differ.
Permalink | Comments (285) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
One good sign for Hawks even in a loss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The night began as one of those clip-and-save moments. The reigning NBA champs arrived at Philips Arena trailing the Hawks — yes, the Hawks — by 1 1/2 games in the NBA’s Southeast Division. Somebody snap a picture of those standings and hang it on the barren wall!
As we know, the Hawks haven’t finished above many teams this millennium, but early returns hold out the possibility that change might be in the wind. These Hawks won four consecutive games without a contribution from Marvin Williams, who’s hurt; without much of one from pricey import Speedy Claxton, who’s hurting, and without an offensive outpouring (seven games, 26 points) from Shelden Williams, the latest in the line of lottery picks.
That seemed to suggest the Hawks’ winning record, a modest 4-3 though it was, might not be an utter mirage. Not everything had gone right for this team — indeed, much had gone wrong — and still it was above .500. And a faceoff against the mighty Miami Heat and the massive Shaquille O’Neal could go a ways toward affirming this apparent progress. One thing, though:
Shaq didn’t show.
He was diagnosed with a knee injury Friday and will miss at least a month. You’d expect the Hawks would have been cheered by the news — without O’Neal, the Heat lost to the wretched Knicks by 24 points Friday — but the man who would have bumped bodies with Shaq declared himself saddened by his absence. Said Zaza Pachulia, speaking before tipoff: “I’d like to play as much as possible against the biggest and toughest player in the world.”
Putting aside his personal sorrow, Pachulia then addressed the larger matter. “This,” he said, “is a big game for us.” Who was the last Hawks player who could utter those words with a straight face? Dikembe Mutombo? Dominque Wilkins? Bob Pettit?
It should come as no shock that, even without O’Neal, the team that knows something about big games overcame the team that has glimpsed them only on flat-panel TVs. The Heat won in overtime, winning because they had Dwyane Wade — 37 points, nine assists — and the Hawks didn’t. (It hardly seems fair that, with all those lottery picks, the Hawks have been unable to pluck a Wade of their own.)
Wade notwithstanding, the Hawks had their opportunities. They led by five points in the fourth quarter but wasted a slew of chances to put the tiring visitors away. (Most egregiously, Josh Smith failed to score on back-to-back fast breaks.) They even took a three-point lead in OT, whereupon Wade hit a step-back trey to tie it and fed Jason Williams in the corner for a lasting lead.
Same old story, right? Champs make plays and lottery teams don’t, right? Well, sort of. Coach Mike Woodson took that approach, saying, “They outworked us down the stretch. … We made plays in the first five games, and now we’ve got to get back to making plays.”
And yet … and yet …
A 72-second stand at the end of regulation dropped the hint that this moribund franchise might at last be stirring.
With the game tied, the Hawks had to survive four Heat misses linked by three offensive rebounds. We can fault the Hawks for not rebounding — Woodson surely did — but we should praise them for keeping their defensive shape over that excruciating span, for preventing the wondrous Wade from getting to the rim, for forcing all those shots — one by Wade, three by Antoine Walker — to be jump shots.
Even if this game was lost and even if the Hawks are no longer above .500, those 72 seconds constituted progress for the team that has miles to go. The Hawks didn’t get the rebound they needed, but they got four stops on one possession by the NBA champs. The Hawks of old might have managed one.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
A Southern classic no more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Some things are just not like they used to be.
Times change, but things don’t change with them. Take the Georgia Tech-Duke football series, which just happens to be a matter of the moment. These two have been butting skulls since the V-8 Ford and the repeal of prohibition. For a long time, it was a Southern classic. The stakes were high, for back when a bowl game was a bowl game, that was what they played for.
One year, Georgia Tech knocked Duke out of a trip to the Rose Bowl. That’s how big it was.
Then things began to unravel. Somebody let the air out of football at Duke and the Cameron Crazies took over. The campground outside that old stone basketball museum draws a bigger crowd in season than a game in Wallace Wade Stadium. On the other hand, take the game at old Grant Field, now sharing its name with Bobby Dodd, Saturday afternoon.
Duke was in town. Played in Durham, it would have drawn between 15,000-20,000, about the average for a football crowd at Duke these days. Here in Atlanta, it drew 46,768, which wasn’t a full house, but it did verify that football still lives and has a good pulse at Georgia Tech. It wasn’t the game, it was the habit. Saturday afternoons in the fall are to be spent in Bobby Dodd Stadium, when the Yellow Jackets are in full buzz.
Since 1983, Duke has been able to beat Georgia Tech only five times, only twice in the past 15 years. The game goes on. It’s a tradition, though wearing down to the tread. So it wasn’t the match that drew the crowd, it was the prosperity football is enjoying on The Flats this season. You get the idea when you realize that at the end not a lot more than the 768 part of the crowd was still in place. Actually, what they were getting was more a preview of coming attractions than a football game.
The Blue Devils were ahead one time during the day. They won the coin toss, then dang if they didn’t decide to give the ball to Tech. They got it right back when Reggie Ball tried to pass to Calvin Johnson. The ball was tipped and Duke’s sport-model defensive back, John Talley, intercepted.
So much for that hot streak, though. Tech would dedicate the first half to the talents of Johnson, who caught five passes, was interfered with on another (no call), and retired with 78 yards and two touchdowns on his scroll. You got the usual out of the rest of the Tech offense: 118 rushing yards from Tashard Choice, seven completions and three touchdowns from Ball and a booming 48-yard average punting performance out of Durant Brooks, who has come on like a secret weapon.
Without any trace of tomfoolery, Chan Gailey turned the second half over to a bunch of guys you won’t be seeing in Athens next week, but a lot of next season. The Tech coach turned the offense over to Taylor Bennett in the second half, and should have been moderately pleased with how the left-hander came through. Six out of 12 completions, two for touchdowns, and one quick-witted saving reaction on a fumble that aroused the thinning crowd to applause. The two touchdowns were shagged by Greg Smith, a redshirt freshman out of Douglass High. Hm-m-m, a star is born?
It was that kind of second half, names and numbers sounding out over the public address system that were strange to the gallery. Another of note was Jamaal Evans, a real live freshman out of Texas, who got in enough action to bank 89 yards, and promises to give Choice some special support down the road.
The score, 49-21, was immaterial, about what was to be expected. Surely nothing like that game in Durham three years ago, when the Blue Devils blew the Yellow Jackets off the map, one of those unfathomable upsets. Just another day in the office of Chan Gailey, on this season of rehabilitation. No matter what happens in Athens next Saturday, this team will play for the conference championship in Jacksonville, and they can’t take that away from them.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC
Thrashers’ Havelid plays through pain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
She did what mothers do. Fed him, clothed him, supported him. She drove him to games and practices, hockey in the winter, soccer in the summer. She watched as her “Nic” was drafted into the NHL, became one of the league’s top defensemen and then represented Sweden in the Olympics in Turin. When he returned to Stockholm for a victory parade, she held the gold medal.
“I was glad she had a chance to see that,” Niclas Havelid said Friday. “The Olympics was big for them. My parents couldn’t be there, but they watched it on TV, and they were at the parade. Whenever you win something for your country, that’s big in Sweden. Everybody follows it.”
Birgitta Havelid died less than two weeks ago. She had battled skin cancer for three years. Thrashers teammates and officials weren’t even aware she was ill until her condition suddenly worsened and Havelid asked coach Bob Hartley if he could return to be with her. He is a quiet player, a private person and consistent, almost robotic, on the ice. He never gave any indication something was wrong.
“He’s the kind of guy who, whenever he comes to you, it must be something major,” Hartley said. “He’s basically maintenance free. Nic does his own thing. If you don’t look for him, you won’t see him.”
The great athletes have the ability to compartmentalize. They can shut out distractions and operate as if life is normal, sometimes even amid personal tragedy. How Havelid has functioned is beyond normal.
He left the team Nov. 1 to return to his hometown of Enköping, about 40 minutes outside of Stockholm. He spent time with his parents and brother. He was in the hospital when Birgitta passed. He missed four games, rejoined the team for a Nov. 8 home game against Ottawa and led the Thrashers in ice time (26 minutes) and blocked four shots in a 5-4 win over the Senators.
Friday’s game against Dallas at Philips Arena was his fourth game back. Tonight in Montreal will be his fifth. Then he’ll return to Sweden, attend his mother’s funeral and rejoin the club in Tampa, having missed only one game.
“It was a tough week when I went back, but my mom would have wanted me to get back to the normal routine as quick as possible,” Havelid said.
“Even though it’s hard, it’s the best way to get back. I have my family back here, so I had to get back to them too.”
Saint Birgitta (or St. Bridget) of Sweden was said to be the most celebrated saint in the Northern kingdoms. She also believed herself to be a mystic, having conversations with God, the angels and the dead.
Birgitta Havelid did not seem so outerworldly to Havelid, just saint-like. “She was always around and took care of us,” he said. “Whatever we did, she was behind us. She made you feel good inside.”
The Thrashers remain a defensively inconsistent team. That was evident early Friday night, when breakdowns led to an early 3-1 deficit that resulted in a 5-3 loss to the Stars. But their most consistent player on the blue line is Havelid. He logs the most playing time on the team, averaging nearly 27 minutes (seventh in the league). He leads the team in plus-minus (the differential in a team’s even-strength goals scored for and against while a player is on the ice).
He was a plus-one Friday on a night the team lost.
“He never changes,” Hartley said. “You see him in the morning before practice, and he’s on the bike. Then he works on his stick. He stretches. Everything is a routine. It’s why he’s so consistent.”
It’s why Hartley said he was so “shocked” when Havelid approached him after a practice.
“Everybody was gone,” Hartley said. “I’m sure he must have walked around the building 10 times before coming to us. I told him to take as much time as he needed.”
He will play tonight in Montreal, then leave Sunday.
When he returns after the funeral, he will play as if nothing happened.
“I know it was the right decision to go back,” he said. “I’m glad I made it home in time to see her. But it’s time to move on.”
Permalink | | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Gifted freshmen rekindle dreams at Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The last time Georgia Tech had two freshmen this talented, nothing good came of it. Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack arrived at the Flats and saw a season of vast promise go utterly flat. The Jackets of 2002-03 wound up in the no-account NIT and Bosh wound up leaving after one collegiate season, and to this day Paul Hewitt rues the missed opportunity.
“That team,” he said Thursday after his latest team beat Georgia State 103-74, “was good enough to do some great things.”
So is this team, which is similarly headed by two freshmen of immense gifts. Javaris Crittenton is a point guard on the exalted order of Jack, only more polished offensively. Thaddeus Young is more a small forward than Bosh, who was primarily a post player, but Young is like Bosh in that he scores almost effortlessly. For the Jackets to go places this season, the rookies have to light the way.
But there’s more to it than that. Hewitt learned as much four years ago, and he’s teaching the lesson now. Two freshmen can’t take a team anywhere worthwhile if the veterans aren’t willing to ride along. Meaning: No griping about the ballyhooed new guys getting all the ink and all the shots.
“Our shot selection was a little curious in the second half tonight,” Hewitt said, and at first this sounded like a demanding coach looking for nits to pick. (Tech did, after all, lead by 28 at halftime and by 41 with 10 minutes left.) But then Hewitt summoned a darker memory.
Dec. 15, 2002: Tech was playing Tennessee in Philips Arena and had the game all but won. Inside the final 10 seconds a Jackets player took a rebound and, with Bosh and Jack open down the floor, “held onto the ball so he could get fouled,” Hewitt said.
Asked to identify the player, Hewitt declined. But it will come as no surprise to anyone who watched that season disintegrate that the player was Ed Nelson, who had such issues with Bosh that he transferred to Connecticut even after Bosh had declared for the NBA.
Nelson held the ball, got fouled, missed a pair. Tech lost on a last-second heave from midcourt. “That Tennessee game sunk the season,” Hewitt said.
Nothing of the sort has happened to these Jackets, not that the first three games were any measure. Said Young: “The games we’re playing now, we’re supposed to win. I’m looking forward to the games where we’re underdogs, games against Duke and North Carolina, to see what ACC and NCAA basketball is like.”
Chances are, Young will be pleased by what he finds. He and Crittenton can play for anybody, against anybody. What’s needed is for some incumbents to accept lesser (but still essential) roles. What’s needed is for juniors Ra’Sean Dickey and Anthony Morrow, to pick two names, not to worry about scoring points but about winning games.
“When we first came in, there was some disagreement with each other,” said Young, speaking of the reception by the older Jackets. “But we’ve found out we had to play together. Or we could have been upset [tonight].”
The Jackets weren’t upset Thursday. They played together quite nicely. Crittenton scored all 18 of his points in the first half and contented himself with distribution thereafter. Young scored 12 second-half points on only five second-half shots.
“They make plays that are almost indefensible,” said GSU coach Michael Perry. And then: “This [Tech] team is as good or better than the team that went to the [2004] Final Four.”
That team was led by Jack but was without Bosh (and, not incidentally, without Nelson). That team had less talent than its immediate predecessor but a much happier mesh. If these Jackets can find anything approximating that sort of internal bliss, they’ll be playing deep into March. And not in the no-account NIT.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Falcons fall again; Jackets win quietly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Defining the greatest rivalries depends largely on where you slurp ‘n burp. This became apparent when I learned the London Observer listed Fischer-Spassky as No. 1, followed closely by India-Pakistan cricket. Somehow, the dweebs did not include my more obvious choices of Ali-Frazier, Batman-Joker and Kate Walsh-Selma Hayek, which I guess isn’t so much a rivalry as it is a slow-motion mudwrestling match on an endless loop in my head.
Some rivalries are balanced. Not so with Deer vs. Deer Hunters. The hunters have seemed better prepared for the “dangers” of the “sport” after being reminded that most of last year’s hunting accidents were self-inflicted gunshot wounds, which sort of makes sense since the deer never seem to have their AK-47s with them.
There was the boy who shot his uncle, I guess because he thought that mole on the man’s head was an antler.
Fortunately, deer in Michigan and Ohio are safe Saturday. There’s the major distraction of a football game between rivalries who almost never shoot each other.
In short, Michigan and Ohio State both are really good. They’re the two best teams in the country, albeit that conflicts with SEC bylaws. Only two individuals separate these teams: 1) Buckeyes QB Troy Smith (26 TDs, four INTs); 2) coach Jim Tressel, who is 4-1 against the Wolverines. His predecessor, John Cooper, was 2-10-1. They’re still looking for the body.
The line is 7. Not too much for Bambi vs. Winchester. Too much for these two. Buckeyes win but won’t cover.
FIVE PACKS Pros, Cons The Birds: Watched practiced the other day. Two players ran into each other. So in case that happens again in Baltimore and you’re wondering, “Why is it Falcons players always run into each other?” well, it turns out they practice that sort of thing. Hey look, I only have to give 4 1/2 points! Ravens cover.
Colts at Cowboys: Tony Romo is dating Jessica Simpson. All that tells me is he’s closer to being in her league than Peyton Manning’s. Indy only has to cover 1, and will.
Redskins at Bucs: With Clinton Portis out, T.J. Duckett becomes Washington’s starting running back, prompting Joe Gibbs to say: “He’s 260 pounds, so I think he’d be a good pass protector.” OK. It’s officially time for Joe to say bye-bye. Bucs cover 3.
Chargers at Broncos: San Diego scored 42 points in the second half last week to beat Cincinnati, 49-41, setting up a really big game with Denver. So: Marty Schottenheimer. Big game. Where have you gone, Earnest Byner? Denvers covers 2 1/2.
Raiders at Chiefs: Randy Moss says he’s dropping passes because he’s not happy. Funny. I thought that’s what paychecks were for. K.C. covers 9 1/2.
Institutions
Duke at Tech: The Jackets will play four more games. This ranks fourth in importance. Shouldn’t the hobbled Reggie Ball be iced? It would increase the chance he’ll overthrow only seven receivers in Athens instead of 12. Tech wins. But gimme the 27 and Duke.
Va-Tech at Wake Forest: Last week Wake was an underdog to FSU, which was three games worse in the standings, but won 30-0 in Tallahassee. This week, it’s an underdog in a home game to the Hokeys. These lines must be the wishful thinking from ACC TV executives. But what the hay: Va-Tech wins and covers 2.
Roll (Over) Tide: Auburn-Alabama used to be a pretty good rivalry. Now it’s just the Green Mile for the ‘Bama coach. Mike Shula is 0-3 in this game. One more loss and he gets a set of steak knives. Auburn is coming off the Georgia debacle. Duck. Tigers cover 3.
Western Mich. at FSU: Offensive uncoordinator Jeff Bowden will get a $537,500 buyout on top of his $141,000 salary through August. So I’m assuming this means if he had actually directed a touchdown drive last week, he would’ve been given the Bahamas? Yikes. Pays to know daddy. ‘Noles cover 16.
Tropical Depressions at Virginia: Miami actually needs a win to become bowl eligible, which is to assume the parole board approves the travel. ‘Canes cover 3.
BOO CHIP INDICATORS
Last week: Not quite perfect.
Specifically: 5-3 straight up, 2-6 (ugh) against the line.
Annual report: 63-35 straight up, 47-50-1 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Tech won’t lose to Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I’ll admit it. The scores from last Saturday — Tech 7, Carolina 0 and Georgia 37, Auburn 15 — gave me pause. I’ve thought all along (and by all along I mean going back to the summer) that the Jackets will beat the Bulldogs. But now Georgia finally beats somebody and Tech barely beats nobody, and what did that do to my prediction?
After some (but not all that much) internal debate, here’s the answer: Nothing.
I still think Tech will win.
This isn’t one of those throw-out-the-record-book rivalries. In GT-vs.-UGA, there aren’t many out-of-the-blue upsets. Of the Jackets’ last four victories in the series, all have come when the Jackets were already ranked. And every single time a ranked Tech team has played an unranked Georgia team — according to the Jackets’ media guide, it has happened nine times, the first in 1943 — Tech has won the game.
I know they’re playing in Athens, but that doesn’t matter, either. Over the last 50 years, Tech has won as many times (seven) in Sanford Stadium as in Atlanta. This, in sum, is a series where there’s only one determinant: Is Tech really good? This year it is.
Hartwell a lot of talk, few tackles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Flowery Branch — The Falcons have played 25 games since signing Ed Hartwell to a $26.5 million contract, and he has played in only seven of them. Now, that might seem like a bad investment. But imagine the team’s financial ruin if there wasn’t health insurance to cover the cost of the four surgeries it has taken to fix his Achilles and two knees.
“Sometimes,” Hartwell said Wednesday, “you’ve got to go through a storm to see the rainbow.”
Somebody needs to get this man back on the football field before he starts reciting poetry.
The Falcons are a mess. They’re a declining 5-4. Or as coach Jim Mora probably would prefer: They have five victories and four reasons to rejoice over adversity. Their defense has been so wrecked by injuries that the sight of John Abraham lightly jogging in sweats Wednesday, free of a walker, was cause for a pep rally.
Hartwell hasn’t been a player so much as he has been a WebMD graphic. He suffered a torn Achilles in the fifth game last year, required secret arthroscopic knee surgery in the offseason, then reported to training camp and developed more knee problems that required both getting cleaned out.
Free agents don’t come with money-back guarantees. But Hartwell didn’t seem to need one. In Baltimore, he was rarely injured and played through pain when he was, starting 46 of 48 games.
Nobody can sum up Hartwell’s frustration better than Hartwell: “It’s murder not playing. It’s murder not being able to move like I used to. When my knees were swelling, that was murder. Your mind is telling your legs what to do, but the swelling won’t allow that. I’ve been grinding for a year and a half. Wake up at 6. Don’t get done with treatment until 10. Practice. Doctors, doctors, doctors.”
Hartwell missed the past two games after returning for two, but he says his knees feel better than they have in awhile and there’s a chance he might play this week. Nice timing: The Falcons play the Ravens. Ironically, if you were trying to find Hartwell in practice Wednesday, he was wearing a green mesh No. 52 jersey on the scout team — in the role of Ray Lewis.
Hartwell said when he played for the Ravens, people tried to cast him as the lesser half of a teacher-student relationship with Lewis. Clearly, it’s a perception he resents. The more he talked, the more he suggested that Lewis’ status as the leader of a Super Bowl defense was partly the residual of great timing.
Quote: “A lot of people have talked about him teaching me. But we’re football players. You come into the league already knowing how to play football. Did I learn some things from him? I don’t know. You know what I mean? Honestly, I knew how to play football before I got there. I knew how to hit a fullback. He was just a good player who I played next to.
“I don’t take anything from him. He was just there before me. If I was there before him, it would’ve been the Ed Hartwell Show.”
So much for low-keying things.
When asked if he felt he played in Lewis’ shadow, Hartwell said: “I didn’t feel there was a shadow because when I was in Baltimore, I made my plays. I had 140, 190 tackles a year. I had stats. There was just a linebacker that was good that was there before I was there. If it was a shadow, I wouldn’t have been the free agent that I was.”
Rich McKay, the Falcons’ general manager, said he signed Hartwell because he liked his “toughness,” particularly against the run. But injuries have kept him as little more than a name on paper. There’s a prevailing feeling that his knee problems stem from the Achilles injury, which prevents any sort of lower body training or conditioning until it’s healed. Hartwell said when he came back, “I wasn’t as flexible or as strong. … Maybe it threw my hips out of joint.”
The only certainty: It hasn’t been the “Ed Hartwell Show” in Atlanta. There’s been too much doc talk and too few tackles. And something’s wrong when a middle linebacker is talking about rainbows.
Permalink | Comments (93) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
There’s a method to Knight’s “madness”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
There are a few things you should know about Bob Knight and his latest “controversy” involving the most overrated slap (if that’s what it was) in history.
First, when you agree to play for the guy, you know what you’re going to get, and it isn’t the Mister Rogers of college basketball coaches. Second, neither the Texas Tech player who was slapped (if that’s what it was) by Knight nor his parents had a problem with whatever Knight did.
Here’s the third and biggest thing: Knight rarely is out of control.
I’m serious. After covering Indiana University basketball during the late 1970s for the Cincinnati Enquirer, it became clear to me that, more often than not, Knight knows exactly what he’s doing in the midst of his so-called “controversies.”
Those “controversies” often are about Knight sending a message to his players, to the opposing team or to the officials.
Once, I was at Assembly Hall for a Big Ten game that featured a struggling Indiana team and the crowd chanting a vulgarity at the officials. Knight rushed to the scorer’s table (I don’t even think he called a timeout), grabbed the microphone and yelled to the crowd to, well, uh, stifle.
There was dead silence. Everybody was stunned by what Knight did and said. Then Indiana sprinted to victory.
Afterward, there were the usual “Knight is out of control” comments, but you know what? Knight had controlled the crowd and spurred his team onto a win.
The only thing more overrated than The Slap (if that’s what it was) for Knight was The Chair. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t turn into a white-haired King Kong 21 years ago by throwing that chair at Assembly Hall. He slid it across the floor toward a harmless spot.
So much for Pscyho Bobby, at least in that situation.
Make that in most situations.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Doling out love taps
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: Reason No. 5,437 why the decline of Western Civilization can be tied to ESPN: I watched the ESPN replay - make that replays - of Bobby Knight “slapping” one of his Texas Tech players during a timeout. The network showed it multiple times from multiple angles in succession. What is this? The Zapruder film?
9: No, this is not meant to be a defense of Knight, although it goes without saying this has and will receive far more attention because it involved Knight. But Godfrey Daniels! Judging by the reaction, you would have thought Knight threw a right hook, not lightly slapped a kid on the chin who wasn’t looking him in the eye during a lecture.
8: No, I don’t condone coaches slapping players. But players who signed with Texas Tech - and the parents who approved of the decision - knew what they were getting with Knight. If the kid doesn’t have a problem with it, and the parents don’t have a problem with it, I don’t have a problem with it.
7: Bobby Knight: Meet Greg Knapp.
6: Maybe there is hope. I read the other day that SI.com is one of the least viewed sports sites on the Internet. I went to it went Tuesday and found five separate links to swimsuit models on the front page, including one with a picture of a hot blonde - if you’re into that sort of thing - with the headline: “Take HER With YOU.” The link sends you to a page allowing you TO download cellphone wallpapers or videos of various Barbies. Also, you can instant message them. I can tell by the shot of “May Anderson daydreaming” she’s just waiting for a big strapping columnist to contact her.
5: Bobby Knight: slap me.
4: If I’m Arthur Blank, I’m guessing a team that’s 5-4 and dropping engine parts on the road is not a great backdrop for a campaign for a new stadium.
3: Saw a picture of Matthew Stafford in the paper on page five. His helmet already has 21 “dog bones” on it. I think Mark Richt gives them out when a player does something right. Does that include breathing?
2: Said it before: The Braves could do worse than bring back Tom Glavine. But don’t expect it to happen. Glavine’s rejection of an option year is to create negotiating leverage with the Mets. He’ll be back in New York, unless he really wants to sign for a massive discount so he can live year round in Alpharetta.
1: The Hawks are on a pace to finish 55-27. Then we can all ride our unicorns to the first playoff game. Slap me.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Mora runs a poorly coached team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Flowery Branch — A coach can handle consecutive losses to patently inferior opposition in one of two ways: He can go all rah-rah, or he can give the timeworn your-jobs-are-on-the-line speech. Jim Mora has chosen to accentuate the positive, saying Monday: “A lot of people would say the ship is sinking, but I don’t. I love it. … We’re going to fight.”
And maybe that’s the way, even after egregious outings against Detroit and Cleveland, he really feels. Then again, maybe Mora isn’t taking the vocational-security tack because he knows the job on the line is his.
Arthur Blank didn’t pay to assemble a band of scrappers. He and Rich McKay built this gifted team to win big. Blank in July: “We have a sense of urgency to do better now. … Our offseason moves aren’t indicative that we’re [building for some far-off future].”
Yet here the Falcons sit, 5-4 with a team that seems to play a different way every Sunday. Sometimes the pass defense fails (Pittsburgh, Detroit). Other times it’s the run defense (New York). Sometimes the Falcons can’t throw (New York, Detroit). Other times they can (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati). Sometimes they even throw too much (Cleveland).
We’ve asked this before, but after nine oscillating outings, there seems only one answer. Q: What are the Falcons? A: Not particularly well coached.
Mora won 18 of his first 26 games, a bright young thing who’d hit the ground running. But the Falcons are 7-10 since, and more and more Mora and his staff seem incapable of fitting resources to scheme. There’ll come a game that appears a great leap forward — Blank described Vick’s passing against Cincinnati as “a breakthrough” — but gains are never consolidated. The weeks roll on and the Falcons keep alternating assured performances with addled ones, and that’s a function (or a dysfunction) of coaching.
“We all need a little adversity to find out what we’re all about,” Mora said Monday, but the man paying Mora’s salary might see this latest dip differently. At 7-2, the Falcons would be alone in second place in the NFC and staring at a first-round bye. Instead they’re no lock to pluck even the last wild-card spot.
Mora: “We’re right in the thick of this thing. … We’re in a dogfight.” Indeed, he used the word “dogfight” at least a half-dozen times, and he closed his address with “Fight on.” (Sort of like Dan Rather signing off with “Courage.”) Of his team’s injuries, Mora said: “We’ll fight to the bitter end with whoever’s standing. And we’d better fight. If I don’t see a guy fighting, he might not be playing.”
Might not?
Perhaps Mora’s men will respond to his gentle urging. But after last season’s collapse and the Falcons’ mood swings of the past five weeks, it’s reasonable to wonder if they still believe in this coach and his coordinators. Say what you will about Dan Reeves, but his teams played pretty much the same way every time. For reasons unclear, Mora’s 2006 team has a fainter signature than in his giddy inaugural season, and these Falcons are more talented than in their run to the NFC championship game.
It’s possible Mora could survive another non-playoff finish. (The rash of injuries, Patrick Kerney’s being the latest, might buy him another season, although Blank fired Reeves the year Michael Vick broke his leg.) It’s also possible the owner might decide to cut his accumulating losses and start anew.
And surely Blank has to be looking toward Chicago and wondering if Lovie Smith, whom the Falcons interviewed, wasn’t the better choice. The Bears under Smith lost 11 of their first 16 games but have won 19 of 26 since, and nobody could watch that ferocious team today and say it isn’t well coached.
Permalink | Comments (225) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Falcons don’t play hard or smart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Jim Mora had another one of those my-guys-would-run-through-a-brick-wall speeches Sunday. It’s sort of the coach’s version of a quarterback checking down to his third option.
A coach can’t always say, “We’re really good.” Or, “We’re really smart.” So he falls back on, “We won’t lay down. We won’t quit.”
You know. Just in case you thought a few guys might pass on their next seven paychecks.
The Falcons have lost consecutive games to two teams, Detroit and Cleveland, that were a combined 3-12 before kickoff. Fortunately, NFL player contracts are not incentive-laden. Otherwise, owner Arthur Blank would seem to be building a pretty strong fraud case.
“These were two teams obviously we should have beaten,” Blank said.
Sometimes an owner also feels the need to check down to his secondary remarks, when he probably would prefer to drive a truck through the next team meeting.
It’s only November. Is it nap time already?
Because of an inordinate number of injuries, the Falcons have little margin for error. But for the second consecutive week, they walked onto the field and all but uttered, “You are not worthy.”
Now, it’s true that most NFL teams can get away with that against the Lions and Browns. But the Falcons aren’t one of them. They don’t compensate for their deficiencies by wearing teams down. They don’t play smart. They don’t play hard — certainly not over four quarters.
When you’re missing bodies on the field, you can’t afford to be missing a head or a pulse. But that’s where the Falcons are.
Warrick Dunn said of the Browns, “They played hard for 60 minutes.”
And the Falcons?
“We played hard for a half. Unfortunately.”
When a team official walked toward the media huddle. Dunn started to change his tune. “Guys played hard. We just didn’t execute.”
You decide which quote was more truthful.
Mora called the NFL “a humbling league.” But if the Falcons needed to be humbled after the Lions game, the problems are even bigger than we imagined.
They’re not a particularly well-coached bunch, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. The Falcons had far more passing plays (41) than rushing plays (29) against a Cleveland defense that ranked 29th against the run.
In the third quarter, they had a fourth-and-1 on the Browns’ 31. But rather than call for a run by Michael Vick or Dunn, offensive coordinator Greg Knapp had Vick step back and throw into the end zone for Alge Crumpler. The pass was intercepted.
“We took a shot,” said Mora.
Which would be fine if this was a well-functioning offense with a consistent quarterback. But it isn’t, and he isn’t. Vick finished 16-for-40 with one touchdown. He also had two interceptions and a game-clinching fumble at the Browns’ 28 with 2:18 left. In the two games since throwing seven touchdown passes against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Vick is 33-for-72 with two TDs and six turnovers.
“I take full responsibility on the offensive side of the ball,” Vick said.
When there are holes everywhere, Vick needs to be the equalizer. He hasn’t been. But there are too many problems to put this on one player, even if he is the franchise centerpiece.
Last season the Falcons didn’t fall apart until the second half. This year, cracks started showing in week 3 at New Orleans.
They started 2-0. They are 3-4 since. That’s not a blip. That’s an identity.
They fell behind 14-0 to a 2-6 team after losing 30-14 to a 1-6 team. That’s not something that can be fixed with a cute little speech or a pat on the back or a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. When a team stumbles out of the blocks against a bad team after being humiliated by another bad team the week before, there are issues deeper than injuries.
Mora: “Shoot, life’s not fun unless you have a little adversity. What the heck? Who wants it easy all the time? Maybe some people do, but I don’t.”
Right, pity the Indianapolis Colts at 9-0.
He continued: “We’re 5-4 with seven more chances to fight and win. It’s going to be an awesome thing when it’s all done.”
But Mora sounds like a man selling tonics from a wagon. Because at 5-4 with seven games left, maybe his team is already done.
Permalink | Comments (238) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Grading the Falcons at midseason
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
PASS DEFENSE: F
The good news is they don’t have the NFL’s worst pass defense. The bad news is only an average of .6 yards separate them from Green Bay at the bottom. You can blame the lack of a pass rush and schematic problems, but mostly it’s been horrible play by the secondary. Is there anything lower than an F? Grade F
DeANGELO HALL: B-
He’s always around the ball and a fight. The former is why he sits in a tie for the third-most interceptions with four. The latter is why he gets a slew of penalties. If you take away the one-shoed Hines Ward beating the NFL’s fastest man to the end zone, he has been nearly as efficient as his tongue.. Grade B–
WIDE RECEIVERS: D-
Of the NFL’s top 32 players in receiving yards, none is a Falcons player. What a surprise. The Falcons receivers have been spectacular, but only when it comes to dropped passes. They had eight last week. It doesn’t help their efforts that Michael Vick continues to run, often for his life. D–
MICHAEL VICK: B
His biggest problem has been receivers that act like they are allergic to the ball. He showed against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati that he can pass. He still can run, too. He has more rushing yards than Jamal Lewis, Clinton Portis and Edgerrin James. B
RUNNING GAME: A+
Jerious Norwood is one of the NFL’s most dangerous runners, but he barely can get on the field. Blame it on some guy named Warrick Dunn, only the NFL’s most underrated superstar. It also helps the rushing attack that Michael Vick is the NFL’s most prolific running quarterback. They’ve led the league in rushing during each of the two previous years. A+
COACHING/MANAGEMENT: C
They have adjusted well. The kicking game was awful and they found 46-year-young Morten Andersen, and they’ve shown a willingness to tweak the offense. None of the recent big-splash pickups (John Abraham, Ed Hartwell, Roddy White, Jimmy Williams) is helping much — or at all. C
OVERALL GRADE: B- The Falcons at the midway point are a decent 5-3, but they’ve yet to beat a team that currently has a winning record. They have shown they can win close games (Steelers, Bengals), but when they lose, they REALLY lose (Saints, Giants, Lions). Don’t purchase Super Bowl tickets just yet, but keep your calendar clear for at least a week after the regular season. B–
Permalink | Comments (48) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Bulldogs get off the deck
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Auburn, Ala. — It wasn’t as if Georgia under Mark Richt had lacked definition. For four seasons it was the class of the SEC, a program moving from strength to strength. But what happened here Saturday served to redefine the Bulldogs. At the weakest moment of Richt’s tenure, his flimsiest team showed it was still strong where it mattered.
Strong of heart.
Strong of will.
Strong enough to crush the nation’s No. 5 team a week after losing to a school so unaccustomed to beating Georgia that its fans razed one set of goalposts.
Four years after standing under the Jordan-Hare Stadium bleachers and reflecting on the first pinnacle of his stewardship — the epic comeback that clinched the 2002 SEC East title — Richt stood in the same room and spoke of a victory that accomplished less but maybe meant more. “Considering people’s perception of what was happening in the program, it’s huge,” Richt said. “It’s one of the games most important to me personally.”
An audience accustomed to seeing Georgia win had watched the Bulldogs lose as many games in the course of five weeks as it had in the worst of Richt’s first five seasons. The audience was flummoxed and frustrated, as were the Bulldogs themselves. Said Richt: “We didn’t know how to act, except to try and act in a first-class manner.”
Sometimes class and resolve coalesce at the most improbable moment. Sometimes a team that barely made a single play over those five weeks will, for no real reason, begin to make plays hand over fist. Georgia’s first-half performance against an opponent of this stature would have been a wonder in any season, but coming a week after losing to Kentucky it beggared belief.
Matthew Stafford completed more passes in the first 10 minutes than Auburn’s Brandon Cox did in four quarters. The offensive line blocked with an oomph heretofore missing. Georgia had three touchdowns before Auburn got its fourth first down. Safety Tra Battle caught more of Cox’s throws in the first half than all Tigers players combined.
“Last week was as low as we could get,” Battle said. “But we told each other this week that we had one another’s back, and when we do that we’re unstoppable.”
Auburn still hasn’t stopped Stafford, who on this blustery day justified the massive hype. Georgia’s infamously ham-handed receivers turned into latter-day Swanns and Stallworths. (“The real receiving corps is what you see now,” said Kenneth Harris, who made the prettiest catch of all.) The defensive front shoved the Tigers backward and afforded Cox no time to find anyone save Battle.
“In my mind, it’s the sweetest victory I’ve ever had,” said defensive tackle Ray Gant, who sacked Cox on Auburn’s first snap. “I’m not looking at anything in the past. I’m only looking at the future.”
And suddenly Georgia’s future looks not nearly so bleak as in the week just past. Turns out the Bulldogs can play after all — they just, to date, hadn’t. Turns out Richt and his staff haven’t forgotten how to coach. Turns out there’s life (and much, much pride) left in the Red & Black.
“The No. 1 thing was that we didn’t quit,” said Willie Martinez, whose defense limited to Auburn to 171 yards. “You can’t pull off something like this if you’re not a team.”
Nor can a program spring such a thumping upset if it has ceased to be a program of resources and belief. This won’t go down as Richt’s best season, but in the grand scheme it could be his most important. Success teaches us something about a man; how he responds to failure teaches us more.
We learned four years ago that Richt was shrewd enough to take a program to the top, and we learned Saturday that he and his Bulldogs are stout enough to rescue a season gone bad. Georgia can’t win the SEC this year, but Georgia will win it again soon under this remarkable coach.
“This is about as good as I’ve felt in a long time,” said Richt, who earned every measure of his sweet relief.
Permalink | Comments (106) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Tech’s win like lipstick on a pig
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Chapel Hill, N.C. — There is a good thing about already having two losses in November: There’s no need to worry about statement games. Voters aren’t really watching. Computer rankings don’t matter as much. The BCS — it’s all about formula.
When a team has evolved into something significantly north of normal but south of elite, it’s not about style points anymore. And when the offense is managing only seven points against a team that allowed 42 to Furman and 37 to South Florida, feel good that it’s not about style points.
Feel good that when Georgia Tech lands in Jacksonville for the ACC title game, there will be no blockade with security agents saying, “Sorry, but we’ve just learned you only defeated North Carolina 7-0. Please go home now.”
“We got the victory — not the way we wanted it or expected it, but we got it,” center Kevin Tuminello said Saturday. “Luckily, we got it.”
A malnourished 7-0 victory over the worst defensive team in the ACC cemented Tech’s Coastal Division title and a berth in the conference championship game. But the lack of any sort of public celebration afterward fairly well captured the moment.
The Jackets will have a chance to win their first outright conference title since 1990. They will have a chance to go to a real bowl with a real name that you don’t need Mapquest to find. They even can finish in the top 10.
But the way they played Saturday, they won’t reach the Orange Bowl.
They won’t win the ACC title game.
They won’t beat Georgia.
They won’t beat Duke.
OK. They’ll beat Duke.
But what happened Saturday screamed what they are:
North of normal.
South of elite.
Yes, there was so much to celebrate Saturday. It was the season’s eighth win, four games to go. In four previous years, coach Chan Gailey kept hitting his head on the ceiling after seven.
It elevated Tech to 6-1, likely going on 7-1, in the ACC. This comes after the program figured to get dwarfed by the conference’s expansion to Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.
But please: Somebody burn the films from this one.
“It’s not your worst fear — your worst fear is not winning,” Gailey said when asked about projections of a letdown against a 1-9 team that already has fired its coach. “You keep trying to tell the players how talented they are, how physical they are, and it was true today. They were physical. They were tough.”
They were helped.
The Tar Heels are so bad that their defense had posted only four shutout quarters all season — until getting three more Saturday. They had been allowing 34 points per game. Opposing quarterbacks had a 150.7 efficiency rating. Somebody should have told Reggie Ball, who was 10-for-24 with an interception, rendering Tech’s X-factor, Calvin Johnson, a non-factor.
In the postgame, we heard about how North Carolina played hard, how no game in the ACC is easy, how “hot” it was.
OK, first of all: The temperature at kickoff was 73 degrees. Maybe it got up to 80. For November, it was hot. For Juno, it was hot. But it wasn’t Death Valley.
As for the Tar Heels, any team that has lost 40 out of 57 games over the past five years has issues. Bad teams can play hard. But they’re still bad.
It was homecoming in Chapel Hill. The masses were elsewhere. You could connect the dots in the stands. Butch Davis will draw more fans at his introductory news conference. So much for intimidating surroundings.
The Jackets’ defense was solid. It also got lucky. Twice the Heels were driving for apparent scores in the first half. Twice their quarterback, Joe Dailey, made horrendous throws in the red zone and was intercepted on consecutive possessions.
Somehow, Tech made a second-quarter touchdown stand up.
“It means we get to go to Jacksonville and have the opportunity to win the ACC championship,” Gailey said.
And he stopped there.
Wise choice.
Permalink | Comments (72) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Inner voice, ugly wins extend Holyfield’s quest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Antonio — With apologies to Fres Oquendo, who dedicated Friday night’s heavyweight bout in the Alamodome to his recently deceased mother-in-law, and to the Blues Brothers, who spoke of following heavenly voices, Evander Holyfield is the dude on a mission from God.
So says Holyfield. I might say something else after watching the former champ often look older than Methuselah, Moses and their grandparents, but I’m not Holyfield. Not only is he the owner of boxing shorts with Bible verses, but he is religiously in pursuit of becoming the only five-time heavyweight champion ever.
You know, no matter what. That included Holyfield’s 12-round decision (116-111, 114-113, 114-113) over Oquendo that caused eyes to roll. He knocked Oquendo to the canvas with a right hand seconds into the bout, but that was Holyfield’s only highlight. He blamed Oquendo’s awkward style on his inability to use his 44-year-old reflexes to pound his foe when given numerous chances.
“I’m not terribly impressed with myself, but I got the job done,” Holyfield said later. Added Oquendo, who appeared to capture several of the early and middle rounds, “I boxed his ears off.”
Don’t mention “ears” and “boxing” around Holyfield. (Remember that Mike Tyson thing?) Anyway, Holyfield just won something called the USBA Gulf Coast Regional title. Such a title is roughly equivalent to the IHOP championship for consuming blueberry pancakes.
Holyfield prefers alphabets such as WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF after winning for the second time in as many fights since his 21-month absence due to injuries. Said Holyfield, “I told the Lord that, if he allows me to be the heavyweight champion of the world again, I’ll stay out here as long as you want me to stay out here.”
Looks like the Lord wants Holyfield to stay longer. So says Holyfield, who spent 10 years ago to the month shocking Mike Tyson at a packed Las Vegas venue. This time, given the decent but obscure Oquendo, much of Bexar County stayed away, presumably to watch high school football or to do laundry. “If I would have beaten Lennox Lewis [in November 1999], that would have been it,” said Holyfield, referring to his failed chance to become the undisputed champion. “To be the very best that I want to be, that means I have to retire on top and not the bottom. I’m smart enough to stop on top.”
We’ll see. Several of Holyfield’s predecessors evolved into the feeble likes of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. To which I say of Holyfield’s desire to keep slugging for just shy of forever: It’s his obsession, and he has the right to continue it along the way to a pretty or ugly finish.
Ugly is another Oquendo away for Holyfield. It’s just that you can’t dismiss the guy in a boxing universe filled with, well, let Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva tell you. “Can you pronounce the names of any of these Russian champions?” said Duva, referring to Oleg Maskaev, Nikolay Valuev and Wladimir Klitschko. You also have Brooklyn’s Shannon Briggs, the WBO champion. Whatever that means.
It means Holyfield should have the opportunity to face any of the above. According to Murad Muhammad, the promoter for Friday night’s “Holyfield V: The Final Chapter Continued,” Holyfield will fight again in the first quarter of next year. He’ll likely return to Texas, among the few places that will license him.
“Fighters come into this industry for three reasons: To win a title, to make money and to make more money,” said Muhammad, once the security chief for that other Muhammad named Ali. “We ain’t begging here. We’re saying that, if you come to beat us, we’re going to pay. And, of course, to get the money, you have to bring the honey. We believe that the honey is a championship belt, and we don’t care whose waist it’s around.”
Just as long as that championship belt doesn’t involve a Rutti Tutti Fresh And Frutti.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Terence Moore
Holyfield wins but doesn’t impress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Antonio — The way Evander Holyfield sees it, he doesn’t have much time to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world again. Not at 44 and counting. So, just a few seconds into his bout Friday night at the Alamodome against Fres Oquendo, the Real Deal used a right hand to the head to send his opponent tumbling to the canvas.
As the crowd nearly yelled itself hoarse over the overwhelming people’s choice, Oquendo shook his head while rising to his feet, and the fight continued.
Too bad for Holyfield. Although he won a highly suspect unanimous decision of 116-111, 114-113 and 114-113 in 12 rounds (“I boxed his ears off,” said Oquendo), he showed an inability to throw more than a punch at a time to counter the multiple jabs and combinations of Oquendo.
If you didn’t know any better, you would say that Holyfield was getting old before our very eyes. Make that older.
After Holyfield’s first-round knockdown, Oquendo gathered himself to throw a series of jabs that were telegraphed, but it didn’t matter. Holyfield couldn’t stop them. There also were more than a few times when Oquendo unintentionally offered his face for pounding, but Holyfield either didn’t respond or couldn’t respond. It was enough for Oquendo to spend much of the early and middle portions of the fight building up points toward an upset.
Frustration covered Holyfield’s face when he left for his stool after the fifth round. He turned the frustration into what eventually was a furious combination to Oquendo’s midsection near the end of the sixth to signal that the old champ was alive and well and vibrant. He also rocked Oquendo with a couple of heavy lefts in the seventh.
Just like that, Holyfield was following the scripture on his boxing shorts from II Corinthians 5:7, which says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” What Holyfield saw from Oquendo and himself for the longest time wasn’t good.
Since Holyfield is the Tina Turner of boxing (“We never ever do nothing nice and easy”), you just had the feeling that something, well, uh, different would occur in this one. Maybe somebody would paraglide into the middle of the ring. How about Holyfield’s opponent chewing on either one or both of his ear? Perhaps there would be a mysterious head butt from Holyfield to leave a knot the size of the Alamo on his opponent’s forehead.
Then again, Holyfield could look so drained that he would need somebody such as Benny Hinn to lay hands on him and contradict a misdiagnosis by a doctor.
Oops. Holyfield has been there and done all of that during a career that was stalled for 21 months until he returned in August to clobber an insurance man named Jeremy Bates, who much less potent than Norman Bates. So here was Holyfield, using his aging legs against Oquendo in search of his dream to become the heavyweight champion of the world again for an unprecedented fifth time.
In the end, before an announced crowd of 10,133 (including thousands of freebies to local military personal and the critters that populate this mostly vacant dome these days), Holyfield tried to discover ways to win something called the USBA Gulf Coast Regional title. Interestingly, nobody knew there was such a thing until several hours before the fight. Guess it took a while for the promoters to choose between that name and something even more silly.
Oquendo entered the ring with the Puerto Rican flag leading the way. After all, he was the self-proclaimed Latin heavyweight champion. Then came Holyfield, entering the ring to rousing spiritual music and a purple robe. That is purple as in the Biblical color, as in Holyfield telling everybody and anybody who would listen during the last few months that he will keep fighting because God is telling him to do so.
The question is, when will God tell Holyfield to stop?
Permalink | Comments (54) | Categories: Terence Moore
Bogus BCS headed for another fiasco
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It was fashionable last season to say that, because unbeaten Southern Cal met unbeaten Texas in the Rose Bowl, the BCS “worked.” The BCS can never “work.” The BCS can only get lucky. It doesn’t get lucky often.
It did in 2005 because there were two brand-name unbeatens, two as opposed to the inconvenient five (remember Utah and Boise State?) of 2004. But now, thanks to Louisville’s come-from-ahead loss at Rutgers, the BCS is left with the kind of tangle it can never handle: How to choose among one-loss brand names.
You’ll recall that in 2001 Nebraska lost its regular-season finale by 26 points and didn’t play for its conference title but was invited to the mythical national title game. You’ll also recall that in 2003 Oklahoma lost its conference championship game and, despite being No. 3 in the writers’ and coaches’ polls, remained No. 1 in the bloodshot eyes of the BCS. We are, sorry to report, bound for the precipice again.
A scenario: Two years after going undefeated but being snubbed, an 11-1 Auburn might well play for the BCS pseudo-crown without gracing the utterly real SEC championship game. That could happen if Arkansas loses to Tennessee or LSU (but not to both) and then beats Florida in the Georgia Dome. That would leave Auburn, the champ of nothing, as the only one-loss team from the league considered the nation’s strongest.
Another scenario, already much-discussed: Ohio State and Michigan play next Saturday and then again in January. That’s not as likely if the Buckeyes win in Columbus, as most expect. But if Michigan should upset Ohio State, an immediate rematch becomes a strong possibility. (Thereby shooting more holes in the fallacious BCS claim that “every game is an elimination game.”)
Once again, it’s clear the BCS has no “system.” Its dithering fathers simply tweak and hope. It needs two (and only two) unbeatens to avoid the appearance of utter randomness, and not just any two. They must hail from one of the six BCS conferences (meaning Boise State, again undefeated, doesn’t count), and they can’t represent a school not seen as a football factory (which is why Louisville was seen as bogus and why, even though Rutgers is technically an unbeaten from a BCS league, it has no chance of landing in Glendale, Ariz.).
See, the BCS isn’t about fairness. It’s about pretending to embrace a playoff without actually having one. Even if it meant creating another platform a full week after New Year’s — the “title game” will be played Jan. 8, 2007 — the BCS was happy to do it to protect itself and its cash flow and, above all, the almighty bowls. It bears repeating that the NCAA, which stages a rather successful basketball event every March, has no control over the BCS, which is a cabal of conferences and bowl committees.
A tournament — with eight or 16 teams, using the existing bowls as sites — would yield a champion of legitimacy and could be easily done. But it will never happen unless Congress makes it happen, and Congress should have better things to do. Instead the BCS will creak along, hoping seasons will sort themselves out, looking foolish when inevitably seasons don’t.
Yet another scenario: Southern Cal beats Cal and then loses to Notre Dame. Being Notre Dame, it levitates above all other once-beatens — defending champ Texas and famously spurned Auburn among them — to play Ohio State in Glendale. Fox, the new TV rights-holder, wouldn’t believe its luck. Mack Brown and Tommy Tuberville wouldn’t believe theirs, either.
For all its tweaks and computers, that’s the most the BCS can really offer — luck, or the absence thereof. Usually it’s the latter.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Auburn, Jackets, Falcons will roll
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Before unveiling this week’s lead-poop locks from our team of insiders, who have been so inside of late that apparently even our projected winners are oblivious, this financial update:
The India city of Patna is trying to remedy its problem of deadbeat taxpayers by hiring, and I’m not making this up, a collection team of 20 eunuchs. (Why do I sense everybody just dropped their newspaper and lowered their hands into a protective position?)
Well, it turns out that eunuchs, according to an Associated Press story, “often make a living on tips for dancing at weddings and blessing newborn babies, and are believed to be stubborn and do not take no for an answer.” Because, like, what else could you possibly do to them?
Collections have been so successful that Patna is planning to recruit even more eunuchs. The expansion plans coincide with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld and massive Republican losses in Congress, although that might just be coincidence.
I bring this up for two reasons: 1) If you followed some recent investment advice, the good news is that you don’t have a tax problem, though you could develop “eunuch issues” if this continues; 2) There is absolutely nothing interesting to say about the Georgia-Auburn game.
Auburn is favored by 13 points. I’m not sure about organs.
The Trembling Chihuahuas have lost four of their past five, and the only win came over Mississippi State. They were so bad last week that Kentucky fans stormed the field afterward and tore down a goal post, resulting in the school being fined $5,000 by the SEC. (The fine could increase to $50,000 if there’s another violation before 2009. Fortunately, Kentucky is not due to win another SEC game until 2010.)
At 6-4, the Dogs are bowl-eligible only because of a win over 1-AA Western Kentucky. But bowl-eligible and bowl-guaranteed are two different things. Thought you’d want to know that before they finish 6-6 and head to the Eunuch Bowl.
Drop and protect. Auburn covers.
Local fare
• Tech at Yech: Nice homecoming game for North Carolina. Tech is about to clinch an ACC title-game berth, and John Bunting is watching game tape on a projector on a TV tray in the hallway, because Butch Davis is redecorating the office. Feel the love. Factoid: Calvin Johnson has more touchdown catches (11) than Carolina’s roster (9). Jackets cover 13 1/2.
• Browns at Falcons: A loss to Detroit was bad. A loss to Cleveland would be worse. The Lions are a bad football team. The Browns are that indecipherable, green, fuzzy substance in a Ziplock bag that got pushed to the back of the fridge and was discovered 17 months later. And you DON’T want to open that bag. They are 31st in rushing and 29th in rush defense. They also have 20 turnovers. Three more and the franchise gets a tax writeoff. Falcons cover eight.
Britney Spears value menu
(Buy any three picks and win a chance to date a twice-married 24-year-old with two kids and baggage. We’ll throw in the six-pack, the trailer and the Alabama tickets.)
• Vanderbilt at Kentucky: The game has been canceled. Both sides agreed it would be more fun to just watch films of the Georgia games.
• The King and It: Steve Spurrier returns to Gainesville. Unfortunately, he didn’t bring a team with him. But I’m guessing four quarters of bows and adulation from 88,000 swooning Gators fans will suffice. By the way, the other guy is Urban Meyer. Florida covers 13 1/2.
• Alabama at LSU: The good news is it can’t get any worse for Mike Shula — you get to play Mississippi State only once, and ‘Bama already lost that game. Asked if players still believe in Shula, fullback Tim Castille said: “We have to. We don’t have a choice right now.” Um. So was that an endorsement? Tigers roll, but won’t cover 18.
• Miami at Maryland: Larry Coker is a nice man and a solid coach who has been thrown under the bus by half of his players and driven over by the other half. But as Donna Shalala would tell you, it’s easier to fire the coach than jail all of the players. Fear the Turtle. Terps cover three.
• Wake Forest at FSU: As a significant underdog to a team with three fewer wins, this would be a good time for the Deacons to play the no-respect card. The only problem with that is they’re about to get smacked in the head. Seminoles cover 8 1/2.
• Tennessee at Arkansas: The Razorbacks have won eight straight. Two more and somebody might actually be able to name one of their players. Piggies cover 5 1/2.
Financial report
• Last week: 5-4 straight up, 4-5 against the line.
• Bottom line: 58-32 straight up, 45-44-1 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (106) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
One Holyfield fan won’t doubt him again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Antonio — Just as Lou Duva, the usually perceptive boxing trainer, was wrong 14 years ago about whether Evander Holyfield should continue to stick and move, such is the case for everybody in the free world right now.
Well, nearly everybody. I haven’t a problem with Holyfield sliding between the ropes on his 44-year-old legs tonight inside the Alamodome. He’ll face somebody named Fres Oquendo, who is better than you think, by the way.
Guess who also shrugs at the thought of Holyfield fighting for a second time since a 21-month layoff that followed the ugliest of three-bout losing streaks? Duva.
Except for his Fred Flintstone face that turned 84 in May, this is the same Duva who refused to work with Holyfield after his fighter lost a grueling outing in November 1992 to Riddick Bowe in Las Vegas. “I could have stood with him,” said Duva on Thursday, among those at a renovated railroad depot that served as the weigh-in site for Holyfield-Oquendo. “Instead, my thoughts were that he had made a couple of million dollars, and I just told him, ‘You’ve had a good life. You’ve been a good representative for the sport. Everybody loves you. Give it up.’ I thought it was a good idea at that time.”
It was a bad idea for any time. To the surprise of Duva and others, Holyfield took the rematch against Bowe, and the two fought again to form a trilogy that rivaled that of Ali-Frazier. Then there was Holyfield knocking the invincibility out of Mike Tyson with a TKO in 11 rounds and with a victory by disqualification during the infamous Bite Fight.
Holyfield struggled after that, partly because of age, but mostly because of injuries that included shoulders that are now surgically repaired. The healthy Holyfield began his quest to become the only five-time undisputed heavyweight champion three months ago with ease against the undwerwhelming Jeremy Bates.
Still, Duva saw enough that night in Dallas to apologize to the Atlanta guy he trained and managed after he first turned pro following his bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics. “I just didn’t know,” said Duva, referring to the extent of Holyfield’s aches and pains that eventually were healed either with time or through a surgeon’s hands.
Added Duva, who has a fighter on tonight’s undercard, “Just ask yourself this question: Is there an outstanding heavyweight out there today? There’s no Muhammad Alis out there. There’s no Joe Fraziers out there. No Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano. Why shouldn’t Evander keep fighting, if that’s what he wants to do? The heavyweight division is way down, and Evander just trains, trains, trains, to stay in excellent shape.”
For one, Holyfield looked as fit as ever on the scales at 217 3/4 pounds to the 33-year-old Oquendo’s 220 pounds. For another, Holyfield sounded as sharp as ever, and I’ve dealt with him frequently since we first met more than two decades ago when he was just another Olympic hopeful.
Even so, everybody else in the world sees Holyfield as a disaster in the ring waiting to happen, or one that already exists.
Holyfield smiled, recalling how he has encountered folks throughout Texas suggesting that he should hang up his gloves and enjoy life on his massive estate with his 11 kids.
“Well, you know, this is different, because Georgia people are afraid to say what they really feel,” Holyfield said, relaxing in a back room before the weigh-in. He made a contorted face, adding: “They’ll have that look, and they’ll say, ‘So why do you want to do this? You’ve got this great name. You can get into movies. You have so many ways you can make money.’?”
Yeah, but there is only one way that Holyfield can become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world again, and he’s doing it.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Terence Moore
“Fire Mark Richt” talk is lunacy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
We can agree that Georgia has become shockingly mediocre. We can agree that this hasn’t been Mark Richt’s finest hour. We can agree that Richt could use an offensive coordinator. But when the words “Fire Mark Richt” begin appearing in AJC.com blogs …
We will never agree.
The Internet provides ease of access and absence of accountability, meaning anyone can say pretty much anything anytime without suffering even the slightest consequence. But often I wonder if the faceless folks doing the typing actually realize what words they’re forming. Even if you believe — as I do, and I’ve said as much — that the Bulldogs should be better than they are, how does that lead to the conclusion that Georgia should dump the man who is, at absolute worst, the third-best coach (after Dooley and maybe Butts) in school history?
I try not to indulge in this sort of rebuttal because I believe it only feeds the lunatic fringe, but just this once, here goes. Say Richt gets fired. (There’s absolutely no chance of that happening in the real world, but we’re playing cyber-pretend.) Who does Georgia hire who’s any better? (Only four living men have won more SEC titles — Spurrier, Dooley, Dye and Majors. One’s 61. The others are older still. See a long-term candidate there?) Where does Georgia get the money to pay off Richt’s contract? (It runs through 2013 and is worth $16 million all told.) Where does Georgia go to find even a shred of credibility after dumping a coach who’d won at least 10 games four seasons running? (Answer: No such place exists.)
In the real world, nobody wins all the time. (Not even the Yankees. Not even the Republicans.) In the real world, the first solution to a problem isn’t to fire a clearly competent worker but to reassess and maybe to work a little harder. No, Georgia shouldn’t have lost to Vandy and Kentucky in the course of 21 days, but it happened. I have every confidence Mark Richt won’t let it happen again.
Permalink | Comments (220) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Sain best pitching coach ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
When I sat down to talk pitching with Leo Mazzone, I knew I was going to get another chapter and verse on Johnny Sain. Mazzone was the Biblical Timothy to Sain’s Paul. Every time the Braves visited Chicago, Mazzone never failed to call on the old pitching coach, then retired and in failing health but never too sick to talk pitching, and the Braves pitching coach would chirp happily, “What I am is everything Johnny Sain taught me.”
Sain died Tuesday in Downers Grove, Ill. He was 89.
Higher praise came from higher authorities, like this celestial endorsement from Jim Brosnan, who could write as well as pitch. “Johnny Sain did for pitching in the ’60s what Babe Ruth and the lively ball did for hitting in the ’20s,” which is just about as unlimited an endorsement as a fellow could make.
But Jim Bouton topped Brosnan, before he turned informant and wrote his tell-all book on players and their sinful ways. “Johnny Sain is the greatest pitching coach who ever lived,” he said.
Sain was a former automobile mechanic from Arkansas who had his finest seasons with the Braves in Boston, four seasons of 20 wins or more, one season a 300-inning toiler, and a 1-0 victory over Bob Feller in the 1948 World Series. It was in the pennant race that season, teaming with Warren Spahn, that one of the most durable catch-phrases of baseball was created: “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” or thereabouts.
The right-hander was traded to the Yankees, who needed pitching help in 1951, and subsequently closed his career with Kansas City, finishing with 139 victories and a 3.49 ERA. In 1954, he became one of the pioneers of the “save” statistic with 22.
Just what it was about Sain that made him the model of coaching isn’t easily defined. His philosophy: “Pitching coaches don’t change pitchers, we just stimulate their thinking. We teach their subconscious mind so that when they get on the mound and the situation arises, it triggers an automatic physical reaction.”
Whatever his style, it didn’t always set well with some managers. No matter how many 20-game winners he developed, he often found himself out of a job, fired by some jealous boss. He was popular with pitchers, though. He didn’t make them run, and most pitchers hate running. Art Fowler, an average pitcher who later became a coach himself, once said, “If running would make a pitcher out of you, Jesse Owens would be in Cooperstown.”
As he moved into coaching, Sain distinguished himself by developing 20-game winners by the herd, Whitey Ford, Ralph Terry, Mudcat Grant, Jim Kaat, Earl Wilson, Denny McLain, Wilbur Wood, Stan Bahnsen and Mickey Lolich among them.
Lolich came under Sain’s hand at Detroit, and after Sain had been fired, Lolich said, “Johnny loves pitchers. He believes pitchers are unique, and only he understands them.”
Still, managers kept firing him, one after another, and it was at Richmond, in the Braves farm system, that Mazzone came under Sain’s magic touch and became a disciple. There have been pitching coaches who create an aura about their work, but none with the influence of Sain. “A ball was just a ball until he put that ball in your hand,” Dave Boswell said. “It had possibilities you never dreamed of.”
Sain had one other manner the average fan would applaud. He rarely went to the mound to counsel a suffering pitcher. If what his careful teaching hadn’t taken hold over the long haul, he couldn’t rebuild him in the middle of a game.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Falcons’ fate all depends on Vick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Flowery Branch — Between all of the talk about having backups with experience, and not being the same team as a year ago, and, “Wow, that might’ve been our best practice of the year today!” there is something you need to know about the Falcons: This is not where they wanted to be.
They have a defensive front seven battered by injuries, which means they can only create pressure with blitzes, which results in exposing that soft gooey under belly, which leads to Jon Kitna looking like Otto Graham.
They have a secondary with an oft-maligned starting cornerback (Jason Webster) the head coach remains blindly loyal to, despite blinding production by opposing receivers. They’ve lost one of their inspirational leaders (Kevin Mathis), which means forcing into the lineup a rookie, Jimmy Williams, who thus far has not lived up to billing in practices.
An offensive line that already had protection issues and occasional run-blocking problems has lost one lineman (Kynan Forney) for the season. They lost another lineman for four games because of steroids. And for all we know, when the purified Matt Lehr returns, he may resemble Don Knotts.
No. This is not where the Falcons want to be. They are 5-3 with issues. Last season they were 6-2 at the turn with seemingly fewer flaws. Then came the sinkhole.
Nobody wants to talk about last season, least of all Michael Vick. That’s fine. But Vick should know this: No NFL team starts the season with a large margin for error, and the Falcons’ margin has evaporated. For them to make the playoffs, the onus is on the quarterback even more today than in the past.
That doesn’t mean Vick needs to throw for 300 yards and four touchdowns every week. It does mean he can’t be spectacular one minute and then breathe life into a comatose opponent the next, as was the case last Sunday in Detroit. Vick turned the ball over three times. He fumbled on the Falcons’ first possession, leading to a Lions touchdown. Backed up to the Falcons’ four-yard line on the fourth possession, he threw an interception that led to another TD. A 17-7 deficit mushroomed into a 30-14 loss to a 1-6 team.
Vick became irritated Wednesday when asked about mistakes in the Detroit game. Either he is sick of hearing about the subject from coaches in film sessions, or he considers avoiding the topic altogether can result in some sort of spiritual cleansing.
“I fumbled the ball once and threw interceptions,” Vick said. “I’m not perfect. Turnovers are gonna happen. Can you overcome it? Yeah. But I’m not perfect to a point where I’m going to go four or five games in a row and not make a mistake. It is what it is, we lost the game and I’m not talking about last week anymore. It’s all about Cleveland. So if you have any questions about the Cleveland Browns, shoot them at me.”
Yes, the Browns. They are a team the Falcons should defeat this week. But then, at 2-6, they have the same record as the Lions.
The NFL is a league short of predictable results. The NFC has been the extreme of that. Dallas beats Carolina, then loses to Washington. Chicago starts 7-0, then losses to Miami. The Falcons beat Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, then lose to Detroit.
But this much seems certain about the Falcons: Their problems on defense are not going away. Even if John Abraham returns, and that’s not an automatic after groin surgery, he won’t be the same at end. Linebacker Ed Hartwell is not a guy who can be counted on after Achilles and knee injuries. He has been a Falcon for 24 games but played only five full ones and parts of two others.
The Lions thought so little of everybody else that they often triple-teamed end Patrick Kerney. “It was a real treat,” he said with sarcasm. “I was actually screaming at their tight end to go out for pass routes instead of staying in and blocking. I’m sure it was fun being one of the three instead of being the one.”
It’s up to Vick. Again. Projecting with this team has proven futile. But injuries have left the Falcons with little room for error. And if Vick can’t be perfect for one side, he just can’t help the other.
Permalink | Comments (93) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Tech hoops will bounce back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
It was a fluke, and everybody knows it, from the rest of the ACC to most prognosticators in college basketball.
There was the winless streak on the road during the ACC season. There were the nearly 18 turnovers per game to finish last in the conference. There were the 72 points per game scored by opponents to finish next-to-last in the conference.
Those things weren’t indicative of a trend for Georgia Tech basketball. They were the results of the Yellow Jackets losing proven point guard Jarrett Jack to the pros and having a bunch of young players lacking the court savvy to finish games.
Jack still is in the pros, but Javaris Crittenton isn’t quite there yet. Crittenton is the super freshman who will run the Jackets from the point this season.
Then you have forward Thaddeus Young, another freshman standout for the Jackets. More importantly, you have those young players from last season’s Tech team who are a year older and a year more mature.
You add all of that to Paul Hewitt, a proven winner as a coach, and you have why the Jackets are ranked in the top 25 of most polls. And why they’ll move higher than that throughout the season.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Johnson’s class, Barbaro’s sass, Kirstie’s…thighs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Anybody who lives here and has an ounce of objectivity understands the difference in size and fervor of the Georgia fan base relative to Georgia Tech’s. But you can understand the Yellow Jackets’ inferiority complex when attention to their possible ACC title and Orange Bowl run is being dwarfed by the Bulldogs’ stunning plummet.
9: If Georgia beats Tech this year but finishes an otherwise miserable season, nobody in Athens is happy. And if Tech loses to Georgia, I wonder how many Tech fans will still be calling for Chan Gailey’s job, ACC title notwithstanding.
8: It’s a massive generalization, but wide receivers tend to be the most selfish players on a football team. But you don’t get that feeling talking to Tech’s Calvin Johnson. More than merely his size and his skill-set, he’ll be a star in the NFL because of his head.
7: Wanna know how bad 6-4 really is? The Bulldogs’ wins have come over Western Kentucky (1-AA), South Carolina (5-4), UAB (3-6), Colorado (1-9), Mississippi (3-7) and Mississippi State (3-7). Fortunately, no rankings voters feel the need to weigh “quality” wins.
6: I wonder if Joe Paterno getting run over by a player last week is giving anybody any ideas in Tallahassee.
5: I’m so happy Kirstie Alley felt the need to reveal so much of herself on the Oprah Winfrey show in a bikini. I haven’t seen thighs like that since the Falcons signed Grady Jackson.
4: Don’t worry, Georgia fans - it’s almost time for basketball season. Oh wait. It doesn’t work that way, does it?
3: Barbaro is walking without a cast. He could return to action before John Abraham.
2: If you’re Kevin Mathis, why would you even consider playing again? Actually, why consider it after the first spinal injury?
1: The first-place Atlanta Thrashers are 11-3-3. It’s time to start paying attention. The first-place Atlanta Hawks are 2-1. Not time yet.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Real concerns about Dogs’ fall from grace
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
In Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” a disgraced character is asked how he managed to go bankrupt. “Gradually,” he says, “and then suddenly.”
The Georgia Bulldogs’ fall from grace has tracked the same downward path. We see the sudden part now — losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky — but the gradual aspect should have been evident a year ago. We all missed it for a rather basic reason: In 2005 Georgia won the SEC.
The conference title seemed to prove the Bulldogs were so mighty they could triumph even in a rebuilding year. In hindsight’s cold glare, it’s apparent last season had less to do with eminence than circumstance. Of Georgia’s 11 victories, only four were achieved against teams that managed winning records. Against teams that finished in the Top 25, the Bulldogs were 1-3.
Almost everything broke right last year. First-year starter D.J. Shockley was actually a gifted fifth-year senior who could point younger teammates in the right direction. Tennessee had its worst season in nearly a generation. The schedule had Georgia playing Arkansas, which lost seven games, as opposed to Alabama, which won 10. Steve Spurrier beat Florida, a result that enabled Georgia to win the SEC East with two losses. And even the emphatic victory over LSU included two mitigating factors: The site was the Georgia Dome, and Les Miles was coaching LSU.
In the aftermath of that giddy championship, it was easy to believe the program had ridden out the post-2004 exodus. In one offseason Georgia had lost David Pollack, David Greene, Thomas Davis, Odell Thurman, Reggie Brown and Fred Gibson — plus defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder. We see now that, with the possible exception of linebacker Tony Taylor, Georgia in 2006 hasn’t found a playmaker to rival any of the six who left after 2004.
The difference between being a player and a playmaker is the difference between Quentin Moses, the preseason choice as the SEC’s top defender but who has 3 1/2 sacks in 10 games, and Pollack, who altered every single game. It’s the difference between Greene, who threw 32 interceptions in 51 games, and freshman Matthew Stafford, who has thrown 12 in 10.
The surprising success of 2005 stands revealed as a false clue. Shockley’s departure threw open the quarterback position to guys who either weren’t good enough or weren’t ready. A defense exposed in late-season losses to Auburn and West Virginia hasn’t returned to the dominant standard established under VanGorder. The offense ranks 85th among 119 Division I-A teams, which is worse than usual but not that much worse.
Mark Richt’s reputation notwithstanding, Georgia has never ranked in the nation’s top 20 in total offense during his six seasons on the job. It was 49th in 2002 and 2005, 58th in 2003. When a school recruits as well as this — five consecutive top 10 classes, with a sixth on the way — there’s no reason for such a pedestrian yield. Georgia Tech has benefited from Chan Gailey’s decision to let Patrick Nix call plays. Surely Richt could find someone capable of doing at least as much for him.
And surely an offensive coordinator would realize that establishing a feature back — as opposed to giving Kregg Lumpkin 10 carries in the first half at Kentucky, three thereafter — is a must. It’s no coincidence that Georgia’s last 1,000-yard rusher (Musa Smith) arose in the Bulldogs’ best season under Richt (2002).
A stronger running game might have allowed Richt to nurse Stafford along with less risk. (Risk leads to turnovers, of which Georgia has 26; it had 18 in 14 games last season.) A stronger running game might have eased the strain on Georgia’s defense. (The Bulldogs have held the ball less than the opponent six times in 10 games.) A stronger running game might have heralded a return to basics, which is where you need to go when you’re losing to Vandy and Kentucky.
Georgia might have more talent now than in its breakthrough season of 2002, but talent doesn’t always equal performance. This program rose because hard workers — Pollack and Davis and Greene weren’t five-star signees — made themselves into great collegiate players. To rise again, Georgia must instill in its many famous recruits a similar communal ferocity. Too many of the come-latelies haven’t been coached up. Too many guys aren’t finishing the drill.
Permalink | Comments (234) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
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.
Permalink | | Categories: Furman Bisher
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
Georgia’s freefall gathering momentum
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Lexington, Ky. — Eleven months after claiming the throne of the toughest conference in college football, the Georgia Bulldogs sit atop a season of improbable collapse. For the first time since 1973, they’ve lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky — “Teams most people would say shouldn’t beat Georgia,” said Mark Richt, in a moment of admirable candor — in a single autumn.
When a team loses its homecoming to Vandy, the assumption is that its season can get no worse. Georgia’s got worse here. It became only the second visitor in the 34-year history of Commonwealth Stadium — Alabama was the first, in 1997 — to see its loss punctuated by the razing of the goalposts. Technically, only one set came down Saturday, but that’s what happens when a team falls as far and as fast as the Bulldogs — the upsetter receives only half-credit.
Said tailback Danny Ware: “This is … what? Three, four losses for us? [Four, though it seems like more.] This is not like Georgia football.”
This is, alas, what Georgia football has become. It overrides everything good with something utterly egregious. The Bulldogs punted only once against what is, statistically speaking, the second-worst defense in Division I-A, but managed only 20 points. They made four turnovers, missed two field goals and were blunted on fourth-and-1.
Matthew Stafford, he of the ballyhooed arm, threw three interceptions. The first two came on consecutive first-half series, the first from Georgia’s 1-yard line, the second from Kentucky’s 2. The third occurred with 45 seconds remaining and sent the chilled stadium into paroxysms of rare and unbridled joy.
Said fullback Brannan Southerland: “We’re working toward [improvement]. But to do some improving, you’ve got to cut out your mistakes.”
Stafford’s numbers on the season: Four touchdown passes, 12 interceptions. And you wondered why Richt was reluctant to start a true freshman. “I think he’s getting better,” Richt said. “But there’s something in young quarterbacks that they have a hard time burning the ball.”
The last thing Richt told Stafford before the series that began on the Georgia 1 was, “If it’s clean [meaning a screen to Southerland], take it. If not, launch it out of bounds.”
Stafford threw it instead to linebacker Johnny Williams. “A bad decision,” said Stafford, his forehead purple and his nose gashed from a head-on hit suffered in the first quarter.
But it would be wrong to blame this shocking and shoddy season solely on an imprudent quarterback. Richt did himself no favors by giving Kregg Lumpkin, who gained 83 yards on 10 first-half carries, only two second-half rushes. And the once-resolute defense continues to fail with the game on the line. Kentucky needed just 3:16 to score the winning touchdown after Georgia took a fourth-quarter lead, the Wildcats facing only one third down on their 70-yard trek.
Eleven months after upsetting LSU in the Georgia Dome, the Bulldogs got goal-posted by an opponent that hasn’t beaten Tennessee since 1984 or Florida since 1986. “I’m sure people are enjoying the opportunity to beat us,” Richt said. And then: “What we’re playing for is some respect, and I’m sure we don’t have much in the football world right now.”
No matter how young Georgia is, it shouldn’t have come to this. The Bulldogs still possess more talent than Kentucky and Vandy, but somewhere they’ve lost the ferocity that carried them to those three SEC East titles in four seasons. “I still feel like we’re the best team in the league,” Ware said, but the cold truth is that Georgia, which is 1-4 against its Eastern brethren, has become the worst team in its division.
And that shouldn’t have happened. Georgia should lose to a Kentucky or a Vandy once in a generation, not twice in 21 days. A reigning SEC champ shouldn’t make us forget that this is indeed the reigning SEC champ. “We were, weren’t we?” Richt said. “Seems like a long time ago.”
Permalink | Comments (197) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Durant’s hot streak continues in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Let’s see, now that it has been verified, once and for all, that Monsieur Le Tigre will not appear in the Tour Championship this week at East Lake, presented by Coca-Cola, we shall now move on into live action, presented by the PGA Tour of the United States. Davis Love played by himself again and will make it three rounds in a row today unaccompanied. That’s what an 82 in the first round with a 27-man field will do for you. He chose not to have an unofficial companion, known as a playing marker.
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to finish in 2 hours and 21 minutes,” he said.
As for the absence of Tiger Woods, I like what Vijay Singh said. “I didn’t come here to beat Tiger; I came here to win the golf tournament,” which he has done once and lost in a playoff another time.
It was another lovely autumn day on Alston Drive. The fairways were lined with devotees of the game, and the main attraction, as it turned out, was the see-sawing match of Adam Scott and Joe Durant, Scott from Australia and Durant from Florida. Scott is a handsome kid from Adelaide who, some of sound judgment suspect, may be the next hot number in world golf. Durant has been up and down the tour ladder, like a yo-yo, 157th on the earnings list one year, two years later 14th, then back to 137th, then sort scuffling along among a bunch just playing to make a living.
Suddenly, as the end of this tour season approached, he surged. Over a streak of four tournaments, Joe banked $1,536,450, bulked up by winning the Funai Classic, a title it immodestly chose for itself, not by popular demand. Joe just charged up out of nowhere, or he’d probably have been rocking on his porch in Molino, Fla., this week, that being somewhere in the Florida panhandle. It had been five years since he last won, and that is not something to be passed over lightly. He won twice in 2001, one was the Bob Hope Chrysler, and Joe didn’t just win, he was 36-under par, which is still the all-time record for a 90-hole tournament.
Saturday, he was hanging in with Scott until they came to the 15th fairway, when the Aussie swung at his ball like Butch Harmon would never have recommended, then laughed all the way to the green, where he found the pellet about three feet from the pin. He eagled, covering Joe’s birdie, then Joe bogeyed 16 and 17, and that’s how you find him three strokes off Scott’s lead, and tied with Singh in second place going into Sunday.
However, for a guy who had been out of the winner’s circle as long as he had, he’s just happy to be looking at the possibility of taking home a million bucks and change for four days’ work. He quit the tour one time and took a job selling insurance. He got his license, but never sold a policy.
“I wasn’t very successful in insurance,” he said. “I just needed to get away from the game for awhile.”
Then he began to feel the need to get back. “It hasn’t been a steady climb. I’ve had some great stretches and some deep troughs.”
Joe’s a personable sort, a rather handsome 42-year-old who’s right much a family man. When he’s home in Florida, he drives his children back and forth to school and calls himself the “bus driver.” By the way, if he hadn’t made it to the Tour Championship, he wouldn’t be rocking on his porch in Molino.
“I’d probably be going to my daughter’s soccer games,” he said. She’s 15 years old and a chip off the old athletic block, it seems. Golfers do have some family life, whether they’re at the top of their game, or in between, and Joe Durant can speak with expertise from both sides. We await breathlessly to see if we have the first Tour Champion from Down Under, or the first one from Molino, Fla.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Woodson, Knicks’ Thomas can relate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For the longest time on Friday night, Philips Arena was dead. You know, almost as much as Mike Woodson’s chances of coaching in Atlanta beyond this season if the Hawks expire before the playoffs for an eighth consecutive year.
So, with Joe Johnson, the Hawks’ usually soft-spoken star, admitting, “We [as players] need to help [Woodson] as much as we can, because we know we don’t have much time left,” you had a team looking to quit breathing heavily before its home opener after lacking a pulse to start the season on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Now the Hawks live, and so does Woodson as the team’s skipper for at least a little while longer. You can attribute the resurrection of both to Johnson (30 points, eight assists) combining with Zaza Pachulia (22 points, seven rebounds) to keep the Hawks from dying after their 17-point lead dwindled to three inside the final six minutes. The thing is, the Hawks were playing the dysfunctional New York Knicks. That, along with the Hawks’ resiliency down the stretch (“Our guys never cracked,” Woodson said), propelled the Hawks to a 102-92 victory.
Huge game. Yes, it was only the Hawks’ second game of the season, but when the coach has one foot and a few toes dangling out the door, especially after that ugliness against a pitiful 76ers team, every game is huge. To worsen matters, this was the quietest sellout of 19,604 in NBA history through much of the first half. Then again, you can’t expect to have that much positive noise coming your way after spending this century as mostly a negative. The same goes for the Knicks, with a trip to the playoffs only once in the past five years.
Come to think about it, you have many similarities between Woodson and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, including the bad one involving shaky job security, but let’s start with those other ones. For instance they both survived Bobby Knight. In fact, they both loved the former basketball coach, state messiah and red-sweater terror at Indiana University, where they both were all-everything dribblers for the Hoosiers.
Woodson even showed the younger Thomas around campus during his recruiting visit to IU. “The two things that stood out with him was that he wanted to know where I got my clothes, and if he could meet a woman like the one that I married,” said Woodson, laughing Friday night at Philips Arena, home of the Hawks.
For now. Just like Thomas is coaching the Knicks. For now.
After watching three coaches crash and burn while dealing with the ill-fitting players that Thomas assembled as general manager, Knicks boss James Dolan ordered Thomas to do nothing less than coach these Knicks to prominence. Woodson hasn’t gotten such an ultimatum. Still, when the average tenure of an NBA coach these days is less than three seasons, Woodson has an unofficial ultimatum to prosper after winning just 24 percent of the time (39-125) during his previous two Hawks seasons.
It’s just that everything involving Woodson’s situation with the Hawks is unfair. For starters, his general manager did the right thing by blowing up a dysfunctional roster, but guess who still has to find a slew of victories in a hurry despite lacking all the pieces to do so?
We’ve already told you about the Hawks multi-headed ownership situation. Not good. Not with one guy suing the other seven for control of the franchise.
And, even worse, while Thomas looks down his bench and sees talent, Woodson glances down his bench and sees a mess.
He knows the deal, though. Said Woodson, around the league as a player or a coach for nearly two decades, “The bottom line, for sure, is that you’ve got to win. We’re talking about winning and having the team going to the playoffs.”
We’re talking about doing both of those things for Woodson or else.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
Long shots fare well
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Larry Nelson said it the other day, on his way into the World Golf Hall of Fame: “I’ll never understand any player who withdraws from a tournament when $100,000 is guaranteed for finishing last.”
Look at it this way. It just goes to show you how high the price for mediocrity has jumped. It might be an underlying reason for the uncommon number of times the Tour Championship has been won by players not on their way to the Hall of Fame. They’ve had a long, hard season, there’s money in the bank, play the course, collect your $100,000 or more and head for the barn. Or your condo at Ocean Reef.
True, the first three Tour Championships were won by Tom Watson, Curtis Strange and Tom Kite, none a stranger to the winner’s circle in majors. Then the long shots began to make themselves known. Jodie Mudd won at Houston, took his stash and started breeding horses. Craig Stadler came next, a very good player, but not great. Then Paul Azinger. Same, borderline, but not great, though he shaped his game to fit one of the historic American courses, Pinehurst No. 2, where he won.
Now we reach back into the pack, for Jim Gallagher, who won by a stroke at the Olympic course in San Francisco. Mark McCumber followed him over the same course the next year, and it is not to be forgotten that he had won the Players Championship, practically played off his front porch back in Florida. But not one of the greats.
Then came Billy Mayfair, like a name out of a London musical, but not Hall of Fame stuff. Tom Lehman then turned the corner into 1996 and made it his year, won the British Open, which paid less than his Tour Championship, won that year at Tulsa. I pause here to point to Dean Wilson from Hawaii, who played his way into the field this year in The International. He beat Lehman in a playoff, thereby sparing Tom having to face the tempting choice of picking himself for the Ryder Cup team he would later captain to defeat.
David Duval won next at Houston, on his way to World No. 1. Then came a career depression, and he is still vaguely visible in the world rankings. Hal Sutton won the Championship’s first run at East Lake, in a playoff with Vijay Singh. Then, the cream rose to the top — Tiger Woods won at Houston, but that would be an aberration. He hasn’t won since, and won’t this week since he gave it the back of his hand. Same for Phil Mickelson, who beat Tiger down the stretch at East Lake the following year, and RSVPed for this one, though not with regret.
Mike Weir won at Houston in 2001, and he would later win the Masters — he and Mickelson, two lefthanders in a row — but his game has since gone south. He didn’t make the party at East Lake this week. Singh finally made up for the one that got away in 1998. Retief Goosen turned the corner into the 21st century winning the U.S. Open, then repeated in 2004, a year he would win the Tour Championship at East Lake, dusting off Woods in the Sunday round. Chad Campbell won in 2003, he of illustrious promise who has yet to deliver.
Ah, then came the shocker of all shockers last year over this same acreage. Good ol’ boy Bart Bryant, 42 years old, as Texan as a country-fried steak, emerged from a shadowy career and not only won, he beat Tiger Woods by six strokes down the stretch. Bryant was unquestionably the longest of all the long shots, and he accepted his check for $1,170,000 with grace and went home to Ocoee, Florida, which is no inland Riviera. He finished 70th on the tour money list this year and lives happily wherever he is. So you see, Tiger and Phil, you aren’t missed. Having a wonderful time without you, and as you can see from this roundup of champions, odds are that you wouldn’t have been a winner anyway.
Permalink | | Categories: Furman Bisher
Falcons, Jackets, Dogs all prevail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Neptune — Hello. I thought a change of venue might help.
This may come as a shock, but sometimes even the best investment advice is not foolproof. In the past two weeks, Michael Vick has thrown seven touchdown passes, the Oakland Raiders have won twice and, in a slightly more predictable development, Anna Nicole Smith was elected to the Supreme Court.
The fact that none of the above was forecast in this space should not affect your confidence in Weekend Predictions, W.P. Investments, W.P. Frozen Foods, W.P. Show Us Your Hot and Barely Legal Write-offs Videos or any of our subsidiaries.
Also, Weekend Predictions Inc. has announced the suspension of its NFL research team after multiple positive drug tests, which regrettably were not performance enhancing.
This week, those pass-happy Falcons visit the Detroit Lions. I’m guessing they’re breaking out the run-and-shoot. But to ease the transition during this restructuring, W.P. has joined forces with the highly respected online Crystal Ball at Predictions.Astrology.Com/CB.
So I asked: “Will Michael Vick throw at least two touchdowns against Detroit?”
Response: “The Crystal Ball is searching for your answer.”
Then, a pop-up ad flashed, “Are you sure he’s the one? Get a free psychic love reading.” (He? Excuse me?)
Then the answer: “You will be very happy with the outcome.” Forget the help. I can handle this one.
The Lions are 1-6. Only three teams have a worse pass defense, and I think two of them are in the Sun Belt. Some see this as a “trap” game. I only know what the spirits tell me.
Besides, I’m due.
Falcons cover 5 1/2.
Back to school • Tech vs. Moe-Larry-Curly-Carolina: The Jackets have not quite ascended to automatic win status. But their final three ACC opponents (N.C. State, UNC, Duke) are a combined 4-20. Even Bill Lewis could steer this sucker to Jacksonville. The six is covered.
• Rut-roh: The Dogs officially have hit bottom — they’re Kentucky’s homecoming opponent. Georgia leads the SEC with 22 turnovers. The Wildcats aren’t very good, either, but they do have Ashley Judd. So at least there’s a view from the bottom. Nonetheless: Trembling Chihuahuas cover seven.
• Meineke Car Care Bowl Elimination Game: Virginia Tech and Miami are a combined 5-4 in the ACC, which pretty much is the way the ACC drew it up before expansion. Right. At least the Hokies have a quality win this season (Clemson). This week, it’s just a win. The 2 1/2 is covered.
• Maryland at Esso: Clemson must be making progress. Four days after beating Georgia Tech, coach Tommy Bowden was hit in the head by a flying whiskey bottle at Virginia Tech, which, as we know, is sort of like getting the key to the city in Blacksburg. Tigers win, but won’t cover 16.
• Florida at Vanderbilt: The Commodores have four softball wins this season: Tennessee State, Temple, Duke and Georgia. (You know, this job’s a lot easier when I don’t have to make it up.) Gators cover the 17.
• LSU at Tennessee: The Tigers are 1-11-1 all time in Knoxville. I’m not sure if that means anything, but I try to look up something once a month, and now I’m covered for November. Bucking trends: Vowels go down, take LSU and three.
• Virginia at Flawed State: The Seminoles are 2-4 in the ACC. The good news is, Bobby Bowden turns 77 next week, so he can sit with friends around the old Victrola and reminisce about 10-win seasons. ‘Noles win, but take Virginia and 12.
• Arkansas at South Carolina: The SEC came down on the Gamecocks this week for excessively playing the rooster crow over the PA, apparently failing to realize that’s not a recording but the state legislature. Crow this: Take the 2 1/2, Poultry pulls an upset.
Gross national products • Last week: Never happened. • But if it did: 4-6 straight up, 3-7 against the line. • Treading water: 53-28 straight up, 41-39-1 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (148) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Tour stars’ absences of responsibility
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Who dominated the commissioner Tim Finchem’s annual state of the PGA Tour press conference the other day? An absentee.
A full-page ad in color, trumpeting the approaching Tour Championship at East Lake, featured one central figure, the same absentee finishing a tee shot. “Only at East Lake Can You See So Many Stars in Broad Daylight,” the ad proudly proclaims.
One you won’t see this weekend is Tiger Woods, another is Phil Mickelson, the PGA Tour’s two leading marquee American attractions. Another is Stephen Ames, the Trinidadian by way of Canada, but he has an excuse. A bad back caused him to pull out of the past two tournaments he attempted. But, to show you how generous the PGA Tour is, Ames will still collect whatever his share of the purse might be. I’m not sure that the same applies to Mickelson and Woods, not that it matters. For certain, nobody will be passing the hat for them in their absence.
This is becoming a habit with Mickelson. He pulled out last year, and say this for him, on both occasions he gave the tournament sponsors ample warning. As soon as he returned from the Ryder Cup debacle in Ireland, he let it be known he will not rejoin the tour until the Bob Hope Tournament (presented by George Lopez?) in January.
Him, you might forgive. He is still recovering from his crushing finish in the U.S. Open, when it seemed he had in his pocket.
He gave that calamity his own creative benediction: “I am such an idiot,” he said. He found no dissenters. That considered, he could be forgiven his absence at East Lake had he not thumbed his nose at the tour’s crown jewel event last year.
Now, Tiger. Why wait until the week before the championship? Finchem, at his press conference, said, “Now that I know the details of Tiger’s thing from last week, I understand how he came to his conclusion. … He needed some time away.”
I’m not sure what “thing” he’s talking about, but the only “thing” I understand is that next week Tiger will be playing in China, which is a long way away, and he’s guaranteed $4 million. If he should have played at East Lake and won, his take would have been $1,170,000. If that’s what the commissioner means, then I understand, too. It’s all about the money, but not quite. You see, Tiger’s track record at East Lake has been a rocky one. Five times he has played in the Tour Championship here and he hasn’t won yet. He has finished 20th, 7th and second three times. Retief Goosen blew him out on Sunday in ‘04 and the agrarian Bart Bryant beat him by six strokes last year. In fact, he has won only one Tour Championship, and that was played at the Champions Course near Houston in 1999.
That being the case, could Tiger have been concerned about his winning streak? That his pursuit of Byron Nelson’s 11 straight might come a cropper? We shall never know, but no one can deny our right to suspect so. All that’s left to be played are those concoctions of the “silly season,” then in January, Woods can cherry-pick his way along the tour and keep the streak alive. That’s a damning suggestion to make, I suppose, but what this does is prove that money isn’t everything to him. It’s just a gauge of success.
The Tour speaks proudly of its increase in purses, it’s devotion to charity and the wealth provided its players. But what it has done is create a society of independently wealthy, two-legged corporations, all in this business for themselves, some who show up and are just happy to collect a little walking-around cash. Tiger is on the verge of creating his own private world, as if to say, who needs the tour?
This is not one of his brighter and more admirable moments. Let’s face it, no matter what a world-class attraction he has become, he still needs a stage, and the tour is that stage. Just how much Finchem’s efforts to recharge and reconstruct the PGA Tour to make it so appealing that no player can stay away will have on him is unlikely to change Tiger’s MO. Who knows, next thing you know he may create his own tour, then what?
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Sadly: Same ol’, same ol’ Hawks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It’s only one game. And if one game was a true measure, then the reigning NBA champion would be in the running for worst-team-in-history infamy. (The Miami Heat lost their home opener by 42 points, as you might have noticed.) That said …
If the Hawks were looking for anything approaching instant gratification regarding their two big offseason acquisitions … well, they’re still looking.
Speedy Claxton, the $25 million point guard, had no baskets and no assists in his debut.
Shelden Williams, the No. 5 player chosen in the June draft, had no points and three rebounds.
Both players will do better. (They could hardly do worse.) And surely Marvin Williams will make some difference when he returns from a broken finger. But this forlorn franchise is in dire need of something that will keep us from shaking our heads and saying, “Same old Hawks.” And in the first of 82 games, this seemed very much the same old same old.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Thrashers remain inconsistent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
On a night when one Philips Arena tenant reaffirmed in Philadelphia there will be no playoff tease, the other kept us guessing.
The Thrashers returned home and lost 5-2 to Carolina on Wednesday night. They are 8-3-3, still easily the best 14-game start for a franchise that only once before had managed a winning record to this point. But cracks are showing. This makes two straight losses, punctuated by suddenly pedestrian goaltending, coverage breakdowns and an anemic power play.
This is when you wonder: Are they ready for this?
“Whether it’s focus, execution or whatever — we were outplayed twice,” said Bobby Holik, who has never been one for burying the lead. “This just wasn’t good enough. We were outplayed in two games, at every level, in every department.”
The shot counter, who might have been popping amphetamines, will say otherwise. The Thrashers had a lopsided advantage of 42-18, thanks in part to 10 power-play chances. But shot counts can be as misleading in hockey as time of possession in football. Most of the Thrashers’ chances came from the perimeter. There were few shots through traffic, and even fewer rebounds. Consequently, only one of 10 power plays resulted in a goal, and the team is only two for its last 27.
Are they ready for something special? For 12 games, the Thrashers looked the part. Then came the dreadful first period in Toronto when they allowed three power-play goals in a span of 1:26, awoke too late and lost 4-2.
They returned home hoping to show something that really hadn’t been required yet this season: resilience. But they whiffed on three early power plays, goalie Kari Lehtonen — who was pulled in the second — allowed two goals in a 40-second span, and suddenly they were reeling. A losing streak was born.
Yes, this was a “test” game. Coach Bob Hartley labeled it that after the morning skate. “It’s another situation where we’ll find out a lot about ourselves,” Hartley said. “We’ve been catching up from behind for so long, now the time has come for us to try to be front-runners. We have to find ways to keep battling in our division.
“Those are signs that dictate your learning curve, to really see where you’re at. Right now we’re in a situation where we’ve never been before, and that’s fun. But we’re going to learn more as we go.”
Extended losing streaks have buried this team in the past. Last season, the Thrashers managed to navigate through early goaltending nightmares and fought their way back into the playoff race by mid-January. But then, just when everything seemed to be going great, they dug another hole with a seven-game losing streak and left no margin for error down the stretch.
This season is about avoiding that. Good teams don’t crumble. Good teams bounce back from defeats, especially at home. Hartley said afterward he was “not ready to call this a bad game.” He seemed to pin the result more on Lehtonen — and Carolina goalie Cam Ward — than the rest of his players. He was being nice.
The Thrashers needed a fast start this season to affirm a run at the playoffs. They got it. Now you wonder if they know what to do with it. Logic dictates this can be a dizzying experience for a bunch so used to being stepped on. But nobody really knows because, like, the Thrashers have nothing to compare this to.
So many more games.
So much to prove.
This can gnaw at players like Slava Kozlov. He played on resilient teams in Detroit, and he has seen the other side here.
“I think we’re stronger mentally than we were last year,” Kozlov said. “I think we’re better prepared. But this is the key for us this season. On the good teams, like when I was in Detroit, we almost never lost two or three in a row. When that happened, it was a big deal. We don’t want that to happen here. It’s a matter of discipline.”
A two-game losing streak used to be just the start of something worse for the Thrashers. Now, they’re hoping it’s a blip.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
No college playoff system needed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Again, I ask the obvious to Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville and to all of those other whiners regarding the Bowl Championship Series: Why do we need an official playoff system in college football when we already have an unofficial one?
Maybe you’ve heard. When it comes to the BCS standings, No. 3 West Virginia will play No. 5 Louisville on Thursday.
Well, uh. Hmmm. Sounds like an unofficial playoff game to me.
You also have that little matchup on Nov. 18 in Columbus, Ohio. That’s when No. 1 Ohio State will face No. 2 Michigan – you know, if they both remain undefeated as expected. On that same day, current No. 10 California will travel to current No. 8 Southern Cal. Then, on Nov. 25, those same Trojans will play host to current No. 9 Notre Dame.
We haven’t even mentioned that current No. 4 Florida and current No. 6 Auburn could meet in an unofficial playoff game called the SEC championship game. Plus, current No. 7 Texas has to survive an unofficial playoff game called the Big 12 championship game.
So stifle yourselves, whiners, take a deep breath and enjoy the wonderful ride to the BCS title game.
Permalink | Comments (61) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
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