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Sunday, September 23, 2007
Hall loses mind and biggest game of 2007
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It was the biggest game the 2007 Falcons will play, and they lost it because their All-Pro cornerback lost his mind. An undermanned team that doesn’t figure to win many (if any) games was undone in its home opener by the guy who styles himself as a difference-maker. Feel free to laugh. Or to cry.
The Falcons fell to 0-3, the dungeon from which there’s no escape, on a day when they outgained their opponent by 129 yards, a day when Joey Harrington looked, for one of the few times in his professional life, like Joe Montana. Bobby Petrino, who hasn’t yet presided over an NFL victory, saw his game plan overridden not because of any technical or physical breakdown but because DeAngelo Hall simply had to have the last word.
We return to the scene of the whine: The Falcons led 17-10 with 22-plus minutes to play. They’d amassed 355 yards to Carolina’s 136. They should have been further ahead, but John Abraham had just sacked Jake Delhomme to force the Panthers to try a 46-yard field goal. For the Falcons, the worst that could happen was that they’d lead by four. Or so you’d have thought.
As he left the field, Hall uttered a few exit lines. A flag flew. For the third time on the possession, he had been penalized. The first was a 37-yard interference call against Steve Smith, which can happen. The next was a 15-yard personal foul for smacking Smith on a running play, which shouldn’t happen but sometimes does. The third, for unsportsmanlike conduct after a defensive stop, cannot happen. Not once in a blue moon. Not ever.
“A couple of freak plays,” Hall would say later. “They were calls that could easily have gone the other way.”
Please. This could have been the football equivalent of Eric Gregg’s double-wide strike zone and there’d be no excuse. With his third penalty, Hall changed a winning game into an eventual loss. The Panthers took their gift first down and scored the tying touchdown. Then they scored again. There have been a slew of silly moments in this franchise’s sorry history — from Aaron Brown’s personal foul before the blocked punt against the winless Colts in 1986 to Eugene Robinson’s night in Miami to Michael Vick’s dogfighting spiral — but Hall falling to pieces belongs on any short list of the absolute dumbest.
Said Warrick Dunn: “You have to try to control yourself.”
Said Lawyer Milloy: “He’s an outstanding player who was doing an outstanding job [indeed, Smith had only one catch on the day]. … I was sitting on the bench [after Abraham’s sack]. … That’s not a good feeling; it’s just extra ball. … It was a turning point, but it wasn’t a single thing that beat us.”
Wrong. This turning point begat all the plays that would ultimately yield defeat. And what sentiments, you might be asking, did Hall feel the pressing need to impart? As Smith told reporters: “They were real minute — ‘I’ve been in as many Pro Bowls as you; I make more money than you.’ Just real immature stuff. Obviously the caliber of organization the Carolina Panthers are, they don’t have a guy like that.”
Said Hall: “I’m a leader. I take responsibility for my penalties.”
Yeah, right. A leader wouldn’t have put personal glorification above the common good. A leader would have known when to shut his mouth and let the scoreboard talk for him. A leader wouldn’t have then snapped at his coach, who was understandably upset and who should by rights have benched Hall for the rest of the game. Hall led, all right. He led a team that needs to win in the worst way to defeat — in the worst way. He made a difference, all right.
Said Petrino: “You cannot have that [meaning Hall’s penalties] happen when you’re in position to win a game.”
It took three weeks for these Falcons to reach even that modest point. It took one man two seconds to chuck it away. DeAngelo Hall? Call him MeAngelo Hall.
Braves’ rally proves they’re not dead yet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Well, maybe I was a bit premature. Maybe the Braves still can play a hand in this game of pennant see-saw. At least that’s the way their genial manager, Bobby Cox, sees it. Or to put it the way he said it, “We’re not dead yet.”
Then there was the disclaimer, “But we have to sweep the Phillies, no doubt about that. It’s gonna take a miracle.”
What happened at Turner Field on Sunday afternoon was more than merely game No. 156, but a sort of a replay of what the Braves have been doing on occasion this season, as if the game isn’t on until the seventh inning. They nap a bit, then suddenly came to the realization that time is of the essence. The early innings were neat and tidy and dull. Milwaukee took a lead that was looking right comfortable, 4-1, and the Braves couldn’t get out of their own way. Take the second inning, for instance. Andruw Jones, Matt Diaz, who’s hotter than a wood stove, and Corky Miller, filling in for Brian McCann, all reached on base hits. Yunel Escobar was hit by a pitch. Bases loaded. Out of all that, the Braves get one measly run and mosey along until the fateful seventh.
Then the last home game of the season began to take on the look of spring training, with a box score that looked like an airline board when all the flights are canceled. By the end of the day, six Brewers — an outfielder, three pitchers and two pinch-hitters — were paraded through one slot in the batting order. Manager Ned Yost was not around to see the finish. He showed his old boss (Bobby) that he isn’t the only one who can pitch a fit and get pitched. It was all over a play at second base in the seventh inning, when Jeff Francoeur over-slid the bag and was tagged when he dived back. But was he touched?
“Yeah,” Jeff said, “he [Richie Weeks] tagged me, but too late.”
Yost never left the field until he lathered umpire Chris Guccione, and every other one within range, with a siege of unamorous terms, then was gone. And after he left, it got worse. The Braves scored four runs, took the lead at 5-4, then Mark Teixeira hit a towering double in the gap between left and center field, the margin was padded with two more runs, and the final score was written, 7-4. Manny Acosta was rewarded with the decision, first in his major league life. Frankly, Yost dug his own grave when he lifted the starter, Chris Capuano, a Phi Beta Kappa pitcher from Duke University, who was rumbling along rather neatly. No one came to the rescue out of the bullpen, and with the Braves, it was like trying to bail out of a sinking skiff. They kept bailing and the runs kept flowing home.
Cox dipped deep into the bullpen, until hardly anyone known to the 44,088 patrons was left. And while on that subject, this ran the attendance for the season to 2,745,207, a nice gain of 7 percent on ‘06. It was some kind of “Fan Day,” and the old-fashioned fans that were distributed were put to good use on the 86-degree day. The stands looked like a collection of those windmills that produce electricity.
As they hit the road for Philadelphia and Houston, a rather awkward geographic meander, they have one possibility in mind. That the Mets and Phillies kill one another off in their personal series, after the Braves finish business in Philadelphia.
Then, looking forward to next season, will Andruw Jones be back? (His value was displayed Sunday when he made two of those wall-banger catches in center field.) Rarely does a player overrule his agent — in this case, the bullish Steve Boras — and exercise his personal choice of teams. Will Mike Hampton finally be able to repay some of the millions he has collected in inactivity? Can the Braves come up with the $13 million Tim Hudson is in line for? And how is life going to be under their new owners, Liberty Media, a neophyte in the baseball business?
Meantime, unless the miracle that Cox had in mind comes off, this was your last home-field view of the lads until the calendar turns a few more pages.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Dogs grow up with big win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Tuscaloosa, Ala. — This was the team we expected, the one that exorcised memories of losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky with three straight wins last season, the one that opened the season by pounding Oklahoma State — the one that inexplicably missed the off-ramp on the way to the South Carolina game.
Georgia didn’t merely win a game Saturday night.
It grew up.
Matthew Stafford, showing a cool we witnessed a year ago when he was a freshman, took hold of a game in the most hostile and electric of surroundings. He threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Mikey Henderson in overtime, giving the Bulldogs a 26-23 win over Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“This is huge for us,” Stafford said. “We’re so young. To win here, to win any game like this on the road in the SEC, is big. It felt like there were 200,000 people out there. This is a big moment for this team.”
The winning touchdown pass came after the Crimson Tide had taken a lead in overtime with a 42-yard field goal. It came after Georgia’s Brandon Coutu had missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds of regulation that could have won it. It came after Alabama had rallied from a 20-10 deficit to tie it.
That’s a sign of a team and a quarterback maturing.
This was not the same Stafford who struggled against South Carolina two weeks ago in the Dogs’ SEC opener. This time, he made plays that won the game. When things went wrong, he came back stronger.
After an interception led to Alabama tying the game 10-10, Stafford led two scoring drives.
And after Coutu missed the 47-yarder as time expired in the fourth, Stafford shook it off … and then started clapping.
“I was excited to play more football,” he said. “I wanted to get back out there. We all did. It’s a good sign for this football team.”
“He doesn’t let bad plays affect him,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “Even when they tied they game, he brought us right back and got us into field-goal range. Even though we missed it, it was a huge confidence boost for the offense.”
Nobody knew quite what to make of the Bulldogs going into this one. They had played three games, looking alternately great (Oklahoma State), awful (South Carolina) and borderline disinterested (Western Carolina). Football teams like balance, but not in multiple personalities.
If a loss to Alabama wouldn’t have doomed Georgia in the SEC, it would at least have caused nightmarish, Ray Goff flashbacks. The Bulldogs last started 0-2 in the conference in 1993 under Goff (who opened 1-4 on the way to 5-6).
But this team looked different from the outset Saturday — not only from ‘93, but from the South Carolina game two weeks ago.
The Dogs drove for a touchdown on their first possession. They converted three straight third-down situations. Against the Gamecocks, the offense failed to locate the end zone for the first time in six years and went 3-for-18 on third down.
The early differences were obvious. Stafford looked in control, completing seven of his first 10 passes. The offensive line protected well and popped open a few holes for Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno. The play-calling? Bobo had Stafford continually expose the soft belly of the Alabama defense with short passes over the middle.
And there was something else the Bulldogs showed early and often: a little nastiness. Wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi leveled Crimson Tide defensive back Simeon Castille on a downfield block. Georgia DB Bryan Evans buried running back Terry Grant. Tackle Jarius Wynn ripped off quarterback John Parker Wilson’s helmet. OK, that’s a penalty. Not smart, but it’s good for street cred.
Things could have easily unraveled. They led 10-0, only to see Alabama come back with a field goal just before the half. They failed to convert when the Tide fumbled away the second-half kickoff. Then a Stafford overthrow led to an interception at the Dogs’ 37, setting up a 1-yard, tying touchdown run by Wilson.
But the Dogs came back. A 6-yard touchdown run by Moreno set up by three straight Stafford completions, then a field goal by Coutu. It was 20-10, and suddenly things weren’t so bright in Saban Nation. Go figure: $32 million contracts don’t come with guarantees.
Young teams don’t come with guarantees, either. But after a series of confusing outings, the Dogs took a step toward maturity Saturday. It just took a while.
Permalink | Comments (132) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
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