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Sunday, December 23, 2007
Why would anyone want to run this team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Glendale, Ariz. — It was appropriate the Falcons spent Sunday playing inside a stadium shaped like something from outer space. That’s because their season from Mars continued against the Arizona Cardinals. In fact, the Marty Schottenheimer theories to the contrary, nobody from Earth is capable of making those little green men return this franchise to the vicinity of decency anytime soon.
There is the meantime, though, which is the Falcons’ problem. The more somebody of competency, or beyond, watches everything involved with this rebuilding process, spanning from a clueless front office to a flawed locker room, the more that somebody would rather shove a chinstrap down his throat than come to Flowery Branch.
Bill Cowher said no. Then Bill Parcells became Bill Parcells by playing the Falcons for suckers to get a better deal with the Miami Dolphins. That said, Schottenheimer and his accomplished resume as an NFL coach would do better than most with this ongoing mess, but two things: The Falcons still would need a miracle worker at general manager, and Schottenheimer still would have to agree to take the coaching job. At 64, and after a cushy stint as a football analyst for ESPN, he likely isn’t into self-inflicted pain.
This time, the Falcons went from a thrilling comeback at the end of regulation to a 30-27 loss in overtime for a slide to 3-12 overall.
“When you go out there and you put everything out there on the line, and you just come up a little bit short, it’s tough, man,” said Roddy White, who continued his coming-out party after two raggedy seasons with 12 catches for 141 yards. “I wanted to break down and cry after the game. All my teammates, we played hard. We give it our best. We just can’t get any breaks. It’s like somebody or something doesn’t want us to win football games.”
We’re back to that Mars thing involving the Falcons. Just this month, they watched their franchise quarterback go to prison for illegal dogfighting. Then their first-year head coach returned to the college ranks with three games left. Then their owner got embarrassed by watching both those high-profile NFL types say thanks but something such as “You must be kidding” when asked if they wished to run the Falcons’ football side.
So, if you’re an Atlanta player in this situation, you play hard, but you can’t focus enough to avoid the silliness that happened against the Cardinals.
There was the Falcons’ opening drive, when Chris Redman moved his offensively challenged team from its 44-yard line to the Arizona 6. He lofted a fade pass into the corner of the end zone, but courtesy of a mix-up with White, the pass was intercepted. Soon afterward, Falcons defensive backs Chris Houston and Lawyer Milloy missed tackles on a short pass play to Anquan Boldin that was turned into a long pass play.
Not only that, the Falcons were flagged for running into the punter. Twice.
Remember, too, that the Falcons were facing an Arizona team that wouldn’t be confused with anybody good. The Cardinals began the game at 6-8 and out of the playoff picture, which meant they had only pride as their motivator. The Falcons also were playing for pride, but you only can take that so far when you’re working for an interim head coach (Emmitt Thomas) with long odds of becoming permanent, and when your current general manager (Rich McKay) already has been told that he’s gone in that role at season’s end.
Even so, the Falcons had some impressive moments. There was that fake punt that went for 37 yards and led to a Falcons touchdown to tie the game at 7-7. There was Redman connecting with Laurent Robinson on a 74-yard post pattern for a score. There also was a Falcons offense going 48 yards on eight plays to tie the game at 24-24 inside the final five minutes, and then surging ahead near the end on Morten Andersen’s short field goal before the Cardinals eventually forced overtime.
None of that could change this: The Falcons still are ghastly.
From top to bottom.
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