Perhaps, just perhaps, Justin Blalock’s back won’t lock up again. Not like injuries in that area are finicky or anything.
Maybe Jake Matthews’ damaged ankle — the one that could hang on all season awaiting some serious beach-chair elevation — won’t complain too much Sunday.
For just one blessed week, can’t the Falcons offensive line find a little stability? Players are coming and going like extras on “The Walking Dead.” It got plain stupid two weeks ago in Minnesota, when Blalock was but one of three linemen to buckle, leaving tight end Levine Toilolo to finish the game at right tackle. They were only an injury or two from painting a face on a tackling dummy and plugging it into one of the breaches in front of Matt Ryan.
For one week can’t we get a real read on the abilities of Ryan’s pocket protectors?
“Well, when I play Madden I can turn the injuries off and everyone’s awesome,” Blalock said with a resigned smile. “Injuries, fatigue, all that stuff I can just turn off and everyone’s great.
“But this is real-life football, and we have to deal with those situations as best we can.”
So, then, you’re saying don’t get too comfortable with any given depth chart. It’s all built on sand.
The downright dirty shame here is that these big ’n’ tall men honestly think they can be pretty good, even after center Brawlin’ Joe Hawley was lost in that Minnesota game to a season-ending knee injury.
“We knew in OTAs, looking at the group, we have a lot of guys who can do this, who can play,” said Jon Asamoah, a free-agent acquisition, last of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I think we have a good group. Unfortunately, potential is your biggest enemy sometimes because it’s rare that you get a group together for an extended period of time,” Blalock said.
“But,” he added, “no matter who goes out there we have to have the communication and cohesiveness — you can’t sit around and wait for that to happen. You have to make the best of every week, no matter who’s out there. We don’t have the luxury of playing the what-if game.”
If Blalock’s back allows, the line against the Bears on Sunday, from left to right on your radio dial, would be Matthews, Blalock, Peter Konz, Asamoah and Gabe Carimi. A solid group, on paper.
That’s two first-round draft picks (Matthews and Carimi, by Chicago), two second-round picks (Konz and Blalock) and one third-rounder (Asamoah, by K.C.). All these guys came to the league with pedigree, from big-time college programs that bred big-time expectations. At Wisconsin, Carimi, another free-agent signing, won the Outland Trophy (although his last team, Tampa Bay, thought him expendable).
Five games into the season it has been next to impossible for the Falcons’ line to establish any sense of continuity. Or identity. To hear these fellows talk, it sounds like to do their job properly they are required to move as one. That’s more than 1,500 pounds to coordinate, like getting “The Biggest Loser” contestants to replace the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.
Harmony’s hard to come by when the members of the band keep changing. And it seems you never know what you have on the line until it’s absent. Blalock started 102 consecutive games and was as taken for granted as the sunrise. Then he was out last week against the New York Giants and his replacement just up from the practice squad, Harland Gunn, was fingered for giving up a decisive fourth-quarter sack.
Still, the season is far along, and it is only right to ask when the restless masses expect to see some consistency from the Falcons front?
“I’m hoping this week. I’m hoping everything comes together and we have one of those games where you go out and play great together and give Matt and those guys a chance to show what they can do,” Asamoah said.
“I think we’re settling down. I think we’ll get things straightened out,” Carimi said.
Growing up in Chicago, and thus growing up in the den of the Bears, Asamoah has a little more on the line Sunday than usual. Family and friends from back home will review his performance even closer than usual.
“It’s a little bigger, but once the whistle blows, you forget about all that. Then you’re fighting for your life again,” he said.
Throughout childhood, Asamoah was consumed by dreams of playing basketball. Never gave football a thought until his sophomore year in high school when his basketball coach, who also doubled as a football coach, strongly suggested he get outdoors in the fall. It was more an ultimatum: Play both sports, son, or play neither.
Adding football to his schedule seems a particularly good decision now. On the first day of free agency this year, the Falcons signed Asamoah to a five-year, $22.5 million deal. In return, he was to add a little touch of mean to a group that lacked an edge last season.
There are large questions trailing these large men. Can Asamoah actually be a bargain at that price? Can Carimi find happiness with his third team? Is Matthews the cornerstone for the next decade that he appears to be? When will the pros outweigh the cons with Konz?
But first, how about a week or two here of relative good health, a brief period, at least, in which get a fair sample of their work? That doesn’t sound like an unreasonable request. For the big questions about this line don’t get answered in the training room.
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