What happened Sunday should not suggest that the coach is safe or the general manager is safe or the owner will continue to bite his tongue in public while behind the scenes, Arthur Blank’s eyeballs glow like hot red coals.
But at least we know this much about the Falcons: Give them two weeks to prepare and they can beat Tampa Bay. Give them one week and they’ll beat Tampa Bay. Give them a flesh-eating disease, schedule the game at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday and they’ll rise from their hospital beds and declare, “We will not be defeated. We laugh at you, insignificant swashbucklers.”
Imagine that: a 3-6 team with a feeling of superiority.
The Falcons defeated the Buccaneers 27-17. It was their first victory in 52 days, the last coming on Sept. 18 in the Georgia Dome against … yeah.
In the winning locker room, players exhaled. A five-game losing streak had ended.
In the losing locker room, a quarterback cried. Josh McCown actually broke down in tears, although nobody could be certain if that was because he was so emotionally spent from Sunday’s loss or it was the realization that the 1-8 Bucs still have to play seven more games.
Keep this in perspective, people. Two of the Falcons’ three wins have come against arguably the worst team in the NFL and possibly the Sun Belt. The Falcons don’t get to play that team anymore. They still have to play Pittsburgh and Green Bay and New Orleans and Carolina twice, and I’m pretty sure Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers and the other quarterbacks aren’t going to cry.
Guard Justin Blalock was asked if he felt relief or joy after the win.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said. “It’s one game. Obviously, it’s the result we wanted. Now we have to go out and do it consistently. It would be nice to rattle off several wins in a row but all we can do next week is win one game.”
The Falcons did some nice things Sunday. They forced three turnovers (while committing zero). They sacked McCown four times (after entering the game with a league-low seven sacks). They actually staged a fourth-quarter rally (after inventing ways to lose and being outscored 56-7 in fourth quarters during the five-game skid).
“The response drive,” quarterback Matt Ryan said, referencing a 10-play, 65-yard march that culminated in a five-yard touchdown pass to Roddy White, after the Bucs had taken a 17-16 lead. “Those are the drives you have to make to win football games.”
The Falcons haven’t been making those. On the other side of the pond, they blew a 21-0 lead to a Detroit team that was missing Calvin Johnson, Reggie Bush and several other players. They made Teddy Bridgewater look like Roger Staubach in Minnesota. So now the objective should be obvious.
“We’re just trying to find a way to win a game,” White said. “We just have to do what we do and not just hope that other teams are going to lose. We have to win the rest of these games.”
If the Falcons retain any hope of an unlikely second-half surge, they can’t repeat of some of their lowlights from Sunday. A wide open Devin Hester dropped a touchdown pass in the second quarter, later admitting he saw a Bucs’ safety closing in on him out of the corner of his eye: “One hundred percent on me. I took my eye off the ball.”
Cornerback Desmond Trufant dropped a certain pick-six because he was looking up at the field of green before securing a catch. (“I saw the touchdown before I saw the ball. I saw autographs in front of me.”) Matt Ryan had Julio Jones wide open for a touchdown 48 yards down field but threw a lollipop, enabling a Tampa Bay defender to catch up to Jones and break up the play.
Tampa Bay also committed 10 penalties, often extending Atlanta drives.
White: “They did some foolish things.”
But the Falcons won. They’re alive. Somehow.
At 3-6, logic screams the Falcons’ playoff hopes should resemble a dead gold fish at the top of the bowl. But logic has nothing to do with the NFC South. The New Orleans Saints are in first place at 4-5 after losing in overtime to San Francisco. The Falcons are one game back. In any other division, they would be three or four back.
That, more than any other reason, is why coach Mike Smith still has a job. That’s not to say Blank doesn’t appreciate everything Smith has done for his franchise since 2008. But had the Falcons lost Sunday, it would’ve been difficult to imagine a firing not taking place on Monday.
“It’s not a problem at all,” Smith said of the rumors swirling around him. “This is a big boy’s business. You’re judged on wins and losses and we’ve got half a season to play. I can assure you we’re going to do everything in our power each and every week to go 1-0.”
There’s a chance that an 8-8 record wins the South. But even that would take a 6-2 second half by the Falcons. That means they’re going to need at least five more wins against teams not named the Bucs.
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