For the first time in franchise history, the Falcons need a bigger marquee.
Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, Stephen Jackson … it’s like looking back at an old New York Yankees box score and thinking, “Wait, all of those guys were on the same team?”
What we don’t know is whether all five being brought together for one shot at a Super Bowl — because we can be fairly certain this is Gonzalez’s final season (really) — will amount to something special. Or will this be like when you try to replicate a perfect recipe and it ends up tasting just OK and looking little like the picture?
The Falcons will score a lot of points. They will win a lot of games. They will win their division. They have too many good players and a track record for success over the past five years to expect that a sinkhole suddenly will open beneath the Georgia Dome.
But this team is a rarity of stars and flaws, high in Q rating, but also doubters. It’s not merely that the Falcons have a difficult schedule — nondivisional opponents include New England, Seattle, Green Bay, Washington and San Francisco — or that most starters appeared to have been left unplugged from the wall socket in the preseason. (Can you at least try to make it look good?)
The questions generally center on two areas, and it’s here that we quote the late Vince Lombardi: “Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist, but football is only two things: blocking and tackling.”
In the third exhibition game at Tennessee, generally considered the closest thing to a dress rehearsal for the season, the No. 1 offense produced two field goals in six possessions. Ryan was sacked five times.
It might mean nothing when the real season opens in New Orleans, but it also seems safe to conclude that significant issues remain on the offense. Even if coaches don’t like to show their hand before a season opener, neither do they design preseason game plans to get their quarterback getting dropped five times in two and a half quarters.
There are similar questions on defense. The Falcons added Osi Umenyiora but subtracted John Abraham, a curious second decision given they ranked 28th in the NFL with 29 sacks last season. The defense also will go with a rookie, Desmond Trufant, at one starting cornerback and the 32-year-old Asante Samuel at the other. The linebacking corps is thin, although the defense will play so much nickel that it may not matter.
Jamal Anderson was a running back on the greatest team in franchise history, which, granted, doesn’t have a lot of competition. The Falcons finished 14-2 that season, upset Minnesota in the NFC Championship game on the road and went to the Super Bowl (losing to Denver).
Anderson’s view on this year’s team? Mixed.
“It’s interesting because two times in the last three years the Falcons went 13-3 and had home-field advantage on the playoff, and that’s going to be difficult to match,” Anderson said. “I’m looking at Green Bay, Seattle, San Francisco. With that schedule, I don’t know if they can get home-field advantage again, and that’s the best-case scenario for them getting to the Super Bowl. I just don’t know that I see that happening.”
The Falcons need to prove they are not the same team that fizzled on defense in both home playoff games last season against Seattle (a win on a late field goal after blowing a 27-7 lead) and San Francisco (a 28-24 loss after leading 17-0). They need to prove they are not the same offense that couldn’t produce even a field goal in the second half against the 49ers. That’s where Jackson, signed as a free agent to replace the used-up running back, Michael Turner, can help, assuming the line holds up.
Anderson called this team “the strongest group of Falcons players in history.” He believes Ryan “has improved every year as a leader” and that watching Joe Flacco, out of the same 2008 draft class, lead Baltimore to the Super Bowl last season provides extra motivation.
But …
“The difference between this year’s team and ours was at the top end,” Anderson said. “We had unique leadership, guys like Cornelius Bennett and Jessie Tuggle. We had Eugene Robinson, and say what you want about that one game (Robinson’s arrest Super Bowl eve), but he was a big leader for us that year. He’s one of the guys who made everybody believe.”
This Falcons team believes it can reach the Super Bowl. They have before.
There is no way to know if the ending this time will be different, but the names on the marquee make you want to run in and watch the movie.
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