From the beginning, they looked like another team, possibly from another planet, certainly from another season.
They hit on defense (and didn’t miss tackles). They moved the ball on offense (and didn’t drop passes). They had a 100-yard rusher after playing 35 straight games without that sighting (even if 55 of Steven Jackson’s 101 yards came on one carry).
For the first time this season, the Falcons looked like a complete football team Sunday from the first quarter through the last, when, really, just competent would have been shocking enough.
The offense: 500 yards.
The defense: Three takeaways and no offensive touchdown allowed until the final minute.
Final score: The previously 4-7 Falcons 29, the previously 9-2 Arizona Cardinals 18.
Excuse me. But where did that come from?
“I told everybody: We’re No. 1 in the division and it’s time we start acting like it,” said safety William Moore, whose return from a shoulder injury after missing seven games appeared to give the defense a lift. “Regardless of what the record says, regardless of how we got there, even if we’re scratching and clawing to get there, we’re No. 1. So play like it. Despite everything that’s happened throughout the season, don’t walk around with your head down. We’ve still got an opportunity. Act like it.”
They did, for really the first time. The entered the game in first place only because they held a tiebreaker edge over the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s toxic waste dump known as the NFC South (where four teams had a combined record of 13-30-1 entering the week). They certainly looked impressive at times in the season-opening, 37-34 overtime win over New Orleans. But they were shaky defensively. They certainly destroyed Tampa Bay 56-14. But that was, you know, Tampa Bay.
The Cardinals entered the week with the NFL’s best record. Maybe few actually believed they were the league’s best team – particularly after the recent season-ending knee injury to Carson Palmer – but that shouldn’t dismiss the fact that for the first time the Falcons went head-to-head with a solid team.
And they destroyed them.
Offensively, yes, the Falcons kicked too many field goals (five). But the offensive line had easily its best game of the season and the defense held the Cardinals to 35 yards rushing and confused quarterback Drew Stanton (who also did a pretty good job confusing himself).
The debate playing out in some corners, should-they-sign-Julio-Jones-to-a-long-term-deal-or-not, tilted toward yes in this game. Jones had his career best game: 10 catches for 189 yards and a touchdown. He torched the Cardinals’ talkative cornerback, Patrick Peterson, who had sparked a verbal debate with Jones through the media during the week.
“You better watch out when you call people out,” Arizona coach Bruce Arians said. “It’s OK to talk, just back it up.”
“Hoo (Jones) told me he heard some comment that (Peterson) made about him and he told me every night he thought about it,” teammate Devin Hester said. “He showed it.”
The Falcons drove to a touchdown on their opening drive, sparked by Jackson’s 55-yard run. A 70-yard punt return Hester was wiped out when an official made the most unusual of calls – a facemask penalty on Hester, who had stiff-armed punter Drew Butler in the face at the Cardinals’ two. Replays showed Butler actually had grabbed Hester’s facemask. It was unclear if Hester had grabbed Butler’s but he denied doing so and later said officials admitted their mistake. Special teams coach Keith Armstrong went ballistic and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on top of the facemask.
Mike Smith’s amusing no comment: “Please don’t make me answer that question. You guys saw the replay, just like I saw the replay.”
Hester: “I didn’t agree with it. I felt like he grabbed my facemask and there was a misread by the ref. Several plays later they admitted that. It was an opposite call. Too late then.”
Didn’t matter. Arizona couldn’t do bupkis offensively. The Cards’ touchdown until the final minute came on an 88-yard interception return by Rashad Johnson. Matt Ryan otherwise had few misfires, completing 30 of 41 for 361 yards, two touchdowns and a 105.8 efficiency rating.
Excuse me. Where did this come from?
Or did I ask that already?
“We’ve been playing better football but losing close games,” Corey Peters said. “If you look back to the Detroit game (in London), I think we should’ve won the last five games.”
OK. Let’s not go crazy.
The Falcons are in first-place at 5-7. But they haven’t been viewed as a division leader even in their own city.
Tickets were being dumped outside the Georgia Dome. Thousands of sold seats remain unfilled during the game. StubHub, which generally is an accurate indicator of interest in a sports event in the secondary ticket market, was selling upper level seats ($55 face value) for as low as $4.28. Lower bowl tickets ($105 face value) were going for as low as $17.
Does one game change their market value? Maybe. But it’s probably best to hold off on declarations until next week’s game in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers: Better than Drew Stanton.
But for one night, they Falcons looked like a real team.
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