We’ll find out what Falcons’ talking means now
Arthur Blank has owned the Falcons since 2002 and in only three of 12 seasons has the team finished with a record of 4-12 or something similarly noxious.
First time: 2003. One season after leading the team to a playoff upset in Green Bay, Michael Vick suffered a broken leg in an exhibition game and missed the season. The Falcon went 5-11. Blank told coach Dan Reeves late in the season that he would be fired, I guess because Reeves had the audacity to not prevent the broken leg.
Boom. Blank hired a new general manager (Rich McKay) and coach (Jim Mora).
Second time: 2007. Blank and McKay hired Bobby Petrino, the world learned of Bad Newz Kennels and its unexpected CEO (Vick), and the house burned down. The Falcons went 4-12. Petrino hated that nobody loved him. Also that he wasn’t good enough to coach in the NFL. So he slithered out of town late one night for Arkansas, which was only too happy to provide him with a job, a Harley and a tall, blonde student-athlete development coordinator.
Boom. Blank hired a new general manager (Thomas Dimitroff) and coach (Mike Smith).
Third time: 2013. Injuries to key offensive players unmasked the ugly truth: The Falcons were weak up front and lacked physicality and toughness. They had become soft and lazy. They went 4-12.
No boom.
Dimitroff and Smith are back and it’s easy to understand why. They deserved the chance to fix this. From 2008 to 2012, they achieved the highest level of success in franchise history.
As quarterback Matt Ryan said, “Those first five years happened, too.”
Just don’t get comfortable. Blank isn’t a man who accepts failure. If the Falcons’ season jumps the rails again this time, somebody at or near the top of football operations is going to pay the price. Blank needs to sell his team, sponsors, tickets and PSLs before the Falcons’ new Valhalla opens in 2017. Jobs are on the line and everybody knows it, even if nobody will say it.
That’s fine. The bar should be high. I’ll never celebrate somebody losing a job — well, maybe Petrino — but ultimately this is about competing for and winning championships. Atlanta’s three major pro sports teams have combined for exactly one of those.
One bad season can be dismissed. Not two. Two is a trend. Even Smith admitted that he got a little too comfortable before last season because the Falcons appeared to be ascending and lost a close game to San Francisco in the NFC championship.
“When you’re winning … things get overlooked,” he said in April. “You realize later that maybe you should have addressed them that year. And even the year before that.
“I lost my way,” he said.
The latter was a reference to taking the focus off what still determines success in the NFL: blocking, tackling, the ability of one guy to knock the other guy down. That’s what separates real football from Fantasy Leagues.
Dimitroff, Smith, assistants and players all vow this will be different. They have had fights in training camp. They had made-for-TV screaming sessions on a cable television show. We can debate how much of it all was orchestrated for effect, but frankly it doesn't matter.
The Falcons open the season Sept. 7 against rival New Orleans and nobody is going to care that day how many expletives Bryan Cox or Keith Armstrong can squeeze into a soundbite.
“Obviously we didn’t have the kind of success we wanted last year and one of the biggest differences now is having to answer questions about that,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to put that behind us. One of the biggest things everybody understands is whatever we did last year won’t have any bearing on what we do this year. It’s easy to say that when you’ve won before.”
Asked if he has sensed a higher level of scrutiny leading up to the season, Ryan said, “There’s always questions that are going to be asked. People are going to discuss things you haven’t done. You’d be naïve to say there’s not this year because of the season that we had last year. But you can’t let it affect you. You can’t let it affect your performance.”
The Falcons have been talking a good game. Now we’ll see how that translates on the field.
