Monday, October 22, 2007

Five Thoughts on the Falcons

1. The offensive line is putrid and we can't blame that on Bobby Petrino. I was worried about Petrino's offense experiencing the same protection problems that bedeviled Steve Spurrier in the NFL, but the Falcons' inability to protect the passer comes down to the fact that they have a number of injuries on the offensive line and the personnel is struggling mightily to adapt to a new style. Lord, please let the Falcons finish low enough that Jake Long is on the board when we draft.

2. I hope the rest of you noticed Keith Brooking tackling Lewis Sanders on the Saints' winning touchdown yesterday. For those of you who don't know, Sanders is a corner for the Falcons and he had stood Bush up at the one-yard line when Brooking hit Sanders and allowed Bush to fall into the end zone. I kept showing the play on slow-mo to Der Wife, who was cackling away before heading to the computer to figure out if the domain name www.cutkeithbrooking.com is taken.

3. Who had "two quarters and change" in the "how long will it take before Byron Leftwich is injured on account of the Falcons' dreadful line?" pool? Leftwich looked pretty good before he got hurt, although he wasn't exactly going up against the '81 49ers secondary. Joey Harrington also looked OK when he had more than a half-second to throw the ball.

4. Why in G-d's name did the Falcons punt the ball to the Saints with two minutes to go? Did they really think that the defense could get a three-and-out? Fourth and long wasn't a great option, but it was the best of a bad series of options.

5. We're seven games into the season and we're still waiting for Jamaal Anderson's first sack.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your point Number 5 may be teh most telling. AS a Saints fan, I was shicked at how little pressure Anderson adn Abraham got on Brees. I think Jamaal Brown will make the pro bowl on this game alone. ALso, whenever the announcers fail to mention Jon Stitchcomb, the Saints usually win.

FYI, How close did you watch the game Herr Elkon? Did you see the promo for the Rockies Indians World Series begining on Wed. night?

peacedog said...

How much do you want to blame the OL on McKay? Thanks to the Alex Gibbs voodoo offense line system, I feel like we were bound to end up in trouble as soon as we decided to shift gears.

Course, it doesn't help when you are short two OTs. It's certainly true hey were really awful (and have been most of the year). Egads.

Matt said...

#2. I watched that play about a dozen times myself and I think it deserves more scrutiny. Did Brooking think that Sanders had enough of a death grip on Bush that by grabbing Sanders he was really just grabbing them both? When he was 2 steps away, though, he clearly aimed behind Sanders, not at the center of the conflict. Is he just not quick enough to readjust or is he on the take? That seems ridiculous, but he could not have done a more perfect job of allowing Reggie Bush to score.

#4. Seriously! They would have had to make the Saints go 3 and out anyway, so if the Falcons didn't convert the 4rd down they wouldn't be in bad shape. Although by not letting the Saints score again (which they might have), the Falcons did cover the spread. Very interesting...

Unknown said...

If you look back on it - things really went down hill fast for Mora and the franchise as soon as he sniped Jeff Van Note and Mike Kenn that day to the reporter.

That was the lowest of the low, desecrating two rare Falcons legends:

something to the effect of - "Oh yeah? and how many championships did they win?" - when he was told that they didn't agree with Gibbs' "offensive lineman don't speak to the media" stance.

My boss and I refer to it as The Curse of The Noter. Something must be done to make it right.