Found June 10, 2009 on
MVN:
PLAYERS:
Tony Gonzalez,
Roddy White,
Drew Brees,
Mike Smith,
Matt Ryan,
Tom Brady
TEAMS: Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots, East Tennessee State Buccaneers
TEAMS: Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots, East Tennessee State Buccaneers
First, I'd like to apologize for my
absence. Over the last month-and-a-half, I've embarked on a new
employment opportunity, and am in the process of re-balancing work,
work, family and my Falcons blog.
But enough about me.
I wanted to share this link to an
amusing article. Something about the greatness of man versus the
greatness of ego.
It's June. Falcons OTAs are in full
swing. The rookies are being signed and integrated in the offensive,
defensive and special teams schemes. Falcons are helping charities,
communities, and supporting our armed forces. Mike Vick is 600 miles
away. Things are looking good. Heck...with Tony Gonzalez, Michael
Turner and Roddy White, we even have three players in the Madden '10
top ten at their positions.
Still, Panthers, Saints and even Bucs
fans seem to think they each have the best team in the division.
Saints fans will - in the same breath, mind you - point out that
the Falcons defense is unproven, so they can't beat the Saints this
year, while the [ahem, unproven] new Saints defense will bolster the
vicious attack by Drew Brees and company. Panthers fans tout their
underachieving starting quarterback, their disgruntled DE and their
one-dimensional passing game as their aces-in-the-hole in their quest
to defend their division title. Buccaneers...well, they hope the
Bucs can do what the Falcons did last year...
To give credit where credit is due, the
Saints do still have a great passing offense, the Panthers a strong
running duo, and the Bucs a better-than-average defense. But they
can't all play us at once. The Falcons are attempting to build the
best all-around team. The offense was already strong, and the
addition of Tony Gonzalez completes their attack. The defense is
young, and, I'll admit, unproven, but built around a solid core
(Lofton, Abraham, Babineaux, Peterson, Coleman) and getting very deep
at multiple positions. The competition for DE, DT, corner back,
safety and linebacker is strong, and whomever emerges at the starting
positions will have had to earn it. Mike Smith is a defensive mind,
and that will only serve to make this team better. No one is resting
on their laurels.
I've been reading a lot of reaction to
many debates going on in the sports sites, and I'd like to address
some of the misconceptions I've seen:
The Falcons have never had
back-to-back winning seasons -
Prior to 1998, they had never been to a Super Bowl. That didn't
change the fact that they made it there. Unless you are willing to
put your stock in superstitions about curses, there's no reason to
believe that this kind of random statistic has any bearing about
what can happen in the future.
The Falcons will have to beat
the NFC East and AFC East, two of the toughest divisions in the NFL
- Though I can't argue that,
based on the statistics these teams have, these might be the
toughest divisions in the NFL (though I'd argue the NFC South is
right there with them), I would like to remind everyone that the
Saints, Panthers and Bucs all have to play the same two divisions.
The Saints will have to face the same pass defenses we do. The
Panthers will have to try to build their running attack against the
same defenses. The same potent offenses will try to beat the Bucs
defenses. This division, as it usually does, will come down to how
we do against each other, and I like the Falcons chances here.
Teams have plenty of tape on
Matt Ryan and they will have figured him out -
I'd like to point out that teams have even more tape on Peyton
Manning, Tom Brady and even Drew Brees. There's not much to "figure
out" about Matt Ryan - he reads defenses, checks down his
receivers, and hits the open man in stride. I've seen Mike Tyson
box plenty of times, that doesn't mean I can "stop him".
The
best news of all of this chatter is, people wouldn't be so fixated on
"proving" the Falcons can't do it, if they weren't terrified they
could.Enjoy the blog? Join the Facebook group! I'm happy to field whatever questions you may have (time allowing).
Original Story:
http://mvn.com/flyinghigh/2009/06/sum...
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June 09, 2009






