ATLANTA -- Trying not to get too excited about one game. Trying not to get too excited about the Atlanta Falcons' 45-28 rampage Sunday over Carolina.
|
|
| The difference between Mike Smith and then-head coach Bobby Petrino is like night and day. (Getty Images) |
Trying.
Failing.
And so what? So what if I am failing? If this column is premature congratulations, so be it. Name a franchise that could use some good press, even premature and overstated good press, more than the Atlanta Falcons.
Lions. Raiders. Chiefs. Bengals.
Right. All of them suck. All of them are stuck with a bad owner, bad general manager or bad coach. Or in the Bengals' case, all three.
But none of them had a dog-killing dirtbag for a franchise player, like the Falcons had with felonious quarterback Michael Vick. And none of them had a lying, sniveling, high-tailing coward of a coach like Bobby Petrino. Both in the same calendar year.
Last year, come to think of it.
So if I'm overly excited for the Atlanta Falcons, sue me. But this doesn't feel like overexcitement or a rush to judgment or anything I'll regret saying in the morning. The Falcons are going places, and not just next season. And listen, next season would have been plenty fast enough for a franchise that lost its offensive (and financial) centerpiece to prison and its rookie coach to fraudulence within a matter of months. After Vick was jailed and Petrino bailed, the Falcons were left with a 4-12 team going nowhere.
Only now, this team could be going to the playoffs. This season, even.
The Falcons are 7-4, but unfortunate to be stuck in one of the strongest divisions in the NFL. At 7-4, Atlanta would be outright leading two divisions (AFC West and NFC North), and would be tied for first in one more (the NFC West).
In the NFC South, the Falcons are in third place. But they're just one game behind co-leaders Carolina and Tampa Bay, and while Tampa Bay's veteran offense and playmaking defense are built to last, Carolina can't keep this up. Carolina is too much of a one-man team -- that one man is receiver Steve Smith -- to be 8-3. After their next two games, at Green Bay and against Tampa Bay, they'll be 8-5 and mired in a three-game losing streak and facing season-closing games on the road against the Giants and Saints.
