State of the Falcons - The Coach Killer Edition

Or is it the "fuck you" edition? Michael Vick has since apologized for flipping off the fans. He claims he did it in the heat of the moment out of frustration. But I hardly blame him. (BTW, allow me to point out that by the game's end, everyone had left the dome. Our fate was sealed with about 4 minutes to go. Those fans in the picture stayed to the end for a reason. I can only imagine what they were spewing. Also note they are obnoxious Falcons fans - not an obnoxious Saints fan in the bunch.)

Let me get something clear right now. Michael Vick does not deserve to be thrown under the bus. He is the leader of the team and, of course, he is responsible for the good and the bad. But the national media has gone too far. Michael Vick is the best thing that ever happened to the Falcons organization and I'm not just saying that because approximately 80% of the metro area population owns a #7 jersey. If you want to talk about Michael Vick, don't mouth off based on the box score or the highlights. Watch the games. All the games. I have maintained all season that Vick is throwing accurately this season. I stand by that - because I watch the games. When Mike first got to Atlanta, he was indeed throwing the ball 10 feet past the receiver. In fact, that is a big reason why I wanted a receiver like T.O. to come to Atlanta in order to ameliorate Vick's passing deficiencies. He is not doing that anymore. In fact, I will say 95% of the passes that Vick is throwing this season can be caught by a professional wide receiver. Unfortunately, those are in short supply in the Atl. The play calling is erratic and often irrational. The offensive line goes from worse to worser each passing minute. But do you know how we manage to remain 4th in total offense in the NFL, yet our quarterback is the 6th most sacked QB in the NFL (ahead of David Carr!)? Michael Vick. He is not a coach killer, inconsistent, etc. etc. He is a playmaker. End of story. And right now he is looking like the only one we've got.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank is trying to do damage control. But if Michael Vick is the coach killer Jim Mora, Sr. says he is, then he needs to man up and finish the job. Secretly, I was kind of pleased to see Vick angry enough to start flipping off people. He's got to decide who is going to define his legacy. The media? The coach? The GM? Especially as a player who has the ear of ownership, Vick needs to go ahead and decide what he's going to do. Does he want a ring or not? Does he want to be in the Hall of Fame or not? Although I appreciate it when Mike straps the "S" on his chest and breaks off 50 yard runs to keep the team in the game, he's got to realize that his job description is broader than even those super feats.

I was so concerned about the Falcons that I attended the game in person this week. I am no good luck charm. It was horrible. I don't care how much improved the Saints are, the Falcons never go 0-2 to the Saints. The mood in the GA dome alternated between wails of anguish and sustained booing. But mostly wails of anguish.

The defense played well in spurts. Unfortunately, they allowed the Saints to get two consecutive TD's in the first half. Not to mention the "hail mary" as the 1st half was expiring. That might be one of the most embarrassing plays in Falcons history. There might have been 6 Falcons on that Saints receiver. Not one of them could make a play. The passing defense and the corresponding zone coverage are unwatchable at this point. We are certainly not getting the expensive defense we paid for (Fuck you, Rich McKay).

Fuck you, Roddy White. Fuck you, Michael Jenkins. Fuck you, Ashley Lelie. I don't think there is a team in the league who can say that their entire receiving core is absolute trash. Trash! The whole bunch.

I can continue.

We have no red zone offense.

Warrick Dunn continues to be below standards and/or Jerious Norwood is getting too many touches.

Blah, blah, blah. I could go in forever in painful detail about all the things that are going wrong for the Falcons.

Yet, it is the special pain of the Falcons fan that we can't even be put out of our misery. You see, the rest of the NFC sucks too. Carolina lost today. The Giants lost today. The 49ers don't appear to be a serious playoff threat. Philly is done. No one can say who the NFC wild card teams are going to be. So, you see, folks. We are still technically in the hunt! Oh, kill me now...

And to think, we could be Dallas. Full of upside. Headed to the playoffs. But even though Vick and Mora and even Gregg Knapp came out in support of acquiring Terrell Owens in the off season, the GM apparently decided we could do better. In fact, no one will convince me that McKay did not waste millions of dollars and a 1st round draft pick on John Abraham who has played 1 3/4 games this season) as a smokescreen so he wouldn't be on the hook for picking up T.O. Why aren't the Falcons built like Indy? Huh? Huh? Instead, McKay "upgraded" our defense. Regrettably, I see that "upgrade" every Sunday.

Probably even more so than Dallas, Atlanta needs an "illuminator," a black light so to speak. The people are calling for Knapp's head and replacing him might help Atlanta, but its likely to turn out to be another miscellaneous change that doesn't really give us any answers. Our organization should be really jealous of Dallas right now because the "illumination" T.O. provided might turn out to be the biggest benefit of bringing him there. When you bring in a sure thing, then it becomes clear what the deficiencies are. Do you think the switch from Bledsoe to Romo would have been made if not for T.O.? People were even starting to throw Parcells under the bus. When T.O. is part of the offense and you can't get the ball to T.O., then that means your quarterback sucks (that means you too, Jeff Garcia). There were no more excuses for the Dallas offense. With T.O. there, they had nothing to lose by getting rid of Bledsoe. Owens would have done the same for the Falcons organization. We would know who really sucks by now. It would have shown on the field, not to mention, T.O. would have been happy to scream it from the rafters.

We still need some light shined on the Falcons situation. Given Vick's improved passing ability, I'll concede that it doesn't have to come from the WR position (although we have to get WRs that can catch), but we have to bring in a proven entity in the coaching staff or say an additional high quality running back or even an offensive lineman to "illuminate" who's really not getting the job done. Then we can move on from there...