Oh, the emotional garbage spewing out of Atlanta tonight in the hours approaching the Eagles’ nationally televised Sunday night contest against the Falcons…
It goes a little something like this:
“Throughout my teenage years Vick dazzled onlookers as he danced around defenders, making the game look easy. Although he never won a championship, he gave the Falcons organization and fans alike a gigantic lift in confidence and expectation to a level never seen before.”
“Then 2007 hit all Falcons fans like a brick wall. The whole dogfighting issue has been discussed enough, what disappointed me the most was that he lied and deceived the organization and Mr Blank in particular, a man I admire a lot (both as a football owner and as a businessman). When Vick was given an indefinite suspension and sent to jail, it felt like the heart and soul of the team had been ripped out… the only fans I can think of who have had an experience like this are fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers when Lebron James left for Miami. For me the disappointment was on that level.”
“As Mike Vick came out of prison and made the incredible rise back to a starting QB in Philly, it became only a matter of time until he came back to the Georgia Dome to play the Falcons. As the former idol in Vick and the new shining star in Ryan prepare to face off, this game has become a lot more important than just the win, the City of Atlanta needs a win for closure, to show that they are better than Vick and that they have moved on to a new exciting era.” —- ACTUAL EXCERPTS FROM A FALCONS FAN POST AT Blogging Dirty.com, an Atlanta Falcons blog….
Many Atlanta fans are having trouble with getting a grip on the fact that Vick is back to break their hearts in a very different (and business-like) manner…
There’s all kinds of rhetoric and rubbish (and even pathetic attempts at poetry) in Atlanta today, all about the epic justice and disaster that awaits Mike Vick on the playing field at the Georgia Dome this Sunday. Thankfully for Eagles fans, Vick himself is approaching the game as “just business”…
“That’s not my house,” Vick said Wednesday. “That’s Matt Ryan’s house. I’m just a visitor.”
Vick was gracious about it two years ago (the last time the Eagles played in the Dome), and he remains that way preparing for another trip to Atlanta.
Nothing personal, A-T-L, but Vick has moved on. He doesn’t spend a lot of time assessing his career with the Falcons – or what might’ve been. “To be honest, I’ve not really thought about that in a while,” Vick said in a conference call from Philadelphia. “It may cross my mind every once in a while, but I’m so thankful to be in Philly right now. I know things happen for a reason. Maybe it was meant for me to be here. I couldn’t have landed in a better city, a better place. This is my home, this is where I want to be. I’m just thankful for that.”
As Paul Newberry (Associated Press) said so well, the Falcons and their fans should be more concerned about getting a win than dealing with the hoopla over Vick’s return. Atlanta opened with an ugly 30-12 loss at Chicago, hardly looking like a team many have tapped to go all the way. Besides, there’s only a handful of players left over from Vick’s career in Atlanta.
“He wasn’t here when I got here,” middle linebacker Curtis Lofton said. “We’ve got new guys, a new team. I don’t think that’s really relevant.” Roddy White, the Falcons’ star receiver, is one of the few holdovers from Vick’s Falcons. They’re still close friends and talk to each other often, though rarely about football. “We just talk about life, things like that. Football is the last thing we ever talk about,” White said. “He’s done a good job for all the misfortune that happened to him. To bounce back like that, he handled it well. I just hope he continues to handle it well.”
Vick had plenty of success under Atlanta coaches Dan Reeves and Jim Mora. The Falcons were the first team ever to beat Green Bay in a playoff game at Lambeau Field, and they went all the way to the NFC championship game during the 2004 season (losing to the Eagles, in what would become an interesting twist). Now Vick has a chance to beat the Falcons to give the Eagles their first 2-0 start since 2004…
Meanwhile, the Eagles defensive line members are on record (quoted by David Wineburg of the Atlantic City Press) as saying the Atlanta fans should be more focused on the “surfing lessons” they intend to give Matt Ryan on Sunday night…
Defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and DL coach Jim Washburn will be sending waves of pass rushers at Ryan, a Philadelphia native and Wildwood summer resident. As many as eight defensive linemen will get significant playing time against the Falcons as part of Castillo’s and Washburn’s rotational system.
“Their pass rush is solid up front,” Ryan said in a phone interview. “They’ve got some really good defensive linemen. We’ll have our work cut out for us.” Unlike past seasons, when the late Jim Johnson and Sean McDermott used intricate blitz schemes to generate pressure, Castillo wants to rely on his front four to get to the quarterback, leaving the linebackers and defensive backs to concentrate on pass coverage.
The NFL has become a pass-first league, and the Falcons are loaded for aerial strikes with White and rookie wideout Julio Jones along with future Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez, but Atlanta’s offense is still a throwback to a decade when teams ran to set up the pass.
The Falcons still ride the powerful, ever-churning legs of the 5-foot-10, 237-pound Michael Turner. He comes off his third consecutive season of double-digit rushing touchdowns (12) and last year led the NFC with 1,371 rushing yards. “Michael Turner, he’s s great running back,” safety Kurt Coleman said. “He’s a lot like (Jaguars All-Pro) Maurice Jones-Drew, just his stature and the way he hits the hole.”
“We know this is a passing league but the Falcons still like to run the ball a good amount,” weak-side linebacker Moise Fokou said. “We haven’t showed that we can stop the run or made out stamp in the league yet. It’s only Week 2. We’re trying to become a complete defense and it’s going to take time.”
Last year, by the way, the Eagles held Turner to 45 yards on 15 carries in a 31-17 blowout.
It’s a pretty simple concept of beating the Falcons: you’ve got to limit Turner in the run game, or at least wear him out, and you’ve got to blanket WR Roddy White and prevent TE Tony Gonzalez from moving the chains with 3rd-down catches. It’s not a pretty design, and it certainly lacks the drama and sentimental appeal of putting the entire focus on Vick as the Black Knight. If the Eagles win this game, it will be more because of conquering the Turner-White-Gonzalez triangle, and less to do with Vick’s solo effect on the game.
It was amazing what the Falcons were able to do with Roddy White last season…teams knew the Falcons were going to him and tried to take him out of it, but they for the most part could not stop him. White has a knack for getting open and staying open. Ryan has a tendency to lean on White. The Eagles know this, and they hope an improved pass rush combined with upgraded coverage at corner and safety will put the brakes on the Ryan-to-White connection.
To me that’s the real drama coming up Sunday night… I care a lot more about how Roddy White’s boxscore looks at the end of the night than I do about Michael Vick’s “homecoming”…
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