Good Riddance

Two years ago, I liked Mora. I thought he brought personality to the team... He was fiery, and it appeared to pump up the team. I figured it was a good fit. He took us to the NFL Championship game and it looked like a sign of good things to come, especially after a 6-2 start last season. However, since then Mora has been anything but impressive. Once the Falcons started losing, it was easy to see that Mora couldn't keep his cool. Players look to their coach as an authoratative figure, and when they see the coach running up and down the sideline screaming... How can you supposed to expect his players to keep their cool? Mora had no control over the team, he liked to think he was one of the players instead of a coach.

I hope the entire coaching staff gets let go. And I hope the new coach coming in can control the team and establish discipline. I want a coach who can keep his composure in tough situations. Mark Richt for example, never loses his cool or makes a fool of himself. UGA was down 3-21 to Va Tech at halftime... You didn't see Richt out of control and giving up on the team. As a result, the Bulldogs came back and won 31-24. When have you ever seen the Falcons come back from a 4th quarter defecit? It hasn't happened.

As for Vick... Can we please get rid of him. I've lost respect for him. He's not a leader. He is the Allen Iverson of football. He doesn't care about the team or winning. He cares about the 1,000 rushing yards he put up this year. He cares about his career high 20 TD passes this year. He throws everyone under the bus except for himself. He sees himself as higher than the team (which you can partly blame on Arthur Blank, who else have you seen Blank pushing around the sideline on a wheelchair while injured... No one).

Vick's excuse for never emerging as the consistant superstar that everyone expected out of him is that they've gone through 3 different coaching systems in the 6 years he's been a pro. Well it appears the Falcons are about to go through their 4th different system. Does that mean we get 2 more years of mediocre play out of him?

My suggestion... Trade him. Get whatever picks we can get for him and move on. We have an extremely talented QB in Matt Schaub. For some reason Matt Schaub doesn't have trouble with our WR. Last year against the then defending world champ Patriots, Schaub passed for 300+ yards and 3 TD's. Last week against the Eagles in just over a quarter Schaub passed for 175 yards (and passed for the Falcons 1st 4th qtr TD in about 14 games) while Vick had only passed for 86 yards in 2 1/2 quarters.

I know the Falcons don't have the balls to trade Vick and hand the team over the Schaub, even though that's probably the right move. So I'm praying that Vick will demand a trade out of Atlanta.

Making It Look Easy

How the Falcons are playing is summed up pretty well below...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=2591874

The Falcons ran all over yet another team that is considered to have a top defense in the league. 252 rushing yards last week against Carolina, 306 this afternoon against Tampa Bay... A team that has dominated Vick and the Falcons in the past. The kicking game is a mess, but I have a pretty good feeling that it'll be addressed before next weeks Monday Night Game against the Saints.

The greatest thing about todays 14-3 win over Tampa was probably just watching the frustration building on the Tampa sideline. Simms had so many passes knocked down at the line and I feel like he's lucky that he only threw 3 interceptions, things could have been MUCH, MUCH worse. But I'm content with yet another humbling of a 2005 playoff team... Falcons have quickly become the team to beat in the NFC South. A win next week will put us at 3-0 overall and 3-0 against the NFC South. The great thing is that if there's going to be another 2-0 team in the division, it's the Saints. That's perfect. I never would've imagined Tampa and Carolina both getting off to 0-2 starts, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Please Don't Stress Me Out This Year...

Well I guess I'll start this up again. I'm excited about the Falcons as a team this year, I think they've greatly improved overall compared to lasts years team, especially on defense. We traded T.J. Duckett to Washington and got Ashley Lelie from Denver, and at first I didn't really approve of the trade but I'm becoming impressed with Jerious Norwood and I think he can fill in for Duckett just fine. I just hope Lelie comes here and busts his ass but I'm a little worried he's gonna be another drama queen Wide Receiver.

I hate the schedule... It's not gonna be pretty. Tampa and Carolina have tough defenses and New Orleans has improved their offense a good bit. We play the AFC North this year which isn't exactly an easy division. My honest prediction is a 7-9 season... With or without a healthy Vick. It's gonna take a huge breakout season from a lot of players in order for us to win 10 or 11 games this year. But we'll see, Vick has the talent to take over any game so hopefully he can take a step forward this year and become a legit star QB.

Draft:

Texans - I've decided are one of the worst franchises in football. The reasoning behind taking Mario Williams over Reggie Bush according to the Texans GM.. "You know, look at it this way, if we had Bush, would we outscore Indianapolis? Our decision was no. What's our best chance of beating Indianapolis? That's with a pass rush and that's Mario Williams."

That's a GREAT thought process. Compare your 2-14 team to a 14-2 team. ESPN has polls where fans can vote on their teams draft grade... 61% of the fans gave Houston an 'F'.

Arizona is going to have a great offense for years to come, one of the best in football I've decided. I've watched Pope while he was here in Athens and he's a beast. Critics say he's raw and needs to work on blocking but in a few years he'll be an amazing TE. A lot of mock drafts had him going in the late 1st round, so getting him in the 3rd round was a steal. Need I even say anything about Leinart? Congrats to Arizona, God obviously wants you to have a good team. It amazes me that teams like Detroit and Oakland passed on Leinart... GM's are geniuses these days...

As for the Falcons, I expected nothing out of them in the draft. I was hoping for a Michael Huff or Jimmy Williams a couple months ago, but then we traded our 15th pick for Abraham. So when I saw we drafted Williams, I was at first confused... Wasn't sure if it was the same guy, thought there was no way he dropped to the 2nd round (most mock drafts had him going in the top 12). But it was the cocky, physical Va Tech cornerback who I had hoped for. I really respect the Falcons for trading up to get him, that was a great move. And I'm more than impressed with what we've done to upgrade our defense this offseason. I understand teams passed on Jimmy Williams because of his cockiness, but guess what... There's a guy named Deangelo Hall who was labeled as the same type of player and I honestly don't care if your cocky as long as you have the game to back it up. Williams may have caused problems on other teams, but I'm sure that with D-Hall and Vick as mentors, he won't lose focus.

DJ Shockley... I'm glad they took him out of UGA. He's a great guy and the Falcons have been getting a lot of shit for not drafting UGA players. I think the last UGA player they drafted was in 1994. Shockley will compete for the #3 spot on the depth chart. I hope he makes it, I would love to see him in a Falcons uniform.