Falcons make an impressive opening statement
The Falcons celebrate their first touchdown. Get used to this. (Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com)
Remember the season opener a year ago, when it became so clear so early that every move had worked? The general manager who rebuilt the roster. The coach who chose a different path than his predecessor and convinced his players they really weren’t a sub-standard life form. The quarterback who played like some flawless lab creation.
It happened again Sunday.
This is the part where we caution: It’s only one game. Even Mike Smith, the coach, felt compelled to say, “It’s Week 1 of a long journey.”
But it looks like everything worked again. The second-year moves by second-year general manager Thomas Dimitroff leave some sense of clairvoyance. The Falcons look better than good, better than last year, almost certainly better than we expected. They won their opener, 19-7, and it wasn’t nearly that close. Two missed field goals and a botched extra point — OK, Jason Elam: not so perfect – prevented an assumed seven points. Miami was shut out until the final 3:22.
This game had 26-0 written all over it.
Falcons coach Mike Smith and assistant Gerald Brown celebrate the final minute of the season's first win. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)
“Until the first kickoff and the first regular season game – and I stress, regular season game – you can’t truly have an indication of what your team is about,” Dimitroff said. “It’s a good feeling when you know all of the hard work that goes into the evaluation of players by coach Smith and I and the whole personnel staff, and you see guys produce effectively. It’s encouraging.”
It’s more than that. For a franchise that has taken too many steps back after too few steps forward, this was a glowing statement on the future.
Tony Gonzalez in; Ben Hartsock out –
I'm Tony Gonzalez -- catch me if you can. (Curtis Compton/compton@ajc.com)
that one figured to work out. But could the new tight end have made a more dramatic entrance? Five catches for 73 yards, including one for a 20-yard touchdown and a finger-tip grab at the Miami one to set up the Falcons’ first score.
Mike Peterson in; Keith Brooking out – that one figured to work out. But is this the same Peterson whom Jacksonville practically drop-kicked out of town? He forced a fumble – separating the Dolphins’ Anthony Fasano from the ball and his senses — to set up a field goal in the first quarter and intercepted a Chad Pennington pass to set up a touchdown in the third.
Brian Williams, waiver pickup last week: a fumble recovery. Curtis Lofton and Kroy Biermann, selections from Dimitroff’s first draft: each with a forced fumble. Biermamn also had two sacks, as did John Abraham.
You looked for a few positive signs in the opener. The Falcons gave you a cross between ballet and a wrecking ball.
One win. Only one win. But think about this: They dominated despite seeing Michael Turner and the running game relatively stuffed, and Matt Ryan — despite finishing with solid numbers — actually misfire a few times to open receivers. What happens when everything clicks?
“I wouldn’t want to be a defensive coordinator trying to come up with a game plan,” center Todd McClure said.
Gonzalez was a little more direct: “If teams want to stack the box against us to stop the run, that’s fine. We should hurt them.”
There was no shortage of panic over the defense. Veterans were cut loose after last season and the team, while clearly younger and faster, looked lost in exhibitions. Exhibitions or not, there seemed no way to rationalize how the No. 1 unit played at times. “You just look at the guys we have on paper,” Peterson said. “Some teams look good in practice and some look good in pre-season. It’s just a matter of [carrying] it over when it counts.”
One win. Only one win. But it appears every move worked again. And afterward, nobody in the locker room looked surprised, nobody made any grand proclamations, nobody spouted off about their stats. An impressive start to the journey.
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213 comments Add your comment
big bad bird
September 13th, 2009
7:50 pm
Bierman is impressive, where did they find the guy? Great scouting. With the motor on him I am not sure he has stopped and the game has been over for hours. And you have to love the addition of Tony G. I am a happy bird.
Gred Mendel
September 13th, 2009
7:50 pm
Terrific game. Not just because of the win, but because the defense surprised everybody — including the Dolphins. Were it not for a few mistakes, the score would have been more lopsided. Elam had a bad day, but don’t we all (and we can’t schedule them)? He’ll be right back.
Best thing is, the game isolated the mistakes, making them correctable in a hurry, but without a loss. (IMO, Chris Houston is remains a mistake, or at least a weakness.)
It’s still a tough schedule, but barring critical injuries and un-corrected mistakes, this team will do very well this year. Super Bowl next year.
downsouthdirtybird
September 13th, 2009
7:50 pm
wink that norwood pass was his fault he just slowed down a little bit to early and tried to turn to early but ryan did have good few miscues but sure he’ll correct em
Sonny Clusters
September 13th, 2009
7:52 pm
Back when we was writing for the paper we was interested in telling both sides of a story. We learned that isn’t always possible when the columns are narrow and you run out of paper sometimes. So, we was content to just put in there what fit and not worry too much about the rest. When we was playing ball we did almost the same thing. One time we was at Dairy Queen and some Cobb County players drove up and got out of their BMW and come up to the counter and said something like, “gimme some soft serve with a curl on top and put it in a sugar cone and cover it in chocolate and put some nuts on top.” We knew right away that was trouble. Jeff went up to the car and told them Dairy Queen was out of nuts and they should go back to Cobb County. All of a sudden, three more of ‘em got out of the car and they started circling Jeff. Cool as a cucumber Jeff said, “They’s some nuts under the counter. I forgot.” And they ate their ice cream and went on they way after picking up a couple of Parkview girls that had come there to be with the team. We was always suspicious of Cobb County boys after that. Still are.
SOUTHERN ATL
September 13th, 2009
7:59 pm
New Michael Vick website:
http://mikevick.ning.com/
mountain_jim
September 13th, 2009
8:03 pm
Bierman – the next Patrick Kearney
Mitch
September 13th, 2009
8:05 pm
Big Bad Bird, it seems you haven’t seen this video…. Expect Biermann to continue ripping it up….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovNOAtJEeuY&feature=PlayList&p=E9CE42660D4B0B82&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=18
Relentless
September 13th, 2009
8:05 pm
Defense was big surprise wow. My only comment other than that is why don’t we run Norwood more? He can break it all the way at anytime and would keep D from keying on Turner.
tom
September 13th, 2009
8:06 pm
Elam will be fine, he’s a pro and he did hit that 50 yarder. I liked it that Coach Smith sent him back out there for that one. Bierman is a bruiser and young, will be around for awhile and a great compliment to Abraham. Sack filled year! Thought Houston quit on that completed pass, he should have had an interception if he had kept after the ball. That hit by Peterson rang my clock.
Go Falcons.
Southside Falcon
September 13th, 2009
8:07 pm
Kudzu: Your behind enemy Lines? Man taht has to suck seeing all that Suckaneer crap, as a fan your in my heart man Wera your black and Red with pride in front of them Suckas
Brainiac
September 13th, 2009
8:08 pm
Bierman…what a motor! We started to see that last year. He’s a Montana grad, by the way. Great scouting job.
Eric
September 13th, 2009
8:11 pm
And a star is born, all hale “THE BEER MAN”
Mike
September 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
Mike Peterson looked like L.T. out there, what a major upgrade over that other guy who made takles 10 yards down field.
ToccoaDawg
September 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
Falcons has a few things to work on. Overall they looked good. Dgets an atta boy that no one saw coming. congrats coach van, Next week will be a hard game, Carolina got embarrassed and they will be looking for bear. get ready Falcons. but a very very nice first win. and for the record Roddy did run weak routes its time he shows why he earns that kind of money.
oldbrave
September 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
yes 71 looked very good so did Jerry
MAD-DONNA
September 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
Not impressed! Dreadful! Poor showing by the offense! The defense looked better than the much glorified offense. The only reason they won, was because Miami was VERY dreadful. Ryan was no better hitting the deep pass, than MV in this game! But we won’t hear about that, will we?
Blue Fender
September 13th, 2009
8:20 pm
You are spot on, mountain_jim. Bierman and Kearney are from the same mold. If he keeps it up, JA98 will be on special teams and Bierman will be in full time.
oldbrave
September 13th, 2009
8:20 pm
miami dreadful could just be because of our defense
Dale
September 13th, 2009
8:21 pm
Two of the three missed kicks were squarely the fault of the long snapper in my opinion. The first field goal snap was too high and screwed up the timimng and the extra point snap was damn near on top of Koenen’s shoulder. Hopefully that will be addressed during the upcoming week.
oldbrave
September 13th, 2009
8:21 pm
miami has 3 probowl players on their defense line porter taylor and fugerson
AlternateReality
September 13th, 2009
8:21 pm
Have to be encouraged when the QB and top RB can have sub-par games, the kicker misses 3 kicks, and you still beat up on what figures to be a pretty good opponent.
On the Miami Herald message boards, the main message seems to be ‘What the h@ll just happened to us?’
oldbrave
September 13th, 2009
8:22 pm
oline will be fine
Reid Adair
September 13th, 2009
8:22 pm
What an impressive performance by the defense. The offense didn’t have the fireworks that some people expected, but Miami’s defense is one of the better units in the league.
It was just one game … but it was a lot better than I frankly had expected, especially on the defensive side.
oldbrave
September 13th, 2009
8:24 pm
now we need to take care of the kittys from carolina abe always plays great aganist them
AlternateReality
September 13th, 2009
8:24 pm
Thought Roddy should have come back on the long pass that Ryan underthrew. I think he would have at least gotten an interference call, since the defenders were beat and probably wouldn’t have been able to keep from running over him.
MyView
September 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
When BVG was the UGA Def coord., I hoped he would never leave. Well, he has the only job that I would have approved of him taking. LOL!!!
Dwayne
September 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
Eric…And a star is born, all hale “THE BEER MAN”….awesome!!
MyView
September 13th, 2009
8:27 pm
I also aggree that Miami should get the credit for the lack of offense by the Falcons. Those dudes are stout and will have a good season.
Ron Mexico
September 13th, 2009
8:27 pm
My crotch itches
Chaz
September 13th, 2009
8:28 pm
Wow, I totally forgot about Ryan’s flu earlier this week… I’m willing to overlook the misthrows now. Elam, however, might wanna get his resume together.
Craig
September 13th, 2009
8:29 pm
ATLANTA HAS A CHANCE TO BURY CAROLINA RIGHT NOW, DON’T BLOW IT!!!
T Rock
September 13th, 2009
8:30 pm
The Dolphin fans were making alot of noise before the game, oops,sux to be you. I guess we will see a lot of Carolina jerseys next week. Why is it that the opponents jerseys show up so strong in “OUR HOUSE”!! Are we selling our tickets, do we not give a damn, what the hell????
Grest job Falcons especially defense. We will take anymore Jags that they don’t want.
JSS
September 13th, 2009
8:30 pm
Eric…
Why do you people have to come up with the cheap and tacky names for players?
I scratch my head, I’m a fun loving person but that is just childish!
He really reminds me of the old Broncos D-linemen Karl Mecklenburg… Late round pick, big heart, big motor, and brought his game every week… And again, Jamal Anderson played a good game, you should give him props for a change!
NEXT #13
September 13th, 2009
8:30 pm
WE PLAYED TODAY LIKE WE SHOULD HAVE PLAYED AGAINIST A TEAM THAT DOESN’T HAVE A Q.B.OR RECIEVER’S WHO CAN STRETCH THE FIELD.THAT’S WHAT DISCIPLINE AND GOOD COACHING WILL DO!! WITH THAT SAID ,I HOPE WHEN WE GET TO THE TEAM’S THAT CAN STRETCH THE FIELD AN THROW LONG WE’LL BE ABLE TO ANSWER THE BELL AND PLAY LIGHT’S OUT LIKE TODAY!! I WAS THERE AND YOU COULD FEEL THE CONFIDENCE AND SEE IT THRU THE PLAYER’S!! I MEAN, PEOPLE THERE WAS SOME LICK’S PAST TODAY! SO KUDO’S TO ALL OF THE FALCON ORGANIZATION!! OH AND BY THE WAY T.D. I THINK THAT #88 GUY WAS WORTH @ LEAST A 2010 #2 DRAFT PICK…MAYBE MORE!! GREAT JOB GUY’S KEEP IT UP!!!
Jeff Schultz
September 13th, 2009
8:35 pm
BarryJay – Agree that Dolphins should get some credit for stopping the running game. That’s a pretty good defense.
Bravecat – I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about.
NHE – I would like to brag about the fact that after Elam missed two FGs and an XP, I turned to somebody before the 50 yard attempt and said he’d make it.
Eric – That’s one cheering section I’d like to see. “The Beer Men.”
Eric
September 13th, 2009
8:36 pm
JSS, I’ll give Anderson his props he did bat down 1 ball.
Ryno
September 13th, 2009
8:37 pm
Delhomme got benched today in Carolina. If he doesn’t start they have a bonafied QB problem in Charlotte. We are not a team you want to face when you don’t know who is taking snaps. GO FALCONS!
awesomekid
September 13th, 2009
8:39 pm
yall are crazy falcons were beast today dey were a lil slow at the beggining but wait till we get them wheels turnin dnt want stop us D play was signifacant O need to show there cabapility bcuz i waz mad at there peformance but they still looked gud
Ken Strickland
September 13th, 2009
8:42 pm
While I wasn’t surprised by our overall DEF performance, I must admit to being surprised at the consistent pressure we got from our DL. Getting that kind of DL pressure allowed us to drop our LB’s into coverage. Having them in front of the receivers benefitted because it allowed them to get some serious hits and cause some timely fumbles as well as get an INT.
Speed and quickness kills, and we saw that today. If our OFF gets on track against Carolina, our DEF should be even more dominant, since it won’t be on the field as often. Like us, the Panthers are a run 1st team, and if our OFF scores and forces them into catchup mode, we can turn JAbraham, KBiermann, LSidbury, TJohnson, TLewis and PJerry loose on the QB.
How many negative minded prognosticators are still feeling 7-9 or 4-12 etc? The Falcons put a whipping on last yrs AFC South champs and record turnaround cinderella team. Having Bill Parcell stab us in the back was the best he could have done for the Falcons. With TD, we ended up with a solid, balanced, dominant and versatile OFF. They, on the other hand, ended up with a gimmick ladened OFF that worked because teams were caught unprepared.
This is a new season, and what happened today to the Dolphins gimmicky OFF is exactly what happened to the Falcons’ gimmicky OFF under HC JMora, with MVick at the helm.
The 1st real test for our pass DEF will be against the Patriots.
BugKiller
September 13th, 2009
8:44 pm
Willie Martinez: TERRIBLE DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR WHOM NOBODY WANTS AND ONLY HAS A JOB BECAUSE HE BEST FRIEND IS ALSO THE HEAD COACH.
Brian Van Gorder: OUTSTANDING DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR WHO IS SOON GOING TO BE A HEAD COACH CANDIDATE FOR COLLEGE OR THE NFL WHOM EVERYONE WANTS.
It’s no secret why Georgia’s defense has SUCKED for 4 + years.
Now, we can only hope that SOMEONE, Evans, Adams, the Boosters, SOMEONE stands up and does the right thing and has Martinez FIRED. Because we all know Richt will never do the right thing in this instance.
And we can only hope that the Falcons go far into the playoffs this year so no one can steal BVG away.
MAD-DONNA
September 13th, 2009
8:45 pm
Hey Jeff Schultz, a little trivia for you. Is today the first time that Woods, Jeter, and Federer have won on the same day?
Pitt. Queen
September 13th, 2009
8:48 pm
Great summary big guy.
Denver Bird
September 13th, 2009
8:49 pm
where you at, “FALCONS SORRY”???????
wes r
September 13th, 2009
8:52 pm
Yeah u guys got a taste of what we here in montana got to see for four years….bierman is a player….regarding his motor wheels and general attitude see if you can find the clip of him chasing down a mt state wide out in open field to save a td….think the wide out was jefferson who was in camp this year for a pro team…the beer man is a human high light reel
BIOMASS
September 13th, 2009
8:57 pm
Very good victory today. Defense looked pretty doggone good. Gonzalez was “as advertised.”
Ryan was a bit shaky. Just a bit. His longball just isn’t there. Just doesn’t have the cannon. Neither did Joe Montana.
BugKiller
September 13th, 2009
8:58 pm
Guys, if you haven’t figured it out yet, Falcons Sorry is just another name “Bad News” uses.
Same as “Joe Flacco.” Same as “Vick Supporter” and “Vick Supporter 2.”
And I’m pretty sure, same as “JSS.”
Ed-Covington
September 13th, 2009
9:00 pm
Ken:
Miami doesn’t play in the AFC South. (Indy, Jax, etc.) They are AFC East.
GO BIRDS!!
Jimbob:
If you don’t understand, I’m glad that Mike & Mike are running the offense.
AUG24
September 13th, 2009
9:02 pm
The Falcons organization and coaching staff have a clue. Georgia needs to take notes. There is a reason why somebody wants Van Gorder every year but not Willie Martinez.
JSS
September 13th, 2009
9:03 pm
Sorry Bug Killer, more than one person thinks you’re stupid
itpdude
September 13th, 2009
9:03 pm
It’s too much for the AJC to put the box score on the front page. They like angering me by forcing me to dig into the sports section and then going to football and then going to Falcons.
Thanks! I’ll be at nfl.com