Falcons’ stars are overshadowing team’s toughness
Trey Lewis lost his helmet on this play but quarterback Shaun Hill lost his senses.
FLOWERY BRANCH — They turned on the tape, and guess what they saw? Players getting punched in the mouth. Bodies going down. Mike Singletary’s head exploding.
This was Monday, the day after the Falcons left San Francisco with a 45-10 win. Somewhere in the Bay Area, a team of scientists was dumping an urn full of ashes onto a table, hoping to revive the 49ers in time for their next game.
“We were aware of all the talk going into the game,” Falcons linebacker Mike Peterson said Wednesday. “We talked about it. And me personally, when I’m going into a game, I don’t look at how I match up with the other team’s offense. I look how I play compared to the other linebackers. All the talk last week was how good their linebackers were, how good their defense was playing. People were asking me, ‘How do you feel about Patrick Willis?’ I was like, ‘We’ll see what happens Sunday.’”
Harvey Dahl has a simple objective: Beat people up.
If we can put the Matt Ryan-swoon-over-the-NFL tour aside for just a moment: Football is still about knocking people down. That’s never going to change. You know what the Falcons are doing, even if it’s seldom noticed? Knocking people down. They owned the San Francisco game on both lines of scrimmage. If you own the line, you own the game.
The Falcons have gifts at every key offensive position: quarterback (Ryan), wide receiver (Roddy White), running back (Michael Turner), tight end (Tony Gonzalez). But every gift will tell you it doesn’t work if someone on the other team isn’t getting bruised up front. This team’s success will be dictated the same way as every team: by how many opponents get smacked in the mouth.
It starts on the offensive line. After the finesse, cut-blocking failures under Alex Gibbs during the Jim Mora regime, and the all-around disasters during Coach Beelzebub’s 10 minutes here, the Falcons are knocking people over again.
“This has been the closest group and the most physical group since I’ve been here,” said center Todd McClure, who’s in his 11th season. “We have guys who just want to go out and work. We have guys who have contracts coming up, and don’t think that doesn’t help. It’s a lot of fun when you turn on the tape after the game and you see guys flying around like last week, and you see how it pays off.”
It must have unnerved Singletary, who is as emotional as a head coach as he was as a player. Immediately following a Falcons’ offensive play that drifted to the 49ers’ sideline, he yelled at Falcons guard Harvey Dahl. Then Dahl fired back.
When asked about the exchange Wednesday, Dahl laughed and said, “We were just getting after it. He was kind of talking to us. He was just saying how he wished he was on the field.”
And you replied?
“I just said, ‘Come on the field then.’”
Dahl is probably the nastiest of the Falcons’ linemen. He’s also the best at boiling down his job description to its rawest form.
“We’re just trying to beat up people on Sunday, keep Matt clean and get Turner yards,” he said.
Note how “beat people up” was listed first.
Gonzalez recalled when he arrived in the summer, “One day, coach [Mike] Mularkey put in a tape and said, ‘This is how we do things here.’ It was like a highlight reel of all these hits. Then he’d say, ‘We won this game.’”
This week, the Falcons play Chicago. Even without Brian Urlacher, the Bears have a reputation for being physical. A Falcons’ win would go a ways toward improving their street cred.
“That’s OK,” Peterson said. “We don’t want the credit until it’s Super Bowl time.”
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108 comments Add your comment
mmgtfan
October 14th, 2009
4:00 pm
First?
mmgtfan
October 14th, 2009
4:02 pm
Yes! Finally!! I’ve tried three times on Bradley’s blog and came up 2nd or 3rd everytime!
eturn
October 14th, 2009
4:05 pm
I agree Jeff the offensive line dont get all the glory and you only hear their name when its a penalty. But the game is either won or lost in the trenches. The Falcons have found their niche. And by the way glad the knuckle heads couldnt say First. lol Go Falcons
f
eturn
October 14th, 2009
4:07 pm
Knuckle head beat me by 5 minutes
Hollywould
October 14th, 2009
4:09 pm
Man, i love seeing Dahl and Clabo still blocking or manhandling guys downfield. That is what it is all about. get in the heads of the other team’s defense. They will then be looking out for our lineman
while someone is running by them.
The Grinch
October 14th, 2009
4:10 pm
It irritates me too how the Falcons get no credit; if almost any other team had thrown SF a beating like that that’s all the announcers would be talking about. Bill Simmons from ESPN (who I normally like) said going into that game he couldn’t figure out how SF was only a 2 1/2 point favorite at home, as they were the better team. Um, no. Do talking heads even WATCH these games?
shadydave
October 14th, 2009
4:12 pm
yes, mmgtfan, but the first shall be last… congrats anyway!
And what is it that makes Harvey so nasty? just doin’ his job!!
Terrell
October 14th, 2009
4:31 pm
The Grinch,
Bill Simmons has been saying we’re a fluke all season long. He said it at the beginning of the season when we played the Dolphins and he said it when we played the Panthers.
AlternateReality
October 14th, 2009
4:44 pm
Good piece in ESPN / Page 2 / Flem File today about offensive linemen in general. Very timely considering the games last week, even though it doesn’t mention the Falcons.
Let’s keep flying under the radar. Hype always kills ATL teams.
Nativebird
October 14th, 2009
4:45 pm
GREAT blog subject, mucho past due! Falcons have always been over-looked by the national press, even when they are winning. That SF game was a flat-out kick butt beat down by the Falcons, and ALL you heard all day and days after from ESPN and other media what how could this happen to SF? how could this happen to Singletary? blah blah blah…NOTHING about how this team and this OL KICKED THEIR a$$. We fans can only do so much, show up, yell, cheer, buy tickets, call in shows, email blogs, but at some point you media types need to carry a little water nationally. Not near enough being done.
AlternateReality
October 14th, 2009
4:46 pm
Gotta agree with Hollwould, it’s great to see those guys pushing someone around in the defensive backfield right up until the whistle blows (or maybe a little after, LOL).
gafan1
October 14th, 2009
4:48 pm
The falcons must continue to win the battle of the defensive line to win. We must get pressure on the qb. The d line must make the secondary’s job easier. If not, we are going to be in alot of shootouts. I can’t wait to see how we fair against the high flying saints.
**Frederick(Bailey)Douglass**
October 14th, 2009
4:49 pm
Yes Jeff, I noticed the same thing on Sunday. While I hate the fact that we get unecessary roughness penalties during the first quarter of almost every game from one of our lineman, it really seemed to rattle the young 49ers. Anytime you have big defensive lineman point at our players and yelling at the refs…THEY WERE PUNKED!!!
Falcons have not been this physical since 1998 and the Glanville era before that. The pass protection was A+. Chicago will come in trying to bring the roughness, but without #54 they are vulnerable. Look for us to win a physical game by 10 points.
On another note…why are we still playing with fire by using #20???? Especially in a situation where we are blitzing and his main responsibility is tackling up??? We just have too much talent (e.g. Chevis Jackson, Hill, Owens) to rely on #20 for this. Is he a pro? Yes. Does he deserve to contribute? Yes. Is he our first or second deep third corner in the NFL? NO!!
AlternateReality
October 14th, 2009
4:52 pm
Hey Jeff -
McClure mentioned some guys with contracts coming up. Do you know who he’s talking about.
It seems that one of the hallmarks of the best teams is continuity on the O-Line. We’ve been thinking that the Falcons are still a year away from really hitting their potential – I’d hate to see the line broken up too soon.
Richham
October 14th, 2009
4:57 pm
The offensive line is the biggest difference from the previous regimes. I’m amazed at how well they play, it’s such a pleasure to watch the team function as a unit and our lineman playing with a mean streak. Talk about players earning a bonus, how about giving the big lugs up front a nice bonus just for playing hard each week.
Griff
October 14th, 2009
4:59 pm
It is very clear when the line opens holes for Turner and Norwood it makes our offense click. The deep ball was there last Sunday b/c SF had to play the run first. I hope we stick with the same formula this weekend and knock Cutler on his butt. Does anyone else think that he is a complete spoiled douche? I can’t stand him.
"Chef" Tim Dix
October 14th, 2009
5:01 pm
Gotta love it, Peterson nearly destroys his own player (Lofton?), before realizing he had intercepted the pass.
Also, Trey’s technique rolling out Hill like so much dough. Painful.
Ackshun
October 14th, 2009
5:06 pm
Ok great we absolutely destroyed the 49ers, but that’s what good teams do. We are better at every position than the 49ers so the beat down was an inevitability. Don’t know what the national press was thinking but then again those guys are all saddle sore from ridin Mike Singletarys jock. Meantime we still have to play the Saints (twice) so we better be ready. A quick side note WHERE IS TYE HILL? I haven’t seen him. What are we saving him for?
Arno
October 14th, 2009
5:07 pm
The SF Chronicle said that Staley was “licking his chops” to meet Abraham. Guess Staley got the full meal deal.
gdg73
October 14th, 2009
5:08 pm
This is exactly what I have been calling for in Atlanta for the longest. A team that is nasty, aggresive, physical, and tough. Forget the Falcon Filter. Harvey Dahl is the offensive line version of Scott Case. And I think his nastiness has rubbed off on Blalock and Tyson Clabo, who I said four years ago was our best offensive lineman we had at the time (sorry McClure). Even if we lose, I just want to be able to say that we tried our best and punched the other team in the mouth for 60 minutes. That’s all I ask. I don’t think we did that in New England. If we had, I truly believe we would be 4-0 right now. Hopefully, everyone learned a lesson in that game. I know our coordinators did. The way we attacked SF from the beginning of the game to the end was like night and day from the Patriots game. As long as we get that kind of effort from our team, the sky is indeed the limit. Good job Mike Smith and company.
gdg73
October 14th, 2009
5:13 pm
And to beat New Orleans and New York this year, we will need a consistent pass rush (without blitzing). Schultz, is Kansas City looking to trade Glenn Dorsey? I say give them Jamal Anderson and a 3rd round pick. The time is now to make our run!
Edgar
October 14th, 2009
5:17 pm
I’d have LOVED to have seen Singletary’s face after his exchange with Mr Dahl!!!!!!
Jamaaliver
October 14th, 2009
5:18 pm
It does appear that we have, dare I say it, a blue collar team able to mix it up with the best of them.
Question: where was that toughness in the New England game when we were getting gashed on the ground and through the air? If we can manhandle the Saints in a couple of weeks and CHI on sunday, then we can really have this conversation.
Arno
October 14th, 2009
5:22 pm
And check this out from the Chicago Tribune: Turner “no longer can sneak past the line of scrimmage.” Sneak??
Bubba
October 14th, 2009
5:27 pm
Think about the national media will be when the Birds win the Bowl, and every one of the corps will say “this was a team that never should have won.” Peter King, Don Banks, the yankee rube Simmons, none of them will say two good things about the Falcons. Except Simmons, who’ll say, “well, of course. Matt Ryan played ball in *Boston.*”
I say let the overpriced bigwigs keep on with Romo, Favre, Brady, Brees and the Thug of the Week. Whatever. Let them perpetuate the soap opera that is the NFL. Atlanta’s got a football team, and if y’all don’t like it, they’ll run through you like Siragusa through a stack of pancakes.
JMAN-Falcon Fan
October 14th, 2009
5:30 pm
I agree with the column, but how can you say the cut-block scheme was a failure when we led the league in rushing for 3 years? I know much of that was Vick, but to say the it was a failure is a huge overstatement…..
proffish
October 14th, 2009
5:58 pm
I’d like to remind Atlanta fans of Michael Vick’s first game action (I think) in week 4, 2001. Chris Chandler was our starting QB and Chicago came to the GA Dome and kicked a$$. Chandler left with a concussion. Urlacher spent the whole game doing a victory dance. Vick came on and was hopelessly outmatched. Final score was 31-3 and the Bears fans in the crowd made sure we knew it.
I live too far away now, but please, please, show up, partake freely and be loud. This is a showcase game and a team we ought to hate. Let’s kick their tails back to Chicago.
downsouthdirtybird
October 14th, 2009
6:02 pm
failure
Snewo DAWG
October 14th, 2009
6:07 pm
Stay Nasty, O-Line, and keep improving, D-Line! It was great to see the Bierman get a well-deserved start.
The game last year against Chicago was the best NFL game I’ve ever been to in my life, but I hope this year it doesn’t come down to the last few seconds, I’d love to see us handle ‘da Bears just like we did against the 49ers last week. Can’t wait for Sunday…
DawgDad
October 14th, 2009
6:31 pm
I like and respect this Falcons bunch because they do things the RIGHT way. Start with the basics and build out from there. When there’s a weakness or missing component you don’t hear mgmt whine and you don’t see coaches changing schemes; you see replacements targeted for their specific qualities that support the team concept and direction (Peterson, Williams, Biermann, you name it, the list is getting long). This is the NFL and disaster can strike without warning, but this team has earned respect.
Jeff Schultz
October 14th, 2009
6:36 pm
Alternate Reality — I’d have to hunt down each guy’s deal individually, don’t have a spread sheet handy, but I know Clabo signed only a 1-year deal.
Dawgs2009
October 14th, 2009
6:54 pm
It would have nice if Singletary would have came onto the field. The broadcast booth would have flew downstairs to check on his well-being and personally drive him to the nearest hospital. “Moose” had his nose so far up his rectum is was disgusting!
SKYROCK
October 14th, 2009
7:35 pm
I was at the game sunday and was loving every minute of it!!!!! I wish every game was a beat down. Its always fun watching the opponents squirm & make excuses and say we got lucky. Yeah, right; 45 points of pure luck. Lets give the Bears another beat down and make my day!!! GO FALCONS
Dawg Whisperer
October 14th, 2009
7:38 pm
mmgtfan – didn’t you know that the first shall be last and the last shall be first?
Green Tea
October 14th, 2009
7:44 pm
1. Didn’t the Falcons lead the league in rushing a year or two with Gibbs coaching the line?
2. Simmons picked the Falcons to beat his beloved Pats in week 3, listen to the podcast.
Gray Mule
October 14th, 2009
7:45 pm
Have said all the time that the hogs, the guys who play in the line,
are and will be real reason that this team wins or loses.
They did a great job against the 49ers. Defensive line kept the
pressure on the entire game. Offensive line protected our QB and
opened holes for the running backs. IE, they did their job.
One of the announcers was so far over on the 49ers side, it was wonderful to listen to him go into shock as the Falcons pulled away!
Gray Mule
Mike Foster
October 14th, 2009
7:53 pm
I think people well know how TOUGH the Falcons are. As a Dawg fan, the difference between watching Georgia try to trick defenses…run around them…get their bottoms trounced…
and the Falcons …is staggering! I love the Birds. There has not been a game under mike smith where the Falcons got plain beat. Remember our 2004, nfc championship attendee, team that got beat 51-10 by Kansas City? That team was not very tough
The Falcons play hard nosed, physical, simple football…and that is what i love more than anything.
long time falcon
October 14th, 2009
7:53 pm
Clabo and Dahl are the two lineman who will be free agents at the end of this season. I suspect that TD is working behind the scenes with their agents to extend both the way he did last year during the season with Jenkins and Davis.
Green Tea
October 14th, 2009
7:55 pm
Lead the league in rushing 2004-2006 under Gibbs. Hardly call that a “failure”.
Tsk tsk Jeffy…
Asheville Dawg
October 14th, 2009
7:57 pm
37th. there take that first guy. Mr. Schultz, teams without good (great) offense lines rarely win games. Remember early Falcon qb’s found it hard to throw completions from their back. Without decent guys in the trenches you just don’t win. ask Mark Richt.
standing up every 2nd and 3rd down on defense in sec 340
October 14th, 2009
8:01 pm
-I’m not on the disrespecting Mora era with Alex Gibbs blocking scheme, Remember DVD, we lead the league in rushing 3 years in a row and got to the NFC Conference Game.
And @*Frederick(Bailey)Douglass I would not call the Glanville era tough. Remember 2 Legit two quit and playing the Redskins in the playoffs, now they were tough.
But it was great to be the Tough team on Sunday. I wanted to pull off my pants and beat both Singletary and the daryl johnston, he was the 49ers butt kissing announcer, and say now thats how you play football. (I had a couple rolls of quarters in my pants)
Matt Ryan is the Truth
In Dimitroff and Smith We Trust
A biased season ticket holder
GO FALCONS
El Bravo
October 14th, 2009
8:09 pm
After the finesse, cut-blocking failures under Alex Gibbs??? Holly crap! that’s some selective memory. We did lead the league in rushing those years and it wasn’t all Mike Vick! I agree that we have a better O-line now but don’t dump on Gibbs. The failures of those teams had nothing to do with his schemes or the O-line (the man has done just fine everywhere he has been or are we forgetting the rings on his right hand). Lets keep our facts straight.
Larry
October 14th, 2009
8:17 pm
Intelligence, honor, class, toughness, driven & determined–the perfect marriage of qualities for a championship team.
Go Birds!
Darrin "The Vent King"
October 14th, 2009
8:28 pm
Its truly amazing how the media’s view of this team changes from week to week. One win over an over-rated Niners team after a loss to a championship-hearted Pats team in their place in the rain after they embarrassed themselves the week b4 and now we’re good again? We’re physical now? All week leading up to this game, the sports media world was propping the Niners (who outside of the Vikes) hadn’t played anyone up to be ALL that and a bag a chips caused they shutout the lowly St. Louis Lambs, announced Shaun Hill (I still can’t believe that, S Hill really?) as a great QB, then pronounced the Falcons as also-rans after our ONE loss. According to all of them we were destined to lose to the Niners and were not the same team all of a sudden. Now we’re getting props again and being applauded. Give me a break. I bet IF we lose to the Bears this weekend (which I don’t believe will happen btw) it’ll be back to dogging the Falcons asking whats wrong with Turner, Ryan and the slump, the o-line is weak and so on and so on. All the ajc blogs will be on high troll alert 4 real! It appears the Falcons HAVE to win more games this season than last because the media is so ready to write last season off as a fluke they can’t wait. The biased commentating of that game vs the 49ers is proof positive of that. Even that lugnut Deion Sanders was giving excuses for the Niners on the NFL Network stating how the outcome of the beatdown had more to do with them playing bad than the REAL fact that the Falcons MADE them play bad by beating their azz in every facet of the game. Harvey Dahl and Clabo are nasty and physical EVERY game win or lose, that just didn’t happen all of a sudden so this “street cred” thing is past due, but hey I guess people won’t give that credit unless you win or in the case of the Falcons WIN EVERY GAME. We lose one and its back to the dog house. Consistency people, please that’s all I ask. Stop with the herky jerky bi-polar week to week critique of this team. They are good, have been good since this current team and staff has been assembled and will continue to be good so get used to it and don’t bail out and pronounce the Falcons dead after one loss to a good team then jump back on the jock after beating a team we were supposed to beat even though you all were ready to pronounce them kings of the NFC. After all when the Falcons got off to a great start last year, all you heard was that we played a soft schedule and our opponents were weak, well wtf do you call the Rams, Pee-Hawks and Arizona Flukes? The Niners have played two good teams and lost both of them buddy. That’s proof of the bias I’m speaking on right there. We beat good teams after beating the lesser ones too (remember the Bears game last year?) and the Falcons still never got love like the Niners have after the first 4 weeks of this season not until week TEN- str8 ridiculous. Oh well, since you all refuse to give consitent respect where its due I guess the Falcons will have to just take it which is fine by me….GO FALCONS
AlternateReality
October 14th, 2009
8:35 pm
We did lead the league in rushing with Gibbs coaching, but a lot of that was due to Vick, both with his designed runs and his scrambling. Gibbs’ has always been successful. He has also been controversial, as many complain that his techniques are dirty and dangerous.
The difference now is that we are playing more smash-mouth football, just lining up and taking it to the D.
The Grinch
October 14th, 2009
8:42 pm
I just hate that 4 of the next six teams we play are coming off bye weeks. I can’t believe how bad we got screwed with the scheduling. But if we continue to put forth this kind off effort and stay relatively uninjured (knock on wood), we should prevail. This is a good, solid team.
midnite
October 14th, 2009
8:49 pm
We sure had Shaun Hill cursing mad a bunch of times as he picked himself up off the ground. That was funny. We took that game over from the start. Got in Singletary’s head big time. Love that aggressive, chop busting football. I will be there Sunday night.
Lil Larry
October 14th, 2009
8:52 pm
Ok Falcons, we finally look like we have all cylinders firing. Let’s show those Bears–and the millions watching Sunday night–that wasn’t a fluke in San Francisco. Consistency is the keyword. Go Birds!! Get Nasty and Stay Dirty
midnite
October 14th, 2009
9:00 pm
The winning percentage by teams coming off the bye week is about 60%.
Paddy
October 14th, 2009
9:07 pm
Wow, this is great. In my memory, I do not remember fans giving these many props to the “O” linmen. Did we finally figure out the key to success?