Falcons understand that wins, No. 1 seed only set stage
Calvin Johnson is a special player but the Falcons may be a special team. (Detroit Free Press photo)
DETROIT – The schedule says there is a game left. The coach, Mike Smith, says, “We’ve said all along that if there’s games left to be played, we’re going to play them to win.” (And in his head, he probably adds: “Even if we play them with Luke McCown.”)
But this is the reality: Nobody is thinking about Game 16 against Tampa Bay. It’s about what happens in three weeks and that’s where everybody’s thoughts are. There’s no pressure to win the regular season finale next Sunday, no requirement to play in the first round of the playoffs, no pressure to jazz up the resume.
“We’ve done everything we can,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said late Saturday night following his team’s 31-18 win over Detroit, which secured a bye and the NFC’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs. “Now we just have to go do it.” In the playoffs, he means.
Imagine being outfitted with the best ski equipment and taking four months of lessons, then one day being dropped at the top of a mountain and being told, “Try to get to the bottom without wiping out.”
That’s where the Falcons are today.
They’re 13-2. They can walk to the finish line of the regular season. Two weeks ago, they wowed skeptics and believers with a 34-0 win over New York. In Detroit, rather than suffer from the kind of emotional blahs that have plagued them, they jumped out to a 21-3 lead, endured some bumps in the third quarter (as Calvin Johnson took a wrecking ball to the NFL record book) and then pulled away in the fourth.
Blank is right. The Falcons have done all they can do. Now, it’s just a matter of validating their record.
They won’t know their opponent for two weeks. But after quick exits in 2008 (Arizona), 2010 (Green Bay) and 2011 (New York), their focus is, and should be, more on themselves. The words, “It’s not about them, it’s about us,” might as well be stamped on their foreheads.
“Going into the Giants game, we knew a lot of questions were going to be answered,” Tony Gonzalez said. “I think that day we realized how good we can be. Maybe we even surprised ourselves a little. But that helped us. The focus that we had that week of practice was the same focus we had in preparation for (Detroit). And yes, we’ve been here before. We’ve had a top seed. We’ve had a bye. It doesn’t mean anything. But this time we’ll come out focused and ready to roll.”
Safety Thomas DeCoud viewed the Lions game as another test passed. “We proved we can carry over from a really big win. We had a lights-out game against New Orleans but then just went through the motions against Carolina. It’s nice to know we can get this out of our system.”
There were some concerns before this game. Linebacker Mike Peterson, one of the team’s emotional leaders, walked into the locker room following warmups and sensed it was too quiet. So he banged two cymbals together, figuratively speaking.
“He riled us up,” Roddy White said.
Peterson smiled when asked about his pregame antics. He was the one who marched the team out of the tunnel and right through the Lions’ quasi-blockade for warmups in Detroit last season.
“They wanted to be relaxed,” he said. “When you’ve had success one game, the natural thing is to feel like you’ve made it. So I was just trying to keep the guys up, let them know what’s at stake.”
The Falcons started fast. Matt Ryan attacked early and often, completing his first 12 attempts and 15 of 16. He threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns. In the last two games, he is 48 for 60 passing (including 22 straight completions) for 549 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions. The MVP candidacy just circled back.
Detroit’s defense focused on stopping Gonzalez (one catch). So White and Julio Jones (15 catches, 224 yards, three touchdowns combined) destroyed them.
Defensively, the Falcons gave up a ton of yards (522). Matthew Stafford threw for 443, more than half of that to Johnson (11 for 225). But the Lions reached the end zone only once, going one for four in the red zone. That’s why they’re 4-11. That’s why the Falcons are 13-2.
Said Ryan, “When you have a combination of guys who are committed to doing everything the right way, you have fun doing it.”
This much we know: The backdrop is impressive.
By Jeff Schultz
•
You may have missed . . .
– Short takes: Matt Ryan back to MVP level in last 2 games
– Falcons respond as great teams should in win over Lions
– Live: Falcons seek No. 1 seed, AJC endures without D-Led
– If last week’s Falcons were for real, we’re about to find out
– Falcons’ line on a roll, now gets rematch against Suh
– Haters’ roundup: National view on Falcons has changed (including video)
– Ryan asks for more, gives more at right time for Falcons
– Falcons, Smith know now is time they’re going to be judged
– SEC’s decision to not suspend Dial sends wrong message
– Dale Murphy sounds off on steroid users in Hall of Fame and his own candidacy
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265 comments Add your comment
phil
December 23rd, 2012
5:52 pm
With no pass rush and no running game, not to mention 2 weeks of sitting around, we’ll be one and done again most likely….
Sigh.
45ACP
December 23rd, 2012
5:53 pm
Points allowed is the ultimate defensive stat that matters. Giving up 522 yards to any team is a bit unnerving.
phil
December 23rd, 2012
5:57 pm
Pay no attention to our sieve defense….super bowl easily within our reach.
Lol
Captain Crazy
December 23rd, 2012
6:03 pm
I’ve suffered through 42 years of mostly BAD football. But, that first half last night was the finest 30 minutes of Atlanta Falcons Football – offense and defense – I’ve ever seen!
NFC South Champs
December 23rd, 2012
6:05 pm
Yea, the darling 49er defense gave up 34 points last week.
laugh out loud.
Georgia
December 23rd, 2012
6:07 pm
the Falcons are here because of Mike Smith. Somehow, he has heart this year; he’s for real. We are first seed because of Mike Smith.
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
6:10 pm
It’s funny how JSS can’t go five minutes without name-dropping Jeff Schultz or the numerous discussions they have.
It’s doubly-funny, JSS, because I know myself and others have had “discussions” about YOU with the man himself, and he tells us much the same.
That you’re “harmless.”
Toothless, is more like it.
NFC South Champs
December 23rd, 2012
6:12 pm
Yea, the Green Bay defense let the Giants score 38 in a 28 point loss.
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
6:14 pm
A creel eater would would know about being “toothless.” That, was the term I’ve heard…
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
6:15 pm
Looks like the ravens are proving last weeks game vs giants was a fluke.
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
6:15 pm
Tweet that…
Ivan
December 23rd, 2012
6:20 pm
Bravo, Jeff for calling out and warning Choke. And don’t think you’re being immoral in your rules for the blog. MOST blogs do indeed ban posters for trolling. Which is all he does anyway. On any other blog, he’d have been banned a long time ago.
Again, good call. And Merry Christmas.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
December 23rd, 2012
6:25 pm
I notice HiramSaint hasn’t been around this season.
How many MV7 lovers are about to become RGIII & Redskin Lovers?
Georgia
December 23rd, 2012
6:30 pm
It’s strange to watch Eli Manning look so sandlot lately. While it’s great to see Peyton Manning come back dangerous as ever. This direct tv football package is the greatest invention in the history of mankind including the jockstrap, the sportsbra (two jockstraps sewn together), and Gatorade. BTW: the first sportsbra was indeed invented by a woman who indeed did sew two jockstraps together. That’s a fact. Thus, when Brandi Chastain tore her uniform shirt off in the 1999 Woman’s World Cup and revealed her sportsbra I said aloud, “HEY! That woman stole my jockstraps.” Where’s the supervision, you know?
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
6:34 pm
Haha. Oh, JSS… you’re such a pitiable person.
You come on here, day after day, hold court (from your mama’s basement) amongst those who don’t like you at all.
Your massive ego means you must boast at all times about how you know so much more than anyone.
You tell everyone you’re “objective,” but we know who you are.
We knew it last year. A complete and utter failure. That’s why you show up day after day, without fail.
You’re Ensign Mayo. You have nowhere else to go.
“Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.”
But unlike Bill Murray (or even Phil Conners), you’re not beloved, funny, intelligent, or redeemable.
Exiled_soccer first!
December 23rd, 2012
6:43 pm
I am buying some Falcon play off tickets Thursday but I pray that my buyers remorse will be slight after a Falcons win.
Actually,they might need my soccer luck to rub on,on them.
Soo…..
Hope the defense shows up,offense has enough weapons,minus the fat & slow Turner!
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
December 23rd, 2012
6:43 pm
Intellectual Ninja……..where did you develop your Katana skills?
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
6:44 pm
Oh BugKiller…
Whatever Phil Dunphy…
Be careful where you sit next time…
Same old tired references to social standings that you have no idea about… Like I said, 7 years later and you’re still using the same tired material from 80s movies… You’re only frame of reference I see. You’re as dated as a copy of ‘Planes, Trains, and Automobile.”
OldTimer
December 23rd, 2012
6:45 pm
I’ll be at the playoff game. Working out the cost now. I don’t plan on being a part of a losing effort.
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
6:49 pm
On the back lines gravy-training on the real warriors in Gulf isn’t developing skills…
Jason
December 23rd, 2012
6:50 pm
The Giants aren’t very good. Maybe that 34-0 beatdown wasn’t so great after all. Falcons are going to make it to the NFC title game. It’ll be a home game, who knows? Super Bowl bound IMO.
Jason
December 23rd, 2012
6:54 pm
I don’t think the Giants are making the playoffs. In order for them to make it, they must beat the Eagles, have Detroit beat Chicago, have the Rams beat the Seahawks, and Washington beat Dallas. JUST to make the #6 seed. I just don’t see it happening. The Giants are done.
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
6:55 pm
Funny, JSS, for a intellectual titan such as yourself, you don’t know an incredibly Barney-easy Groundhogs Day reference or that the film is from the 90’s?
Silly, pitiful, little, little man.
Seven years later, and you still feel the need to come here day after day with your b.s. preaching about this or that.
Six years later, and you still must feed your psychotic need to impress everyone here by quoting facts without context and half-truths stretched to the breaking-point to try and make your ignorant arguments.
Five years later, and you can’t stop talking at anyone long enough to know that Jeff just banned one of the only people on the blog who LIKED you… and he was the guy NO ONE LIKED.
What’s that say about YOU???
As before, I just pity you.
I seriously just pity you and your waste of a life that affords you all of this free time to come here.
Poor little man. Poor, poor small man. Small in the most pejorative way the word can be used.
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
7:06 pm
I just don’t care about “Groundhog Day.’ Just like I didn’t care “Officer and Gentlemen,’ or you’re desire to to a poor man’s cheap version of Kevin Smith… You just run out tired references, you’re a fictitious intellectual. It is like interacting with a bad interpretation of ‘Last Year at Marienbad.’ made by a 3 year old. Go and stalk Simon Pegg some more, they tell great stories on the Paramount lot about your tweets (in the security offices)…
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
December 23rd, 2012
7:06 pm
I think the FALCONS took all of the fight out of New York last week and they just couldn’t get up for a second road game.
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
7:07 pm
I guess it was not a statement game last week afterall considering what the ravens are doing without all their starters.
Wrecker
December 23rd, 2012
7:09 pm
It was a statement game. The Giants have given up.
Hillbilly D
December 23rd, 2012
7:22 pm
A statement game doesn’t necessarily have to make a positive statement.
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
7:24 pm
LOL… If only I were a cheap-man’s version of Kevin Smith, I would have more money than I do. But I’d have to smoke a lot of weed. We’re talking A LOT of weed.
And since it’s not for me, I shall just have to be, well, me.
It is amazing, I must say, about all the many things that you don’t care about.
You tell us all the time.
And yet you’re still here.
And you pretend to, or actually do, follow my twitter feed. Which is just hilariously sad, for you, for someone who claims so much to not care.
Amazing, the depths that deep-seeded personal failure will us to.
I mean, who follows someone they do not like? I pitied you before, but now that feeling changes to worry, for your deficient mental health.
Seek help, JSS. Seek help before it’s too late.
Hahaha… maybe it is!
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
7:37 pm
Nope, seriously, your stuff is in the security manual at Paramount… Don’t have to follow you… Anytime I walk into the offices, I get a kick out of that… Oh you didn’t know?
Try to get a guest pass on the lot and see how far you get! Ha ha, he didn’t know!
Matty Bicep
December 23rd, 2012
7:41 pm
I know this, most people who say the Falcons won’t win a playoff game also thought this was the year of the “dream team”, and thought Cam Newton would be a force in the NFL this season.
So, they are very ugly 0-2 in predictions, why in the hell would anyone even listen to them? Obviously they don’t know anything about football. Not the first thing.
DawgNole
December 23rd, 2012
7:44 pm
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
6:55 pm
Five years later, and you can’t stop talking at anyone long enough to know that Jeff just banned one of the only people on the blog who LIKED you… and he was the guy NO ONE LIKED.
______________________
Actually, he didn’t ban him–just warned him. But MCR, coward that he is, seized the opportunity to depart in a huff, knowing that he would no longer have to face the blog’s wrath should Ryan take the Falcons deep in the playoffs, which seems more likely with each passing week.
So, mired in defeat–and indignant because he had his wrist slapped–the hater MCR tucked his tail between his legs and fled, because that’s what cowards and liars do. The blog was immediately uplifted and able to enjoy the ATL victory without having to hold its nose in the proximity of MCR’s garbage-flinging.
We can only hope he’s gone for good; the Falcons’ performance this postseason likely will determine that. If they’re one and done, I can’t see him resisting one last deranged potshot at Ryan and all of us “losers.” If they win it all, he’ll be invisible.
Matty Bicep
December 23rd, 2012
7:50 pm
We had a bunch of haters like MCR, we have Vick Supporter, Vick Supporter 2, CDG, but they have all be sent scurrying with their tail between their legs just due to the epic fail in Philly. But, your right, MCR is will never be heard from again of they win a playoff game.
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
7:58 pm
That’s pretty funny. It’s actually VERY funny.
The difference, well, one of many differences, between yourself and me, JSS?
I know of my many faults, foibles, and demerits, and never, ever take myself so seriously as you take yourself here.
Which is why I come and go… and you simply can’t leave. Even when others ask you to do so. Even when made plain that you’re unliked.
Tomorrow, I’ll hopefully be feeling better, and find something better to do.
But you’ll still be here. Trying so hard to impress so many who don’t care, who know exactly who you are.
The one thing you continue to engender from us is not any awe at your quasi-intellectualism, but again, pity and worry.
A lot of pity for the one who’s every word for us drips with contempt.
I like to think that proves the good in people. That we can know you here, and instead of feeling anger, revulsion, or some combination of both… we just feel sorry for you.
It really does prove the good in people, I think.
East Atlanta Ron
December 23rd, 2012
8:12 pm
The Falcons still can’t run the ball other than accumulating meaningless yards when the outcome of the game has been decided
I stick with the premise that in the NFL, championship teams run the ball and stop the run.
Jeff Schultz
December 23rd, 2012
8:18 pm
Just checking in.
I see I’ve been missing some real high-level debates here.
Let’s all meet up at Chuck E Cheese tomorrow for lunch.
Game tokens on me.
JSS and Intellectual Ninja: I’ve scheduled you two for a binding arbitration session in the ball pit.
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:19 pm
DawgNole I thought the moderator warned us earlier today about unprovoked name calling.
1 N Done
December 23rd, 2012
8:21 pm
I can’t wait for the pigeons to lose in the playoffs!! Y’all aren’t about this life!!! What does a Falcon fan do after winning the Super Bowl???????turn his X Box off and go to sleep!!!!!LOL!!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:22 pm
East I agree. Looks like greenbay is in championship form.
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:25 pm
1 N Done that’s funny.
icndark
December 23rd, 2012
8:28 pm
I think that THIS falcons team is far more seasoned, and well coordinated on both sides of the ball than those of recent playoff years. This team is determined to write their own story, and achieve what they have set their sights on. I think that their character has been formed through tough hard-fought games, hi-pressure come from behind victories, and one very embarrassing road loss. This group now knows what needs to be done and how to get it done. As they keep saying, they just need to finish the job.
They have certainly put themselves in the best possible position to succeed. This version of the Falcons will not be defined by the past and will not sway from the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl. The doubters and naysayers will have their opinions and will no doubt express them while this team just keeps winning and proving them to be the biased hacks they are.
and bench Turner!
Go Falcons!
JSS
December 23rd, 2012
8:29 pm
@ Jeff Schultz
Only if I can bring fellow EMU alumnus Greg Mathis? Oh, that’s more name dropping…
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:29 pm
Who is choke? I have yet to see him post but his name keeps coming up like a ghost.
1 N Done
December 23rd, 2012
8:36 pm
Thanks Django!!! I have a lot more of them in my back pocket!! Just waiting!! tick tock!! tick tock!! LOL!!!
DawgNole
December 23rd, 2012
8:37 pm
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:19 pm
DawgNole I thought the moderator warned us earlier today about unprovoked name calling.
DJANGO
December 23rd, 2012
8:29 pm
Who is choke? I have yet to see him post but his name keeps coming up like a ghost.
___________________
It wasn’t unprovoked.
And if you don’t know who “choke” is then you haven’t been on this blog much–all the more reason for you to step down from your self-appointed blog police role.
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
8:41 pm
I dunno, Jeff. Skeeball just doesn’t hold the attraction it used to do, though I used to love the gliders made of foam that looked like WWII-era fighter planes. P-51’s, P-38’s, etc.
Good times.
I don’t know, however, if meeting at Chuck E Cheeses would be the best idea for the other party. With his big-headitis cause by unduly inflated ego, the children may think him an unfortunate-looking character in costume.
Or even worse (better), a walking piñata… and then they’d start whacking his head with wiffle bats.
On second thought…
Intellectual Ninja
December 23rd, 2012
8:44 pm
Well, looks like Choke is back as “1 N Done.”
Welcome, “1 N Done” (Choke). Your BFF, the man they call JSS, has been holding down the fort for your arrival.
Matty Bicep
December 23rd, 2012
8:48 pm
Chuckie Cheese? Don’t bring them here, something about probation violation.
East Atlanta Ron
December 23rd, 2012
8:48 pm
Have the Falcons won the division before? YES
Have the Falcons had home field advantage before? YES
Have the Falcons been 14-2 before? YES
Have the Falcons been to the Super Bowl before? YES
The 2012 Atlanta Falcons can only do one thing that hasn’t already been accomplished by the franchise in the past. Do I need to say more?
ramguy68
December 23rd, 2012
8:51 pm
I find it amusing that a couple of people try to be the Skip Bayless of the AJC Blogs…lol….Like Bayless they sit themselves up as an elite analysis and like their mentor they are usually wrong about what they predict will happen and just like Bayless they rarely admit it’s their fault when they are wrong. It’s always someone else’s fault and their reasoning was spot on…lol…Every now and then they will be right and then they crow about how smart they are for making the prediction and say I told you so. Get over yourself.