Live from Falcons-Vikings: Anybody excited about this one?
"Hey, I'm pumped. Who's with me?" (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
I wish I could say I’m looking forward to a great day of pro football here at the Dome, but I’d be a big fat liar. The Atlanta Falcons tend to play to the level of the opposition, and if that happens today …
(Pause to shudder.)
The Minnesota Vikings are awful, and they’re without their best player. (Adrian Peterson, RB.) They’re also without Brett Favre, Randy Moss, Alan Page, Joe Kapp, Carl Eller, Fran Tarkenton, Chuck Foreman, Cris Carter, Mick Tinglehoff and anyone else who ever put the pop in the Purple. The Vikings are 2-8, having beaten two other terrible teams (Arizona and Carolina).
This is one of those games the Falcons should win by three touchdowns, and I’m thinking it’s a game they need to win by three touchdowns. Even at 6-4, there’s scarcely a buzz about this team nationally or locally. I got out of Mass later than usual this morning, and I was thinking I might hit traffic around the Dome, but I drove right in at 11:30.
It’s 12:03 as I write, and there’s almost nobody in the house. I know it’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the day after Tech-Georgia, but still … this is, on the record, a pretty good NFL team. I wondered in preseason why more people weren’t talking about the Falcons, and on the final Sunday of November I’m wondering still.
So I ask again: Are you pumped about the Birds? Are you too stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey to care? Has watching Florida fall to 6-6 and Clemson to 9-3 last night dulled the senses? Is there anybody out there? Is this microphone on?
With that, I’ll hang up and await your responses. Assuming there are any.
By Mark Bradley
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1,179 comments Add your comment
Mr Charlie
November 27th, 2011
3:08 pm
Ohh, so in 05 and 06 it is the coaches fault. I got it, that makes perfect sense. No responsibility on the players who actually PLAY the game. Especially the QB, because QBs rarely influence the outcome of the games.
Reggie
November 27th, 2011
3:08 pm
DAMN IT!!!! Our defense is not good enough to rely on!
dean
November 27th, 2011
3:09 pm
I’m still waiting on Witstream to marvel us with his superior intellect and football knowledge.
jack bull
November 27th, 2011
3:09 pm
well, let’s see if they can do it twice in a row..
Mr. Panic Button
November 27th, 2011
3:09 pm
Here comes the Falcons with their SORRY 3rd quarter play. Watch!
72 Million Dollar Bust
November 27th, 2011
3:09 pm
Ryan has no heart! No guts! What a coward!
Matt from MN
November 27th, 2011
3:09 pm
Lord this offense is boring, conservative and predictable. Why, why DEAR GOD, has Mike Mularkey not been sent into the swamp without a compass?
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Jackbull – i didn’t know idiots like you could type…
It looked like a concussion, you doof.
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Third quarter is over. Falcons lead by 10. They’ll win by 17.
JSS
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Any over and under on how many yards are not passed for next week in Minneapolis?
welikebaseball2
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Falcons recipe for letting a team back in the game: A dose of run on 1st down for little to no gain. A scoop of check-down-to-the-RB on 2nd down. And, finally, a pinch of QB-run-&-slide-5-yards-short-of-marker on 3rd down.
WitStream
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Once in a while Ryan needs to put his head down and go get one. Those weren’t exactly Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs he was looking at there.
72 Million Dollar Bust
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
This is why he is no different from Joey Harrington. Who cares about how many more regulary season games Ryan has won, if you can’t win the ones that count.
Dawgs Man
November 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
This team is a joke to watch. Remind me of the old Randy Johnson Falcons.
Andy
November 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
Ryan has only completed 81% of his passes today with 2 TD’s and no INT’s?? What a loser!!!! Bring Harrington back!!!
mountain_jim
November 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
Detroit outscored us 10-3 in 3rd.Caralina 7 – 0 . tampa bay 3-0, Phillhy 21-7.
Someone needs to get their facts right, Atlanta for 60
Dwayne
November 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
What the heck happens to this team at halftime?????
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
It really is distressing to play like this against such a bad team….
Next week, we make the Texans 7th string, off the street QB, look like Joe Theisman.
jack bull
November 27th, 2011
3:12 pm
again, i didn’t know elbows could cause concussions.. and i’m the doof?? wow..
mountain_jim
November 27th, 2011
3:12 pm
This is why some of us are so disgusted with conservative coaching letting weaker teams back in the game every week in the 3rd
Dumbo
November 27th, 2011
3:12 pm
72 Million Dollar Bust….OK Mr. Football since it is apparent you dislike Ryan, whom would you prefer as QB?
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
Biermann made a play!! Shock!
Mr Charlie
November 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
Yes, it would be totally worth our QB getting a concussion trying to pick up a somewhat meaningless 1st down. That formula has worked so well for the Eagles.
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
Falcons just messed up a punt!
Falcons: Play 60!
November 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
I’ll say Falcons will win by 10 (but 17-7 won’t be the final score) but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was less than that considering how they played the 4th qtr last week vs Tenn. (held scoreless and gave up 7)
Loserville USA
November 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
We are just idiots. Plain and simple.
JSS
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Ha ha ha ha, only in the Dome!!!
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Hit Sanders in the hip. Whoa. There’s the short field
72 Million Dollar Bust
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
The meltdown of Ryan continues……………
Dawgs Man
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Falcons would screw up a steel ball. I hate this sorry team.
KSchmidt
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Franks
J.J.M.
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
once again cant put a team away
Andy
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Pretty dumb play by Franks. Gotta know where the ball is.
veaserva
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
Here come the Turnover’s BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo !
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
I couldn’t type quickly enough to predict that screw up….
Yeah, we’re some team.
Mr Charlie
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
That is the 1st play for Biermann since he met that old skank…..OK JSS, like I said, NEVER overlook an opponent in the NFL.
Dumbo
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
72 Million Dollar Bust…answer the question
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
Franks, not Sanders. My apologies.
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
Ryan messed the punt up….good one.
Loserville USA
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
3rd and 15. Ed Donatell Van Gorder defense.
Dawgs Man
November 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
No doubt we will lose next week at Houston. No doubt.
jack bull
November 27th, 2011
3:16 pm
man, that Biermann is just awful…
Falcons 73
November 27th, 2011
3:16 pm
This is the same b.s. we witness every game. The Falcons get a halftime lead and come out in the third quarter with a run Turner for no gain, then 2nd/3rd for nothing. Play not to lose always results in a loss.
Until this coaching staff stops this conservative mindset, the Falcons will not win the playoffs.
Jimmy Crack
November 27th, 2011
3:16 pm
It wasn’t Franks fault, the punt was too short and Weems was yelling SHORT or something.
Punter’s fault.
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:16 pm
Smith challenges the catch. As he should. It wasn’t a catch.
dean
November 27th, 2011
3:17 pm
Incomplete!
Dwayne
November 27th, 2011
3:17 pm
Are the refs that bad in the NFL????
Andy
November 27th, 2011
3:17 pm
I like the exaggerated throw of the flag by Smith. Billick says “Just throw it Mike.” That made me laugh.
Mark Bradley
November 27th, 2011
3:17 pm
Who’s going to play quarterback for Houston next week? Schaub? Leinart? (He just left with an injury.)
phil
November 27th, 2011
3:18 pm
What is it with Smith and that red flag? Total idiot with it against NO and here, when it would actually help, he waits an hour to throw the dang thing!