Live from the Dome: An important Falcons’ season begins
"Hut one! Hut two! Hut three! Play championship football!" (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
If you can win four seasons running and make the playoffs three times in four, you’re not far off. You’re not a team without talent or an organization without savvy. You are, as they say, in the mix.
The trouble with the Falcons is that, three times in four Januarys, they’ve played their worst game of that season (or very near) at the moment it mattered most and the watching world was paying rapt attention. Three times in four seasons they were eliminated by a team with a lesser record.
The Falcons have become, to invoke the British term, the NFL’s nearly men. They’ve almost made it. (Had the Falcons beaten Green Bay here in January 2011, they’d have won the Super Bowl.) They’ve gotten close enough to make you – well, maybe not you, but me for sure – think this time would be different, and to date it hasn’t been.
The offseason just past marked this franchise’s first real period of recalibration since Thomas Dimitroff, Mike Smith, Matt Ryan and Michael Turner arrived in 2008. A staff of four years’ standing underwent major upheaval, and the message has been both sent and received: No longer will “nearly” be good enough.
The exhibition part of this massive season is about to begin, and I’m here at Ye Olde Dome to monitor developments. I’d be happy if you tagged along. And I thank you, as ever, in advance.
By Mark Bradley
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462 comments Add your comment
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
And handing to Turner again.
Luscious Lucius
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
U know Turner gunna tote dat rock!
Tim
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
Murlarky needed to get his fix in lol.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
First down. Ryan to White. Easy.
P B Orr
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
HA! Season starts with two to Turner.
"Chef" Tim Dix
August 9th, 2012
7:39 pm
Ryan with the audible, goes off tackle instead of straight ahead
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:40 pm
Ryan to Jones. First down. Ball at the Baltimore 35.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:40 pm
tv play by play guy is pronoucing Julio with a J rather than H.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:40 pm
SCREEENNN! To Julio!
"Chef" Tim Dix
August 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
great play call
Rob
August 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
Screen sighting!!!
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
Beautiful screen to Julio…!!!
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
Falcons going with three receivers and no fullback this whole drive.
Luscious Lucius
August 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
Tony Gonzalez is on the team too ya know?
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:42 pm
here comes the mute button.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:42 pm
TV guys are Tim Brant and Charles Davis.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:42 pm
Touchdown. Fade to Julio.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
So far the offense is looking good. I like the screen to Julio. No more run, run, and throw. Mix it up
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
Nice throw. Nice catch.
Nice drive.
Super Bowl, here they come.
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
JULIOOO!!!!!! I got a feeling Im going to be saying that A LOT this year.
WOW WHAT A CATCH!
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
is it still called hot dogging if you can back it up?
You see Matts Pythons?
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
Wow
"Chef" Tim Dix
August 9th, 2012
7:43 pm
I just saw JPW.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:44 pm
8 plays, 80 yards, 4:26
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:44 pm
Ryan 5-for-5, I do believe. Julio three catches.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:45 pm
Mark, any idea if Wes Durham is broadcasting on radio?
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:47 pm
kickoff and commercial. sigh
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:47 pm
I’m excited to see the new and improved defense. Let’s see how they play on 3rd downs
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:47 pm
I assume the radio voice of the Falcons is indeed working.
Rob
August 9th, 2012
7:47 pm
Cant think of a better way to start off the season. Is Ryan gonna come back for another series? probably not
Prometheus
August 9th, 2012
7:49 pm
I am sure Dominique Davis will get some reps tonite as well as us seeing the Rodgers brothers.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:49 pm
good grief this is an amateurish tv broadcast
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:50 pm
Whoa we stopped on 3rd down!
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
7:50 pm
Where did “Choke” go?
Hmm.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:50 pm
three and out for the Ravens.
Early line: Falcons by seven over the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:51 pm
fair catch when closest defender is 10 yards away? not a good way to make the team.
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
7:51 pm
Damn – I went to pi$$ and when I come back we’re already back on Offense…..Nice.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:51 pm
Ryan back for another series.
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
7:52 pm
Enter your flacco comments here
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:52 pm
Ryan 6-for-6. Great throw to White.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:53 pm
Wow Ryan looking sharp
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
7:53 pm
Ryan definitely appears to have a little more zip on his passes…Anyone else noticing this?
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
7:53 pm
“A touple of Cuff yards..” hehe – nice broadcast..
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:54 pm
Ryan pass batted down. First incompletion.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:54 pm
Nice scrambling
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:55 pm
Caught out of bounds on third down by Drew Davis. Smitty challenging.
I think he’s out.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:55 pm
He bought time instead of throwing it away. Ryan already looks different
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
7:56 pm
Should’ve drafted Flacco.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:56 pm
What was smitty’s success rate last year on challenges
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:57 pm
No catch. Right call, I do believe.
Replacement refs, remember.