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
Sam
August 9th, 2012
7:58 pm
Arizona? What city is he in?
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:58 pm
ah, the mellifluous utterings of Wes Durham
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
7:58 pm
Bullhickey. He was in.
Doomed by that dadgum burden of proof.
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
7:59 pm
arizona?
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
7:59 pm
Falcons defense using three cornerbacks on first down.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
7:59 pm
I was not aware of labor troubles in the striped shirts contingent.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:00 pm
Not saying “bullhickey” to you, Mark. I respectfully disagree with you.
Just a general “bullhickey” to the universe.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:00 pm
Understood.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
8:02 pm
Why isn’t Edwards playing
Wakka Flacco Lame
August 9th, 2012
8:02 pm
Rebar Arm Ryan
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:02 pm
Another three and out.
Shouldn’t have drafted Flacco.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
8:02 pm
are the officials striking?
Prometheus
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
Wow two 3 and outs.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
Long punt return by Dominique Franks.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
Nice return!
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
I believe Ray Edwards played the first series.
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
……is pitiful.
Mtn Falcon
August 9th, 2012
8:03 pm
Falcons and Matty Ice look UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
8:04 pm
15 yard line
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:04 pm
(Robin Williams, in a soothing voice to Joe Flacco:)
It’s not your fault…it’s not your fault.
Go Dominique Franks!!!
Bugs Bunny
August 9th, 2012
8:04 pm
Nice return
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:04 pm
Bradie Ewing, backup fullback, is hurt.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:05 pm
“Choke” and Seen sure are taking a long time getting my beers.
falconsrus
August 9th, 2012
8:05 pm
these officials at Gillette do not look to be very good
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:05 pm
This is a shame. Hope he’s ok.
By the way, did you notice they used Mughelli’s pic when showing “Cox” as our starting fullback?
Sam
August 9th, 2012
8:06 pm
Torn acl
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:06 pm
Ryan intercepted. Not a good throw. Linebacker wasn’t seen.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:06 pm
Watch the Saints trolls pop up now.
Here’s your cue, boys.
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
8:06 pm
Total Offense so far
Falcons 103 yards – Ravens 12 yards
J.J.M.
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
theres the matt ryan we know! looking down the WR
JesusHChristo
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Dirty bird…? …..Really?…….. *Cricket*
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Flacco overthrows a touchdown pass.
Sam
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Dang, he read that play from the start
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Stared down the receiver.
(Shudder)
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Same oldddddddddddddddd CHOKE…..HA HA
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:07 pm
Slowest first quarter ever.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
8:08 pm
Mark, not that all your prognostications are bad. I bet the grocery money on Georgia based upon your prediction.
Wakka Flacco Lame
August 9th, 2012
8:08 pm
That fb’s injury looked like a season ender.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
8:08 pm
didnt Ray Lewis have some legal difficulty in Georgia a few years ago?
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
Sacked. Another three and out.
Paul Lipsey
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
Man, I bought that NFL Preseason online pass for $20 and it ain’t working! I can’t get the game any other way than this –
Mark, please step up the play-by
Sam
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
I really hope stephen Nicholas stays healthy the whole season
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
“Choke”, where’s my beer? You were gone a while.
Beastly
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
That Falcons defense is almost beastly.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:09 pm
Flacco is sizzling.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
8:10 pm
Ravens not showing much on O. Or maybe the Falcons are just really good on D.
Or maybe it’s an exhibition game and it’s too early to be making such pronouncements.
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
8:10 pm
beastly is better than ghastly
Beastly
August 9th, 2012
8:10 pm
“Choke” doesn’t come around until Ryan does something bad. Didn’t see him the whole time Ryan was lighting up their defense, but he makes one bad play and here he comes. What a tool.
Joe "CHOKE" Flacco
August 9th, 2012
8:10 pm
0 for 3 on 3rd down
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
8:11 pm
Never too early for pronouncements!
For example, how do you pronounce “front-runner,” Choke?