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
10:28 pm
I’m thinking Ryan better not miss a snap.
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:29 pm
Geez Choke why do you hate Matt Ryan so much?
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
10:29 pm
JSS, the Falcons’ history has been more like Ozzie Nelson
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:30 pm
Hey Bradley is there anything positive you have taken away from the Back-ups QBs
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
@”Choke”:
Um. Okay.
“Arrested Development”: Noun. An abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurely.
Related Words for : arrested development
fixation, infantile fixation, regression
todd grantham
August 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
Mark, is Mr. Blank attired in his best Saville Row duds?
J.J.M.
August 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
Put dominique davis in with people who can actually catch the ball
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
Grantham that’s cold!
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
10:32 pm
Why does Ossie Newsome’s personnel always look better than Dimotroff?
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
10:33 pm
I’m positive the backups aren’t of starting caliber.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
10:34 pm
@Nite Owl
You didn’t like the taste of the condiments?
HA HA HA
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
10:35 pm
Actually I don’t see much of a difference from CHOKE and the backups.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:35 pm
@”Choke”:
So let me get this straight. You think Matt Ryan will be run out of town after this year, based on his performance tonight.
You think the Ravens “personnel” is better because their scrubs are better.
Ok. Just checking. (Whistling, walking away slowly…)
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:36 pm
Touche Senor Bradley.
Well tell Matt Ryan not to get hurt.
If that happens we will turn into the Colts
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:38 pm
So when the Falcons play the Bengals next week on Fox should I just turn the channel after the 1st Quarter
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:38 pm
Choke, I know you watched the first half tonight. I have that little black and white TV in the kitchen that I let you use. It was probably hard to see clearly through all the tears.
HA HA HA HA HA SMILEY FACE ZING OMGZ LULZ
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
10:39 pm
@Nite Owl
5>0
Class is out
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:39 pm
You know, speaking of next week, it will be really cool to see A.J. play. Didn’t get to see him much last year except in highlights. What a beast.
GT = Wide Receiver U
August 9th, 2012
10:40 pm
Matt Ryan was very impressive tonight….9-13 155yds 1TD against probably the best D in the league. Things are looking good in the ATL!
J.J.M.
August 9th, 2012
10:40 pm
Lol yup turn the channel after the 1st quarter
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:41 pm
The age-old debate whos better: A.J. vs. Julio
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:42 pm
Choke, what color is the sky in your world?
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:43 pm
Mike Wallace, but he is bat crazy!!!
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:44 pm
You will never see SeenthisB4 or Choke if the Falcons are winning
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:45 pm
Oh, New Orleans got two field goals tonight. That’s so cute. I could just eat them up.
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:45 pm
Man, they are falling like flies!!!
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:46 pm
FINALLY…….Dwight Howard got traded……..Whoopie doo.
Now we can finally get on with our lives and I think Bradley needs to write an article on how we never needed him in the 1st place.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:46 pm
At least Seen dropped in to congratulate us. “Choke” is just Vincent D’Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:48 pm
Was just going to praise No. 49 for his good hands…
Guh.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
10:48 pm
Think I wrote that one already, J-MAN.
http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2012/07/03/with-money-to-spend-should-the-hawks-spend-it-on-dwight/
J.J.M.
August 9th, 2012
10:49 pm
Smh poor davis team not helping him…move davis to the backup role!!! Release redman and move parker to number 3
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
10:50 pm
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:44 pm
You will never see SeenthisB4 or Choke if the Falcons are winning
_________________________________________
Then you should see me PLENTY in the 1st round of the playoffs……..
HA HA
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:50 pm
“Thank God for Dwight Howard.”
—LeBron James
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:52 pm
Man, got so wrapped up in this game that I forgot to tape Burn Notice.
I did remember to record “Louie”, though.
J-MAN
August 9th, 2012
10:53 pm
Well choke what if we dont make the playoffs or get a 1st round bye then you will be made the fool
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:53 pm
@”Choke”:
That’s because we’ll have a first round bye!
HA HA HA SMILEY FACE OMFG LULZ HEE HEE
coacht
August 9th, 2012
10:55 pm
How bad is the injury to Bradie Ewing and also to Dent…Dent looked like a concussion…Ewing mayhave been a knee…whew…hope not serious. But it didn’t look good. Same thing happened with Mier a year ago. But he has worked his way back.
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:55 pm
Bradley, is MCR even allowed on your blogs? Schultz gives him a place to blog….
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
10:57 pm
Two-minute warning. At 10:56 p.m.
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:57 pm
I mean Seen…
Michael "CHOKE DOGS" Vick
August 9th, 2012
10:57 pm
Man I got hurt AGAIN?! LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
10:59 pm
When “Choke” gets a chocolate milk break, he likes to drink it really fast.
And Davis looks great. He just “looks” like a QB so much more than Red Man or JPW right now.
JSS
August 9th, 2012
10:59 pm
Nite Owl, a Mike Smith team should never want a 1st round bye!
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
11:00 pm
@JSS:
I know you’re not asking me, so forgive me for jumping in, but Seen posted a few times tonight, even jumped in to congratulate the Falcons. Thought that was pretty classy.
Mark Bradley
August 9th, 2012
11:01 pm
We’re nearing the end, at last. Ravens win 31-17, not that it matters.
Thanks for the company.
JSS
August 9th, 2012
11:01 pm
So what is the preseason losing streak up to?
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 9th, 2012
11:02 pm
FINAL ANALYSIS: What this game means.
First of all this game was played vs a defense without the defensive player of the year “T Sizzle.”
Secondly, this game demonstrated just how thin this Falcant team is.
Final point: Turner, Jones, White and/or Gonzales have better not get injured.
Good luck with that. Once again another FAILURE is in the cards
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
11:04 pm
@JSS:
Yes, that game was a nightmare. That game taught me the patience of Job. I felt like throwing the remote out the window, but my 6-year-old son was sitting right there cheering on his Falcons, so I had to keep it together.
“Dad, they can come back in the 2nd half.”
“Son, let me explain the psychological ramifications of a pick six just before halftime…and the term Swiss cheese as applied to a defense…”
Still, I’ll take a first-round bye any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Loserville USA
August 9th, 2012
11:05 pm
Cuts should be predictable and easy this season. Let’s get rolling.
Nite Owl
August 9th, 2012
11:05 pm
Thanks Mark!
And “Choke,” you can pretend you have the final word. No one is listening.
Good night everyone!