Observations from Area Code 706: ATL vs SF

tlozwarlock will surely weigh in if the wife will let him." - Dave the Falconer

ed - (Thanks Dave. I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight for that one (I keed, I keed). 

Today, my in-laws celebrated my birthday early (as next weekend, they'll be busy) and managed to sneak in some cake and presents during the half. My father-in-law said something had gotten under the skin of the boys in red and gold. He didn't name it, but I knew exactly what he was referring to. It's called reality, and Mike Singletary's scrappy bunch just downed a healthy, heaping dose of it. 

I knew this morning, as I hooked up an ancient VCR to record the game, that everyone and their dog were picking the 9ers to take this one. Lo, I turned to CBS pre-kickoff show and saw that all the analysts (save Cowher, that intelligent man, him) picked San Francisco to win it. Be it the "6th ranked defense" or "Glen Coffee's speedy feet," no one expected Atlanta, the lowly team that showed its true colors against New England two weeks ago, to get anywhere near the endzone.

Bill Cowher and I have something in common: sense. Cowher expressed his sense clearly; "Mike Smith and his Falcons are 5 and 0 coming off a loss. I just don't see them losing." Make that 6 and 0 off a loss, gang. That's the mark of a great team: the ability to adjust to the previous games' mistakes. A learning team is a dangerous team.

• Tony Ciragusa, "The Moose," and that other Fox announcer guy should be fired. Even while the 49ers were getting trounced, they never wavered in their bias towards the gold panners. Horrendous. Only when they had to (Roddy's amazing 90yd TD, Roddy stripping the ball from the defender that INTed Matty Ice) did they compliment our Birds. From the get-go, they were heaping the praise on San Francisco and had to eat their crow on live TV by slowly shifting their googly eyes to the much superior Falcons.
• Roddy White earned his money today. TDs left and right, first down gains left and right, and when his QB made a mistake and threw the ball into the hands of the guy covering number 84, what did Roddy do? He chased him down, watched as the 49er put his hand to the side of his helmet in a taunt, and stripped the ball away from him. Game MVP, Dave. If you don't I'll have to dock you some cool points.
• The officials liked getting knocked out. Turner ran one over to get into the endzone (his first of three) and another was smacked down by a San Fran player who Dahl was provoking (one of maaaaaany).
• Speaking of Dahl, was he ever nasty to his old team. Wow. When Atlanta came out to kneel with a minute or so left on the clock, he actually managed to fluster one of the niners so bad that he burst through the line and took a shot at number 73. You know a player is nasty when his own coach has to pull him from the game simply to be able to run the clock down. Dahl frightened me with a wave. I will never line up against him, ever. I don't care if Arthur Blank himself offered me a suite-seat to do it. No way.
• Welcome back, Mr. Turner. Glad your vacation did you some good.
• Matt Ryan, as solid as always. Still having some problems throwing behind his receivers. I'm sure a few more hall-of-fame-like years will rid him of that.
• What was with all the penalties? Especially on Tony G? Old school holding tricks do not a good game make. At least,
• Tony can catch. He even caught a penalty marker rather nicely.
• This just in: Mike Smith cannot throw. His Gatorade cup missed the trashcan entirely. Can you believe that Fox actually replayed this moment? They were so bored with the game and watching Atlanta dominate that they actually watched and then replayed a coach attempting (and failing) to throw away a cup of Gatorade?
• Nice new helmet, Jerious. The Revolution Speed really suits you. Glad to see you're not playing around with that head injury.
• It'll be interesting to see what the "experts" make of the Falcons now. All I know is that I told you so.