On The Falcons And The Playoffs

Im just mad at what went down.We showed good things and some as you say weird coaching.Plus I have to say the refs were bordering on criminal.

I think one source of the frustration is a fear that by making the playoffs this team may not make any structural changes at the end of the year that are so obviously needed. The coordinating on both sides of the ball, hell, even the position coaching has gone stale, and I know that I’m a little afraid that now that we have gone to the playoffs and should we even eke out one or two wins, the flaws and cracks we’ve seen all year will persist into next season.

Part of this might be related to the chronic Atlanta Braves playoff disappointments. Year after year of making the playoffs and then flopping when it mattered, followed by an organization that supported the team’s management because ‘they made the playoffs.’

After last night, I’m grimacing at the prospect of playing in New Orleans in two weeks. While it would be lovely to knock them out of the playoffs, after last night, can any Falcon fan be optimistic about those prospects?

For we’re better than most of the trash behind us.

In fact, I think we can make a good run, as long as we get the #5 seed. The 5th seed would send us to either NY or Dallas, both winnable games. Then, we’d potentially go to SF if the Lions upset the Saints…

The frustration, for me: I shouldn’t have to fear better teams. This whole season has been the Falcons feasting on weaker opponents, while losing to all good teams, except the Lions. Some games were close, but we lost to the Bears (when they were whole), the Packers, the Saints (twice), and even the Yates-led Texans.

In the playoffs, we should feel comfortable matching up against anyone, yet I find myself praying GB plays its starters against Detroit next week…Why? For we aren’t beating the Saints at home in the first round. Can we beat the Saints? Sure, since on “any given Sunday” blah blah blah…

These Falcons are starting to remind me of the Atlanta Hawks…Better than most teams every season, but clearly not in the upper echelon…

Looks like the guy with a nail in his head from Happy Gilmore.

We picked a bad time to try to win a championship, with the two greatest QB’s ever in our conference and all. This sucks. Those two are just better than everyone else. At least Matt broke 4k and Julio is 117yrds away from giving us 2 1,000yrd receivers.

but for now let’s reset, go into the playoffs healthy, and come out with at least one win somewhere. Get that off our back. Do we go to the superbowl? No, probably not. Highly unlikely. Should we immediately give up? Hell no. We’ve been here through 4-12, we may as well stick around through 10-6.

and I applaud your optimism. I think ATL deserves to go to the playoffs but I don’t like the way they are doing it. If last night had been a toughly fought game then it would be a different story. All week long the commentators has doubted ATL’s ability to play big games on the road. Well, last night reinforced that opinion. Now we’re on the road in the playoffs. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.

Do we have the players to win in the playoffs? Oh hell yeah!! Do we have the coaches to win in the playoffs? I don’t think so.

I agree with everyone who is saying that the status quo is unacceptable, and I share the fear that some playoff momentum might convince the Falcons they don’t need to make changes in 2012. Whether you’re actually firing coaches or just forcing them to overhaul the way they operate, there needs to be a shift.

I was writing this purely in reaction to those who were basically ready to quit on the playoffs before they’ve begun. Totally respect everyone’s opinion, but I can’t understand that.

We are in the playoffs. I’m happy and I really believe we do well from here on out. That was the worst loss we will have all year, I saw that shit coming but it has come and gone. Rise up bitches!

This team is good enough to just get by. No slight to our talent, but rather the CS. I mean hell, look at Harbough in San Fran with that mediocre offense. If we want to win in the playoffs, we need an enforcer. Somebody who they’ll think twice about coming by. I thought Willy Mo was that guy, and he did take a late shot at Sproles in the endzone I believe, but its time for C4 to make killshots.

This city deserves much better than 1 title in its history. I like Smitty, but if we go one and done it may be time for a change. I wish somebody would have told the Braves that just making the playoffs wasn’t good enough.

Last night, I hoped for the best and got (in my opinion) the worst of our beloved Falcons. Much can be said about the refs, the play calling, the poor tackles, the debatable classless ending, and the fans in panic mode. I’m not in panic mode, but I’m also not blind to the need for improvement.

What transpired this season was both magical and disappointing. However, I am that fan that eagerly anticipates our team being ever-present on MNF (like the Giants), SNF (like the Steelers) and the nationally televised Sunday afternoon game (like the Patriots). So when we have losses like last night, it conjures memories of last year’s MNF Saints game, the Katrina Bowl on MNF, and all of the stupifying playoff losses that punched the fans in the gut over the past decade. I miss the feeling I had sitting in my living room giddy with excitement over the Andersen kick thru the uprights in Minneapolis circa 1998, and I hate feeling like the team is set up for national embarrassment. (That’s emotion talking, not logic…)

This emotion, however, doesn’t make me jump off the bandwagon. It might make me jaded, gun shy, or apathetic at times, but I still hope for the best because I love & will always support my team. That is the point of being a fan, right?

I like the references to the Braves in the comments because I think it’s relevant here. Many of us who’ve been fans of Atlanta teams know all too well how disappointing it is to be so close to championship promised land and fall short. The Falcons, from a fan community standpoint, have been on the upswing and we crave a ring because we have so much pride in our city and our state. Fairweather fans, be damned. For the rest of us, we still believe in spite of what we saw.

at least in the coaching staff i think some new fresh ideas and schemes would help this team out and maybe go get a couple of new players in free agency or some players who will have an immediate impact personally i would not sign a lot of our own free agents and go try and sign some impact players or players with great speed. this team has good speed on defense but i think we need more impact players on defense i think we are lacking in that area more players like Sean Weatherspoon would be awesome.I wish the offense would be more misdirection in the running game i have never seen an offense that does not utilise the screen pass we certainly have the weapons that can be used in the screen game.

then we could have a higher first round pick…. …….. … wait………

strange things happen. and while we’re picking here which team in the past was worse than the 2011 Falcons, I still think we’re a better team than that 45-16 score suggests.

my only hope, however, is that our players and coaches somehow forget the emotions of this game (and even this feeling of revenge), but learn the lessons.

and one more thing. our Offense can sputter from time to time, and we have no chance to winning a shootout in NO or in GB. our only chance is our defense.

repeat as needed to win NFL Championship.

was knowing that making the playoffs was already a done deal, that we had to rely on the Saints losing two in a row, and this game didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. So I already was prepared for whatever would happen in this game…..needless to say I didn’t expect domination on both ends of the field.

What disappointed me was that the falcons didn’t go down playing their game. Now, I know the line has been porous to say the least, but why use Turner so much when he’s been hurt for the past few weeks? If Turner was out this game, would quizz’s and Snellin’gs touches still be minimized? Would we have signed a veteran RB? Our RB situation besides the o-line situation is the biggest problem we have on the offensive end and it was telling last night.

The Biggest difference between last night and the last time we played the Saints was Sproles’ production, stopping the run, and Harry Douglas’ production. I don’t know how we lost Sproles because he was the main guy we worried about last game. It seems we played so spread out for the pass that NO’s lineman had a free release to our linebackers which is 6-7 yards before the first contact…..game over when they can run. I don’t know why Harry Douglas is so game to game with production but that position has to be addressed.

Also, it appeared to me that BVG blitzed a lot more than usual almost trying to say “you wanted me to blitz, you got it!!” and afterwords “this is why I don’t blitz often….because we still get burned.”