Falcons Get Rammed In Loss To Rams

Mark it down on your calendars, boys. This was the week where Bobby Petrino finally--finally!--showed signs of actually being able to coach an NFL team. It's probably a bad sign that the Falcons still managed to lose the game by twelve points, though.

Still, let's focus on the positive signs here for a moment. Improbably, Pet Rhino actually gave Norwood almost as many carries as Dunn. He also finally gave the reins to Chris Redman, which seems dumb on paper but worked extremely well in practice. Those are two of the smartest moves he's made all season. They may very well be the smartest, honestly.

For all that, the game still sucked. Dunn managed a paltry 17 yards on 10 carries and the defense managed to bend and break this time around. The offense was pretty slow until Petrino essentially gave in and made his two strangely coach-like moves. Give a lot of credit to the Rams, who ground it out with Steven Jackson and managed to get a decent performance out of Gus Frerotte for once. Because I felt like this was a very winnable game, I was pretty mad to see the Rams just march down the field over and over again. When you lose a game that ugly to one of the worst teams in the league, your team can't feel that good about itself. It's just not possible.

This does open the door to yet another QB controversy. Redman looked pretty damn good out there and provided an immediate spark. His TD pass to the increasingly valuable Roddy White was his best play, but he looked confident in a way Harrington and Leftwich almost never have this year. Do I think he's going to step in and suddenly become great? I seriously doubt it. But if he's even just decent, you can argue that it's an upgrade.

You know this season has turned into a nightmare when I'm requesting that Chris Redman starts.