PhotoDude.com

Sun. Nov 26, 2006

Franchise Falcon Fingers Fans

A pregame analysis titled “Falcons, Saints, Both Try to Stop the Bleeding” said that with these two teams, “go with the team that’s both at home and with the most to both prove and lose.” That, allegedly, would be the Falcons.

Sunday afternoon on the game’s third play, the Falcons gave up a 76 yard TD, and added an unnecessary roughness penalty by #21, Not Deion. 10 minutes into the 60 minute game, three offensive series by the two teams had resulted in two touchdowns, yet none were from the team “with the most to both prove and lose.”

Boos erupt in the Georgia Dome from the paying fans. Before long, the star quarterback would give them the finger for it. And the head coach would fall to his knees in disbelief.

The bizarre forty year tradition known as Falcons Football continues. As does my ranting about it.

Twenty minutes after those first boos, the clock runs down to 00:00 for halftime. The Falcons are now behind 21-6, including a back-breaking literally-last-second Hail Mary TD pass by Drew Brees that stuns the hometown crowd silent. For a couple of seconds. And then they lustily boo the Falcons off the field.

As Michael Vick is heading for the locker room, the camera is in on him pretty tight, but we see him raise one arm in response to the boos, his hand too high to be seen by the camera. Out of the frame, was his hand waving, or giving the finger to the booing crowd? I don’t know … but he was smiling. Down 21-6, being loudly booed off the field, and he’s smiling. Make of that what you will.

The second half is no better, and the symptoms displayed are little different than they have been for weeks. Bizarre offensive play calling, poor blocking and pass protection, inconsistent running game, and a multitude of dropped passes.

One difference? Michael Vick ran for his life, a total of 166 yards. In fact, one might think the only obviously successful aspect of the offense is Michael Vick’s runs. The problem is that while some of them are called runs and options, most of them today were “unplanned,” the result of tight coverage, a good pass rush, or broken plays.

When the most effective aspect of your offense is your quarterback’s amazing ability to get out of the many bad spots he gets into, that’s not always a “plus.” Vick ran for 127 yards in the first half. And what good did it do them on the scoreboard? Two field goals from a 47 year old.

But give the man credit; Vick tried to do it through the air, as well. However, when passing, a quarterback has to have receivers. And though White, Jenkins, and Lelie are all former first round draft picks, all their hands seem to be good for now is counting money. They’ve had hands of stone for weeks; the ball hits them, and bounces right out. Were I the head coach, I’d suit up my wide receivers coach next week before I’d put a single one of them on the field again. Let them sit on the bench with their cell phone and talk to their agent.

One critical dropped pass by Roddy White actually brought Coach Jim Mora to his knees, as though he’d been punched in the solar plexus. As though he might be seeing his coaching career flash before his eyes. And maybe he was. Falcons owner Arthur Blank made it clear last week that getting to the playoffs is about the minimum acceptable standard for this year.

This is how Blank said he would evaluate the rest of the season:

“My first cut is play with energy and play hard football throughout,” he said. “Any time I feel like we have given up at any level in the organization — that will include everybody in the organization — I’m going to be furious.”

Next, “My measure of success would be getting to the playoffs and giving us a chance to compete,” Blank said.

AJC: Blank seeks consistency, promises accountability

Mr. Blank has caught some flack in some quarters for his sideline appearances during the final few minutes of recent games. But I believe that’s something he’s always done, win or lose. Beyond that, um, he owns the joint! And if the store is running in the red, bad red, you don’t fix it by holing up in your storeroom office, you get out there in the store and see what the hell is going wrong. Mr. Blank is not one to accept failure. And I seriously doubt that Mr. Blank is a very happy man tonight. Jim Mora is the one person who will get the most granular understanding of Mr. Blank’s unhappiness.

But, Geez Louise, are the fans pissed, too, or what?!? And I mean before the Boo Birds took roost at today’s game:

Mora said the public negativity has affected him.

“The one thing I do respect is the voice of the fan,” Mora said. “I don’t always agree with it, but I appreciate the fact that there’s no apathy. You hate to let people down, believe me.

“I’m driving in the morning after a loss and I don’t want people to see my face because I feel so bad. I feel a tremendous obligation to Arthur, this team and this community.”

And, you know, I really want Mora to succeed. He seems a likable and earnest guy. He also seems overly loyal at times and perhaps has a case of staythecoursitis. But it would appear his star quarterback has indeed put the finger on the problem. The middle finger:

Jeered lustily as he headed to the locker room tunnel after the 31-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Falcons’ fourth consecutive defeat, Vick reacted by lifting the middle finger of his left hand and then his right hand to the fans. The image was captured by network television cameras and replayed several times Sunday night.

And the AJC confirms it. There will probably soon be photos of it online (yep). So my guess is that Vick did it at halftime, too, as I suspected might be the case (smiling and waving seemed a perverse reaction to boos; smiling and giving the finger, not so much). Because at halftime, the boos were deafening. At the game’s end, the cameras showed the stands were maybe 10% full.

In the ESPN article about Vick’s finger, Saints veteran Joe Horn (who had one helluva one handed catch today) put it pointedly: “This is a league where if you don’t do your job, they run your ass off. Those guys better wake up and smell the coffee and start catching the damned football. I can’t blame [Vick] for, you know, being upset at them sometimes.”

Nor can I. But... give the finger to those alleged wide receivers who need to “start catching the damned football,” not the fans. Twice!

My advice to Mr Vick would be to grow some thicker skin. The people who were booing you pay a part of your umpteen million dollar salary. Suck it up and take it like a man. A professional. You’re well paid for it.

When people pay the sixty-odd dollars that is the average ticket price at the Dome these days and get the team performance they saw, said team will be booed! When that performance comes after three weeks of such team performances, said team will be booed loudly!

When you respond by giving the finger … twice ... to the people who quite literally pay your salary, you’ve set a bridge on fire. And on the other side of that bridge are all your endorsement dollars. A lifetime of them. How many commercials have you seen Terrell Owens in lately? Mr. Vick, you might want to get a fire extinguisher. Quickly, and very publicly.

And if you don’t have the good sense to fall all over yourself apologizing this week, expect some enterprising capitalist to make a killing selling a modification of those big styrofoam hands fans sometimes have at games with an upraised finger saying “We’re Number One.” Expect it to have your name on it, and a different upraised finger (and expect me to file a trademark lawsuit over it, as I just established “prior art”).

Just the same, in a way, Vick has put his finger on the problem. From the outside looking in, he’s just not quite fitting in. He’s a mixed bag of “Oooo’s” and “Booo’s.” And it is not entirely his fault. His head coach stands behind him and constantly speaks well of him in the press. Yet last week the head coach’s dad agreed with labelling Vick a “coach killer.”

I think that’s going too far. Vick is clearly an amazing talent. However, he’s not a traditional talent, not at the quarterback position. He’s not a pocket passer, both because he lacks the height to see clearly over the huge linemen, and because he operates better and presents more of a threat while on the move or coming out of the shotgun position.

And there’s no doubt he often handles the football like a frisbee and makes some bad decisions at times that are quite costly. However, six years into his career, he is what he is, and the job of the coaching staff is to create opportunities to use his strengths, build schemes that mask his weaknesses, surround him with operative counterparts (i.e., not the likes of White, Jenkins, and Lelie), and generate some consistency. A freakin’ identity.

But it’s a bit late for a lot of that, isn’t it? They’re heading into the last five games of the season with a 5-6 record. In their last 19 games, the Falcons have won 7. And if Jim Mora meant it when he said “the one thing I do respect is the voice of the fan,” then you know me: I’ve got some advice.

Should you hang onto your job and come back next year, scrap the cut blocking run scheme. There’s no way such a change can be done “in season,” but it’s just not working anymore. Give Alex Gibbs a gold watch, get some big hogs up front and play smash mouth football. Get over your loyalty to Greg Knapp and get an offensive coordinator who can get this stew of talent spiced up and back on boil.

But that’s assuming there is a next year for Coach Mora. And if I were him, it would therefore be time for that worry to trickle down pretty hard. Mora’s players like him, he’s apparently a “player’s coach,” whatever the hell that is. Well, they need to like him a little bit less, as well as realize he may not be around to like at any level if they don’t pull it together.

There needs to be some bench time allocated. Some realignments in the position charts. Some messages sent. For example, I’d damn near invert the chart for the wide receivers. Start the guys on the practice squad. How could you do any worse? Hell, the rookie running back for New Orleans has about as many catches this year as White, Jenkins, and Lelie combined. Anybody can drop a football. Try some new anybodies. Make those highly paid starters sit on their wallets.

Were I head coach, I’d also call Vick in behind closed doors on Monday to tell him I was considering benching him for a game. Not for his performance as a player; Matt Schaub would not have been anymore successful today at making pigskin cling to stone, nor would he have run for anywhere near 166 yards. I would tell Vick I was considering benching him strictly for insulting the home fans with the finger, but was waiting to see how he’d handle the situation before making a final decision. Vick needs to find out he’s not untouchable. I’m not sure how much more his play on the field can be “modified” in the short term, but he needs to find out he can sit on his wallet, too.

And either way, I’d tell him he was damn lucky the schedule gives the home fans three weeks to possibly forget about his middle finger. Because you just don’t diss the homies like that. Smell that? It’s the smell of endorsement money burning, Michael.

Then I’d pull my buddy Greg Knapp behind those closed doors. And while pacing around the office with a baseball bat over my shoulder, absentmindedly swinging it in the air at times, I’d say…

Greg, the next time your run-oriented offense gets first and goal on the 5 yard line against the worst defense in the NFL at stopping the run … and you then order up three unsuccessful passing plays in a row ... you will attend Monday’s press conference and sit in the corner wearing a big dunce cap.

And I’m not speaking rhetorically. I mean it literally. Shame shall be your motivator.

Oh, and tell your kids not to get too attached to their school or their friends. We all may be moving soon.

Now go look at the game film and find that play where you called the quick pitch out to Jerius Norwood, which utilized his speed and completely avoided our rotten offensive line, then give me more like that so that maybe we can both keep our jobs.

It’s time for the “player’s coach” and the “offensive coordinator’s friend” to be The Coach.

Or be gone.