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Tue. Dec 26, 2006

Mora Falcons Misery

It’s that special time of year. While many NFL fans are charting where their team will fall into the playoff lineup, and all teams have at least one game left, Falcons fans get to go ahead with a season ending wrap up so the stench can be cleared in time to enjoy some real football.

We’ve been wondering just what that smell was off and on all season long, but it completely stunk up the Georgia Dome on Sunday afternoon, driving the crowds to the exits early. It was another one of those “must win” games that the Falcons have against an allegedly lesser opponent. They’ve lost at least two of those already this year.

On one hand we had a team with a QB that had a 17 game losing streak as a starter. On the other hand, a team with a QB who hadn’t thrown a 4th quarter touchdown pass in 18 games. One streak continued. The other was snapped. Seven passing attempts the entire game that garnered 32 yards total was enough to win. A performance featuring four completions snapped the 17 game losing streak for Chris Weinke.

It’s hard to describe how fully the Falcons failed. The Panthers opened the game running. And running. And running. Fourteen times in a row. Like a guy who just stands there and slaps you in the face repeatedly until you make him stop. There were times they lined up with no quarterback at all. Just snapped it straight to the running back. They did everything but break the huddle, turn, and shout in unison, “we are running again!”

They made it clear they were going to run until the Falcons showed they could stop them. Which didn’t come until sometime in the middle of the third quarter. Result? A ridiculous 41:47 to 18:13 time of possession gap.

Well, what can you expect an offense to do when they are only on the field eighteen minutes? Score one field goal and polish off some records, I suppose. You want records? We got plenty. We’ve got the highest scoring NFL player ever, Morton Andersen. He topped Gary Anderson’s record for most field goals Sunday afternoon.

And we’ve got two runners who each have thousand yard seasons, the first time that’s happened in over two decades in the NFL. And for the first time ever, one of the two is a quarterback. Yes, Michael Vick cracked 1,000 yards rushing on about the third play of the game. He’s also thrown for more touchdowns this year than ever before.

And I just have to say … “so what?” What have all of these amazing offensive records gained the Falcons? In a game everyone knew they had to win, their offense crossed the 50 yard line twice in 60 minutes. Total offense? 177 yards. There have been days, good days, when Warrick Dunn totalled that many yards all by himself.

Michael Vick has been quoted saying quite a few things after the game, most sounding appropriately frustrated. But this one bugged me: “This team deserves to be in the playoffs and should be.”

No, Michael, you don’t. For quite a few reasons. The same article with that quote points out one: “The Falcons have dropped five of their last six home games and now join the 1967, ‘68, ‘86, ‘87 and ‘89 teams, which had a combined record of 16-56-2, in becoming the only Atlanta clubs to lose their final four at home.”

Ah, fond memories. Yes, you’re a rare company now. The Marion Campbell Years. But there’s more to it than the fact the Falcons are 3-5 at home this year, including losing the last four in a row at home (which does wonders for season ticket sales for next year).

Sure, a true contender is supposed to win the majority of their home games. The really good teams often win all of them. But there’s another thing really good teams do: they win in November and December. When it counts. They build to a peak heading into the playoffs.

Two years running now, the Falcons win big in September, begin to crack in October, and fall apart in November and December. They come out of the blocks looking like world beaters. But if you combine their record at home over the past two Novembers and two Decembers, they are an astounding 1-7.

Carolina is a textbook example. In the opening game of the season, at Carolina, the Falcons won handily, 20-6. 14 games later, in their own house with the playoffs on the line, the Falcons lose to the very same team, 10-3.

With so much genuine talent on both sides of the ball, you have to question whether it is this coaching staff that has managed to somehow mix it into the heartless and bland stew we often get served on Sunday. And though he’s been around long enough to no longer be a “rookie,” Arthur Blank gets his first real shot at the Dilemma Of The Coach You Hired.

So far, “Team owner Arthur Blank declined comment, instead referring reporters to an article that appeared in the Journal-Constitution in November. Blank said in the story that an 8-8 record, or worse, and not making the playoffs would be unacceptable.”

8-8 is now best case, 7-9 far more likely. And for the Falcons to get into the playoffs at this point would be like me winning the lottery; it would having nothing to do with skill, or earned position, it would just be a rare and random twist of fate.

Plus, “‘I’m not into announcements,’ Falcons owner Arthur Blank said when asked if he was considering firing Mora before the team’s final game next week in Philadelphia. “We’re just trying to win a football game.’”

What a last line. Emphasis on “trying.” Emphasis on “a.”

Jeff Schultz thinks there will soon be no Mora: “There will be no firing on Christmas. If Jim Mora wanted a security blanket to wrap himself in, well, there it is. That’s as good as it gets.”

Let me check the morning paper … yes, Mr. Schultz is correct, there was no Christmas pink slip for Little Jimmy. One might assume there was some coal and switches, though.

Schultz has a lot more to say about Mora and the Falcons that’s pretty dead on target. But let’s assume he’s wrong about a lot of it. Let’s assume the Falcons travel up to Philadelphia and administer a highly unlikely highlight-filled 41-3 beating to the Eagles, with a performance that nudges Mora’s position back in the “toss up” category.

There’s a part of me that prior to today was inclined to think Mora should get one more year. Partly because of the uncertainty of who you’re going to get that is assuredly and markedly better.

As in ... “If the Falcons win their two remaining games [oops, too late!], Mora would have a 28-20 (.583) regular-season record. From 1978 to 1980, the Falcons compiled a 27-21 (.563) record under Leeman Bennett, currently the best three-year stretch in franchise history. The Falcons were 26-22 (.542) from 1997 to 1999 under Dan Reeves, making a Super Bowl appearance after the 1998 season. Mora is the only other coach to guide the Falcons to the NFC championship game.”

Ah, yes, Leeman Bennett. Right after that “best three-year stretch in franchise history,” then owner Rankin Smith fired Bennett, saying, in a phrase that is infamous here in Atlanta, that the team had “reached a plateau.”

That “plateau” was three years in the playoffs without ever getting past the second round. Of course, by definition, a plateau ends with a steep cliff, which is exactly what the Falcons fell off of after Bennett was fired. It was nearly a decade before they would see the playoffs again.

Care to spin that coaching roulette wheel again? Is Marion Campbell available?

But here’s the thing. If you kept Mora, and even told him explicitly that he was getting a one year reprieve, you’d also have to tell him, “you’ve got some serious offensive restructuring to do (meaning, not with your current offensive coordinator, maybe with a promoted QB coach Bill Musgrave), and you’ve also got the talent on defense to have far better rankings and results than this year has brought. So fix that, too.

However, then you have to wonder, if the offense and defense need some serious upgrading in basic effectiveness and better utilizing talent, what exactly is Mr. Mora bringing to the party?

But no matter. Even if that was all a tossup, I think Mora broiled his own bird when he opened his yap on a Seattle radio show about a theoretical job as head coach at the University of Washington.

Two days before a critical game against Dallas, the Atlanta Falcons head coach said “if that job’s open you’ll find me at the friggin’ head of the line with my resume in my hand ready to take that job [...] I don’t care if we’re in the middle of a playoff run, I’m packing my stuff and going back to Seattle … The further I get away from it, the more I’m drawn to it. That’s the job I want.”

Let’s look at this from the perspective of Mora’s boss. To give Arthur Blank credit, he’s “walked the walk” since he bought the Falcons. He’s laid down big bucks to make sure they have first class facilities, capabilities, and personnel. He wants to not only have a top notch NFL franchise that players are drawn towards because of its prime reputation, he wants to create a model for all sports franchises. This is a businessman used to succeeding spectacularly. There is some ego involved in trying to create this shining example.

And, in effect, Jim Mora spit on it. Publicly. Said he’d leave it in a heartbeat, even in a playoff run, to go back to Dear Old U of Dubya. Of course, he claims he was just joshing with his old college roommate, Hugh Millen. And maybe he was. But it was on the radio, he sounded serious, and it was horribly naive to think a man in a public position such as his could make those comments without repercussions. Repercussions like his players spending the two days before a big game fielding questions about their coach’s resume.

A man in the spotlight has to be careful about the words he uses in public. And which adjective did Arthur Blank carefully choose to describe Mora’s actions at the time? “Boneheaded.” And that was two losses ago. With one more likely to come.

I think if Mora had coached the Falcons to a three game winning streak to close out the season and get into the playoffs, there’s little doubt he’d be back next year, “boneheaded” comments or not. Two out of three games and a wild card slot might have done it, too.

But I think that was the last train to continued employment. And it left the station sometime Sunday afternoon.

One Week Later: Falcons Coach No Mora.