Friday, August 31, 2007
Sports
Ready or not
The Falcons can win the season opener at Minnesota. But then what?
Bobby Petrino makes his NFL head coaching debut Sept. 9 in Minnesota.
CREDIT: Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images |
BY HUNT ARCHBOLD
As the seemingly neverending soap opera “The Edge of Vick” continues, the fact of the matter remains that the Falcons have a real football game to play next Sunday, Sept 9. As in, one that counts in the regular season standings. And there’s 15 more after that
Atlanta is set to visit Minnesota in the season opener, and Vick, having pled guilty to a federal dogfighting charge, will not be there. Yes, behind the scenes the club will continue their efforts to recover as much as $20 million from the former face of the franchise. And yes, Vick’s lawyers will move forward with their attempts to have his sentencing, currently scheduled for Dec. 10, moved to an earlier date.
But have coach Bobby Petrino and the Falcons moved on? They appear to have, but certainly this is a story that’s not going to go away anytime soon. Still, team owner Arthur Blank believes his first-year coach has made all the right moves.
“[Petrino’s] done an unbelievable job focusing himself, his staff and the players on the responsibility of football,’’ says Blank. “My view is they have moved past this. It doesn’t mean they’re not going through some personal emotions and mourning—we all are—but they’ve moved past this and focused on their job.”
The job at hand begins for real Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis at the Metrodome. And fortunately for the Birds, this Vikings team is beatable. Winners of only six games last season, the Vikings do not possess a very explosive offense (they ranked 26th in scoring in ’06). Rookie Adrian Peterson has the makings of a good running back, but quarterback Tarvaris Jackson is unproven, the receiving corps is sub-par and the offensive line is average at best.
Defensively, the Vikings do possess some talent, and that side of the ball will definitely win Minnesota some games this year. But this Brad Childress-coached team has one of the league’s worst pass-rushing units, which means an aggressive pass attack can move the football against the Vikings.
But can Joey Harrington get the job done? We’re talking about a player whose teams have a record of 23-43 when he starts. The former first-round draft pick out of Oregon has been cast off by both the Lions and the Dolphins—will the third time be the charm?
Petrino has installed an aggressive offensive style that puts a premium on attacking the defense. The much-maligned Atlanta receiving corps looked better than usual in the preseason, and the Birds do have a talent at the running back position—when those players are healthy. The key is up front, where four of five starters returned from last season. Of course, those returnees often struggled protecting Vick a season ago.
Atlanta’s defense displayed a talent for folding down the stretch the past two seasons. But despite some injuries, the Falcons’ stop unit hasn’t looked too bad in the preseason. It’s an attacking unit, but if Atlanta and top draft pick Jamaal Anderson can’t get to the quarterback, then opponents are going to burn this team repeatedly through the air.
The league’s schedule-makers did the team no favors by beginning their season on the road for the first two games. After Minnesota, the Falcons visit a Jacksonville team that will be better than the Vikings. Starting 0-2 would be borderline disastrous for a team that, more than most in the league, needs to get off to a positive start.
Blank has made it clear that the team’s season-ticket sales this season were at the highest level in franchise history. But those tickets were sold when No. 7 was expected to be under center. Without the excitement Vick brings, the Falcons could become another ho-hum mediocre football team putting forth a sub-par product. If that happens, the Georgia Dome will have more than its share of empty seats this season.
But the home opener is still a couple of weeks out. First things first—and that means taking care of business in Minnesota. SP