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Published Monday, November 10, 2008

Falcons’ season has not been a ‘shower scene’

I don’t think ordering playoff tickets will be in order yet, but we may have something with the Atlanta Falcons who have defied the “talking heads” of football with the way the 2008 season has gone.

After enduring a 2007 season that reminded us of the year the producers of Dallas decided that Pam should dream that Bobby was dead, it was good to see a football team pop out of this shower and end the nightmare created by Bobby Petrino.

A funny part of the season has been the play of the two wide receivers drafted in the Jim Mora regime.

Roddy White has become the player the team was hoping to see when he was drafted in 2005 and Michael Jenkins is finally catching the ball which is now a shock.

The hiring of Thomas Dimtroff helped in some areas but the hiring of a staff has been on the money.

Mike Smith has gone from an obscure defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the brother-in-law of former Ravens head coach Brian Billick to a possible coach -of-the-year with the “dirty birds” having a 6-3 record as opposed to the 3-13 mark that was forecast.

After the dominating 34-20 win over the New Orleans Saints and answer the “who dat?” question, the Falcons reached the six-win plateau for the sixth time this decade.

Granted hitting six wins is not a grand feat, but for this franchise it is like winning 10 for the sixth time.

For those of you who simply looked at stat sheets or the box score, you didn’t see the game because the Falcons were only in trouble once and that was the drive that saw Drew Brees get intercepted at the five and a touchdown for the guys in red.

Also, Brees did have 420 yards passing, but the Saints were held to under 100 yards rushing and when you complete 31-of-60 passes I guess 400 yards is in the offing.

When you are getting your head handed to you, you have to throw 60 times to make the game close, rally and possibly win which is added to the fact that Saints came into the contest with the NFL’s top offense.

However, they have one of the worst defenses in the league due to injuries and some guys who have yet to work for them for various reasons.

With the vanquishing of the Saints, the love is starting to be shown for the Falcons as the National Football League has rescheduled the November 23 game at the Georgia Dome against the Carolina Panthers to 4:15 since the NFC South is in play.

I don’t know if it means Joe Buck and Troy Aikmen, but it would be cool to have them in town for a visit, however, the Falcons have done pretty good with the lower end of the announcing pool.

Since the Falcons won these games with Kenny Albert, Ron Pitts and Matt Vasgersian doing play-by-play while guys like Tony Boselli, Tony “the Goose” Saragusa and J.C. Pearson have been along for the ride as the analyst I guess one should not change the luck.

Then again, the Panthers have had a good season also and are deserving of the leading duo for FOX (insert NFL theme here).

My only other fear is the Falcons blowing the next seven games and not making the playoffs but 6-10 is a lot better than what everybody thought.

The teams that could make the aforementioned fear a reality are Denver, Carolina, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, San Diego, Minnesota and St. Louis and while 4-3 looks pretty good, I hope 0-7 is NOT the case.

For now, I believe we should enjoy the ride while it lasts and realize there is no shower scene to this season as opposed to the 2007 nightmare.

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