How good are these Atlanta Falcons?
Good, not great. Impressive, not dazzling. Overrated, underappreciated.
The Falcons are perhaps a 9-5 team with a 12-2 record.
Why?
1) The defense is so-so, perhaps a bit above average, but inconsistent.
Opponents are completing 65 percent against the Falcons, ranking 27th in the NFL. The Falcons are 18th in pass efficiency defense and yards per attempt, 19th in touchdowns, 22nd in yards per game and 24th in sacks.
OK, the necessary math: There are 32 teams in the NFL - yes, including Carolina - so Atlanta is in the middle of the pack or worse in some key categories.
The Falcons bend, but don't break. Great teams don't bend so often.
2) They don't dominate anybody.
If you've controlled stats, and really have willed the opponent into submission in the fourth quarter, you've dominated.
Atlanta has won only three games by 17 points or more, and against teams with a combined 14-31 record.
The Falcons average only 16 more yards a game despite having run 147 more plays than the opposition.
They coulda/shoulda lost to New Orleans, would have except for the rare missed chip-shot field goal.
Conversely, the Saints - albeit a now-depressed team - had its chance to stop the Falcons in overtime and get the ball back, but the defensive stand after missed game-winners is rare.
They coulda/shoulda lost at home to San Francisco, and would have except for the rare all-out hustle play by Roddy White accompanies by the hustle play by Harvey Dahl, who teamed to strip the ball after a last-minute Matt Ryan interception and recover it and set up Matt Bryant's second game-winning field goal of the season.
They coulda lost to Cleveland and embattled QB and backup Jake Delhomme, got the rare interception for a touchdown from a defensive lineman, courtesy of Kroy Biermann, in the final 4:01 for a cushion in what was a three-point game.
Atlanta almost lost to Jake Delhomme.
They coulda/shoulda lost to Cincinnati, needing two fourth-quarter touchdowns for a seven-point win at home after blowing a 24-3 lead.
Great teams don't blow 24-3 leads at home to dysfunctional teams, and get taken to the final seconds by such teams.
They coulda lost at home to Tampa Bay, and got some help by a barely botched onside kick with 30 seconds after giving up an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown after going up by 13 in the final minute.
That loss would have been no embarrassment for the obvious reasons: division game, playoff-caliber teams, rivalry.
They coulda/shoulda lost to Green Bay at home, needing 10 fourth-quarter points and a field goal with nine seconds left to win a thoroughly enjoyable game against a quality team that is more explosive than the Falcons.
Note that Aaron Rodgers had 344 yards passing and 51 yards rushing.
And they coulda/shoulda lost to Tampa Bay on the road, again needing 14 fourth-quarter points - including the mighty rare 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown - to win by four.
Atlanta just doesn't have a knockout punch.
Great teams have legitimate backups and reserves with some stats. Backup quarterbacks need more snaps than Chis Redman has. He has yet to throw a pass this season.
That's not good.
Facts that will baffle: Ryan is the NFL's No. 14 quarterback in passing efficiency, behind Jay Cutler, David Garrard and Matt Cassel. He is 12th in completion percentage, 15th in yardage, and tied for eighth in touchdowns.
All that said, calm down, folks.
Yes, teams aren't perfect, but let's be honest and look past just the record and use the brain more than the heart.
The Falcons aren't great. They're good to very good, not far from great.
The bellyaching about national attention is off for a variety of reasons:
A) Just because you didn't see it or read it doesn't mean it wasn't said or written. And plenty of raving has been said and written.
B) They don't dominate teams, which gets attention. They outlast teams, which just doesn’t lead to a lot of conversation.
C) Thankfully, they don't have any real insecure jerks, which gets attention.
D) They play fundamental old-school football, which smart people with an attention span actually like a whole lot, which eliminates most TV people and even more of the public.
This is an organization that has only once had two straight winning seasons, and thus only once had three straight winning seasons. It had been royally mismanaged for decades, even through the little success, which is why there's been little success.
The thought here is that Atlanta is almost an expansion team, starting over when Bobby Petrino cut bait and Mike Vick cut a deal, when Arthur Blank stepped back and just owned and let people do their jobs, when Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith were hired and Matt Ryan drafted.
Theeeeese Atlanta Falcons are a young organization. They're not supposed to be a great team yet, and to be where they are in three years of "existence" is fairly remarkable.
As it is, Atlanta may be the most fundamentally sound team in the NFL.
And Ryan is in many ways an elite - as pundits keep saying and writing, no matter how much fans don't hear or read - quarterback moreso because of two stats: only nine interceptions and only 21 sacks.
There's also his ability to ignore the score and clock and just keep playing and finding people and making plays all the time in that fourth quarter.
He's trailing a few future Hall of Famers on the elite list as well as rising stars, mainly because he's played only three seasons, as has Baltimore's Joe Flacco, who has better numbers - season and career - than Ryan and gets less love.
And all that said, Atlanta is going to be a player in the NFL and in the postseason until further notice. Atlanta, as your's truly has said for about a year, will become a destination for NFL players because of the new organization and because of the city's attractiveness to athletes (and music people).
Atlanta has a chance to compete as a national fan favorite, what with a passionate head coach, telegenic and obsessive and personable quarterback, a lack of arrogance and obnoxiousness, that supreme fundamental ability and professionalism.
I know asking Falcons fans to be patient is a stretch, because that's all they've been is patient. But this time, it's not just a tease.
Regardless of what happens against the Saints - and yes, other teams can be the Falcons as well, at home or away - and the rest of the season, this is just the beginning.
LOUGHDMOUTHINGS
The Jets make the playoffs because Washington kicks a field goal to beat Jacksonville.
Ah, another foot makes Rex Ryan happy. ...
There is plenty of Mike Vick love going on, and yet again, unfortunately, much of it is because of a reason that really has little to do with his play, which has inspired football-related love.
Is Vick an MVP candidate? Obviously. Nobody - even the most staunch Vick haters, even the most narrow-minded pumpkin heads - can argue that.
Is his a feel-good story? Well, yes and no. His story will be the same forever, because he made it that way. It does, though, change as he remains a decent human being and continues the remarkable improvement he's made.
But facts again screw up blind and simple-minded Vick lovers:
He missed three-plus games - counting only seven passes against Washington, when he got hurt - so he hasn't taken the pounding of quarterbacks who have played every game.
Even Aaron Rodgers said he was very refreshed after missing last week's New England game with a concussion and then absolutely rolling the Giants for 404 yards and four touchdowns with no picks on Sunday.
So as the Eagles are 8-2 with him as the starting QB.
He is third in the NFL in efficiency, ninth in completion percentage, but he's also been sacked 28 times - 19th in NFL - despite missing that time, and is only 25th in pass attempts.
Vick can win the MVP, certainly, and based on his performance only. Few could argue with merit. And to think his past won't have some sort of impact is absurd and naive.
Still, for him to finish in the top three - and that's pretty much a lock - would serve as a major comeback story.
And is there any candidate for comeback player of the year? ...
Knuckle-draggers aside, it's hard to not be pretty impressed with the Connecticut women's basketball winning streak.
Other teams have been loaded with talent and not come close to that, or percentage-wise, in any sport.
One complaint is that UConn has the best talent, which misses the point that maybe there's some coaching and discipline involved. Thus, the best team.
But it's sports, and it's not a favorite sport of many, so people find something to bellyache about rather than give credit and move on. Nobody really likes giving credit. ...
And from Scott Hanson of the Seattle Times:
German police recently raided the apartment of a 58-year-old man who had decorated a pot plant that was over 6 feet tall as a Christmas tree, complete with lights.
Police seized the tree as evidence.
Meanwhile, Dolphins running back Ricky Williams is looking for a new place to spend the holidays.
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