Too Good To Be True?

As the Falcons went ahead of the Detroit Lions 21-0 late in the first quarter, I was thinking like any true Atlanta sports fan that this was way too good to be true.  Matt Ryan's first pass in the NFL goes for a 62 yard touchdown to Michael Jenkins.   Michael Turner gets two touchdown runs of 66 and 5 yards respectively.  All in the first quarter.  I thought to myself that there were still three quarters left and this is too good to be true.  The Falcons will get punched back in the mouth and taste their own blood and that will be the end of it.

As I expected, and probably by many others as well, the Lions stopped trying to run the ball and went to the passing game and scored 14 in the second quarter to make the game interesting. However, something unexpected happened....

The Falcons held on.  They did not crawl into a shell in a bunker.  They continued to fight and battle.  They did not fall into the old pattern of "Oh no.  Here we go again" which would have led this psychologically fragile team to get run out of the building the rest of the way.  That would have happened last year and the year before and the year before etc. etc.  It did not happen.  The Falcons actually executed their game plan almost perfectly.  The Lions were hoping to put the Falcons in the position to put the game into Ryan's hands and then blitz and confuse him to the point that he would make typical rookie mistakes.  This would have led to the Lions taking apart a loose secondary with home town hero Calvin Johnson.  It did not happen.  Well, maybe the Calvin Johnson part, but there was no way around that as the Lions played from 10 to 17 points behind for the second half.   The end result was a shocking 34-21 victory.

Coach Mike Smith promised a tougher team.  We got it.  We saw it.  We saw an offensive line with attitude that led to a stunning 318 yards rushing.  Michael Turner got 220 of those yards.  Norwood "chipped" in with 96 of his own.  It takes toughness to pile up all of those yards.  Yes, I know that a few years ago the Falcons led the league in rushing.  However, that is when they had Ron Mexico at quarterback whose only consistent ability was to run the ball (as well as giving out pot and STDs) and utilizing a finesse runner in Warrick Dunn.  In this game, the Falcons pounded the Lions into submission.  By the mid way in the fourth quarter the Lions had given up under the intimidation.  And it was intimidation.  The Falcons pushed the Lions defense all over the field.  This was a show of grit and toughness that has not been seen in an Atlanta football team in a while.  This offensive toughness allowed Matt Ryan to not have to win the game.  This allowed him to get his feet wet.  He completed only nine passes (out of 13 for 161 yards), but he threw no interceptions.  He only threw maybe two bad passes.  He did not try to force things.  For a rookie QB, this was excellent.

The defense held the Lions to 62 yards on the ground, which was a strong showing by a defense that did not stop anyone on the ground last year.  The Falcons held the Lions to 3.o yards a carry during the game.  This is more than respectable.  In contrast, the Falcons averaged 7.8 yards a rush on offense.

The pass defense had to hold up under the pressure of Jon Kitna.  OK, I am being overly dramatic.  Kitna is not Tom Brady (who had to leave the game against Kansas City with a left knee injury that some are calling season-ending...Geez...I don't like the guy, but I don't want him hurt...I just want him to lose), but the Lions had to resort to throwing the ball around early.  They managed to exploit some key mis-matches in the secondary.  The Falcons held the Lions when it counted the most.  I hope that the secondary can shore up the holes, however, the personnel will not allow for that this year.  

All in all, I was shocked at the performance.  I witnessed a team that was big on toughness.  Both physical and mental.  This is what Coach Smith was brought in for.  He has preached physical and psychological toughness.  His practices emphasize this over and over again.  At least in the first game the message has been sent.  We may be short on talent.  We may not be faster or stronger.  But, we will be tough.  We will fight you until the end.  We won't pack it in.  If this message is the true message that we see for the rest of the season, then for this year, it will be enough for me.  I just hope that today was not a fluke.  It was the Lions, you know.