Your first look at Score Atlanta's TheFletch. Enjoy
Last week’s Falcons win over the Baltimore Ravens really left my scratching my head. It was on a Thursday night; it was a thrilling finish; it was between two teams that could very well end up meeting in the Super Bowl; did I mention the incredible finish; and it was on national television (well, as long as you get the NFL Network). However after the Atlanta victory, instead of 72 hours of, “Boy, this team is certainly ready for the next level!” or “WOW Matt Ryan just won his fifth fourth-quarter-comeback of the season and his eleventh of his young career!” it instead was pointing out that Baltimore was robbed. So weird.
As I watched the game on a piggyback simulcast on WATL (because I, like 74% of America don’t have the NFLN included in my basic cable service), I thought this is going to be great. For the next three days everyone will be giving props to the Falcons for taking the Ravens’ best shot and responding in less than 45 seconds for the win! Too bad that isn’t how it played out. Not by a long shot. ESPN personality and Pardon The Interruption co-host Michael Wilbon railed on the officials and the NFL for Baltimore getting screwed over three calls on the final drive. He went nuts over the fingertip grab of Michael Jenkins, a play that the officials replayed and CONFIRMED was a catch. Then he went crazy over a penalty call. Lastly he went berserk over the Roddy White play where he responded to some chicken-fighting by slapping the defender’s hands away before catching the ball for a score. The defender tried to win a nomination for best supporting actor by pretending Roddy White pulled a Last Boy Scout on him before scoring as he fell to the turf.
Sadly the criticism wasn’t just nationally. As his co-host on Pollack and Bell rejoiced over the win and how the Falcons were now FINALLY starting to find themselves on the positive end of 50/50 calls, David Pollack killed the buzz by arguing that White should have been popped for pass interference. As Bell nearly swallowed his tongue, Pollack tried to say that the defender was allowed to try and jam White, despite being past the 5-yard mark from the line of scrimmage, as long as he stood his ground and stood still. Then Pollack did concede that he was impressed with Ryan despite his “limitations,” as a quarterback. PS, Pollack, I was impressed with your color commentary on last week’s ESPNU broadcast despite the “limitations” of your not saying anything for a stretch of six plays at one point during the third quarter.
NFL Insiders Joe Theismann and Peter King disagreed with Pollack recently on Atlanta radio in terms of Ryan’s limitations as both heaped great praise of the third-year signal caller. King acknowledged to 790 The Zone in an interview that he would take Ryan over Flacco if the 2008 draft was redone today because he liked Ryan’s whole package. Theismann more-or-less echoed the sentiment on 680 The Fan’s Rude Awakening the day of the Falcons/Ravens game.
Theismann was part of the NFL Network broadcast team that called the game and right after the Ravens took the lead with 65 seconds left to play, Matt Millen or Bob Papa pondered if the Ravens scored too quickly, leaving Matt Ryan too much time to comeback and win. Theismann quickly responded, “there is no such thing as ‘scoring too early’ in the NFL.” Umm, really? Because I agreed with the first guy. They scored WAY too soon because of EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. Theismann didn’t go back and say “my bad,” to all Ravens fans after Atlanta scored to win the game. As far as the announcing crew, I can leave Theismann but this crew is clearly better than the old crew of Bryant Gumbel and ANYONE. Good work NFLN, too bad I cannot watch you guys on a regular basis.
Earlier I mentioned Theismann’s appearance on 680 The Fan’s The Rude Awakening. It went well. Theismann does know the game and is very opinionated on the NFL. The interview went well with Rude and Perry peppering Theismann questions and was about to end when Leo Mazzone finally piped in (I didn’t realize he was there as he hadn’t said a word the entire interview) to ask a football question…about Notre Dame. Of course Theismann answered but it was out of place and weird. Leo needs some coaching on what to ask, but at least this non sequitur came at the end of the interview and didn’t disrupt the flow of the interview. At some point 680 might want to consider simply using Leo on the Braves coverage and giving Brandon Home Team Leak a shot at the third chair on the morning show. He’d offer a bit of a different perspective and could also do the updates for the morning shows.
Finally, 680’s King of College Football Chuck Oliver received a little more ammo in his quest to get Mark Richt bounced from Athens after Georgia fell to 5-6 with a loss to Auburn. Oliver has been beating the drum that Richt should be relieved of his whistle due to Georgia’s slide into mediocrity, and his breakthrough website really stepped it up after the Georgia loss with a special section dedicated to the situation. The section included columns about how Richt is no longer among the elite coaches, what Richt would do if not at Georgia, Georgia’s place in the SEC and simply that Richt is at the end of the line, written by the King himself. If you haven’t visited the site and you are a fan of southern football, you are missing the boat.
Finally, kudos to CBS for being able to switch your central theme surrounding the Georgia/Auburn game so quickly. I didn’t see a single Cam Newton/Tim Tebow splitscreen all game, and I just KNOW you guys spent most of the week getting those ready. Instead CBS casually mentioned every once in a while about Newton’s troubling week, at one point flashing up headlines of news outlets from around the country. That showed guts to partially tear down its 2010 flagship team. I salute CBS for not ignoring the story like it has in years past, especially when it comes to Florida.
Can You Believe He Said That?
If Paul Hewitt isn’t the worst basketball coach in the country, it’s only because ours is a mighty big country.
That was Mark Bradley of the AJC ripping into Paul Hewitt after the Jackets lost to Kennesaw State. It seems this is Bradley’s Modus Operandi, put the coach of the school’s flagship program in your sights and pound away at him. He does it with Mark Richt and he’s started up again with Hewitt. After a while Mark, it sounds like you are just writing the same blog over and over again. Bis repetita placent, I guess.
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