Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
On the heels of a nightmarish 2007 season, the Falcons were predicted to go 0-16 by some pundits. But not even the most optimistic Falcons fan would have expected a playoff spot, and even fewer would have seen Matt Ryan going from rookie to franchise quarterback before the season's halfway point.
But now here comes the hard part: The Falcons have never managed to put together back-to-back winning seasons. Whenever the Falcons have broken through with a playoff appearance, it's always been followed with a quick crash back to Earth.
You have to give the Arizona Cardinals credit. They don't often make the playoffs, but when they do, they get their money's worth. The last time they were in the playoffs was 10 years ago, and they won a game that time around as well.
I guess all those people constantly reminding Arizona fans how much their team sucks needed to check themselves a bit. After a beautifully executed flea-flicker -- resulting in a touchdown by Larry Fitzgerald -- the Cards outplayed the Falcons for most of the game. There was a brief interlude where Atlanta took the lead due to a late first-half interception deep in Cardinals territory. That sequence alone is why the game ended up much closer than it should have been.
The Cardinals controlled this game at the line of scrimmage from start to finish. Coming in, the Atlanta Falcons were the ones with the vaunted rushing attack, while the Cardinals ran the ball less than any team in the league. With John Abraham being rendered basically meaningless and the Cardinals defensive front living in the Falcons backfield, the Cards outran the Falcons.
We have the Falcons, who are just a year away from being the league's laughingstock with a quarterback in prison and a coach who bailed the first time things got tough, against the Cardinals, who make the playoffs about as often as Vanderbilt wins a bowl game.
The Cardinals wrapped up a playoff spot weeks ago, but they're considered potential frauds because of their easy NFC West schedule. The Falcons had to wait a while longer, and they have to carry some skepticism because they've gone from being considered one of the league's worst teams to a playoff team in the span of three months and conventional wisdom often takes longer than that to catch up.
But both of these teams are only three wins away from the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter how they got here, as a couple of wins and fans can start dreaming of a trip to Tampa--even if there aren't enough Cardinals fans to sell out their stadium, much less to travel to the Super Bowl.
In doing these Between The Lines posts, it's always interesting to see if mismatches jump out, or if there is a player that seems either underrated or overrated.
Normally it doesn't happen. The conventional wisdom on most teams is pretty accurate, and it's really hard to find a stud on the offensive or defensive line that hasn't been noticed at all. But as the Falcons get ready to play the Cardinals this weekend, there is a mismatch that jumps out from paying attention to the two team's lines: if the Falcons are wise with where they line up John Abraham, he could dominate this game.
There are a lot of factors to consider in Saturday's game: how will Matt Ryan react to his first playoff start, can the Cardinals slow down Michael Turner and is the Cardinals' triple-threat at receiver too much for the Falcons secondary, but as I see it, this game will first be decided by whether the Cardinals can block Abraham.
It may not get as much notice as Cowboys-Ravens or Steelers-Titans, but there aren't many games this weekend bigger as far as playoff implications than the Falcons-Vikings' game.
With a win the Vikings will wrap up the NFC North division title. With a loss, the Falcons will likely kiss their playoff hopes good-bye. And if you needed a little extra incentive, this will be an infrequent chance for the Vikings to get a little revenge for the 1999 NFC Championship loss to the Falcons. In that game, the 16-1 Vikings saw their Super Bowl trip derailed when Gary Anderson missed a field goal for the first time all season. The loss was crushing enough that nine years later, CBS' How I Met Your Mother was able to use it as the focus of its most recent episode.
If you look hard enough, every team around the NFL has a player on its roster that should have received an invite to the Pro Bowl. The St. Louis Rams, for example, are livid that their punter isn't going. Some guys, like Atlanta's John Abraham, simply brush it off as no big deal, while others, like Tampa Bay's Barrett Ruud talk about how they got the shaft.
Ruud, a fourth-year middle linebacker out of Nebraska, is currently leading the Buccaneers with 117 tackles, while also registering three sacks, six pass defenses and two interceptions for playoff-hopeful Tampa Bay. He's obviously having a great season, though, not great enough to receive an invite to Hawaii. Predictably, he's not exactly thrilled with decision.
From Rick Stroud and Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times:
"I got the shaft," Ruud said. "Somebody's got to get it, though." "The old saying is usually you go a couple years after you're supposed to and you stay a couple years longer. I'm not going to throw a tantrum or anything. I would've liked to have gone. Everybody wants to have that tag as a Pro Bowler, but unfortunately it didn't happen. All I can do is keep playing to get into the playoffs now."
For every Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson who views the game through ego-colored glasses, it's good to know that there are other NFL stars that realize that they aren't the only good player at their position.
Falcons defensive end John Abraham found out this week that he was shut out of the Pro Bowl despite an outstanding season. But instead of complaining about the injustice of it all, he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Everybody deserved to make it," said Abraham. "Everybody who made it, made it. They deserved to make it. I just didn't make it, that's all."
You've got to respect Abraham's very rational response to what had to be a serious disappointment. Abraham had a good enough season to be a Pro Bowler, but realistically he lost his chance to be a Pro Bowler when the Vikings traded for Jared Allen. With Allen in the NFC, there were five outstanding defensive ends for three spots.
Minnesota's Allen, Carolina's Julius Peppers and New York's Justin Tuck ended up making it, while Abraham and Green Bay's Aaron Kampman were left out. While Abraham is having a great year, he doesn't play nearly as many snaps as Allen, Peppers or Tuck, which makes it hard to argue that his absence is any kind of an injustice.
The Falcons had long ago exceeded any expectations for the 2008 season, but on Sunday, they just added to coach Mike Smith's now-impressive resume.
The Falcons had to wait until Jason Elam's overtime field goal to knock off the Bucs in a key NFC South game, keeping the team's playoff hopes alive, but this was a game that the team had almost wrapped up several times before.
If backup tight end Jason Radar hadn't fumbled at the one-yard line, the Falcons could have put this game away during regulation. If Matt Ryan hadn't actually looked like a rookie on a couple of plays, the Falcons could have put the game away. If Michael Koenen hadn't had a punt blocked in the final three minutes of regulation, Atlanta would have walked off winners without the need for an overtime.
Every Play Counts is Michael David Smith's weekly look at one specific player or one aspect of a team on every single play of the previous game.
I don't know if the Atlanta Falcons are actually a good football team, but I do know they're better than anyone expected. Before the season fans were talking about the Falcons like they'd be lucky to win three games all season. As it is, they're off to a 3-2 start.
Rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and the 1-2 running back punch of Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood are getting almost all of the credit for the Falcons' fast start, but as I watched the Falcons' 27-24 win over the Packers on Sunday, I came to the conclusion that defensive end John Abraham is the biggest reason the Falcons have a winning record.
Abraham, who leads the league with seven sacks this season, had an absolutely brilliant game in Green Bay, terrorizing Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and proving himself more than capable against the run as well. The Falcons' defense as a whole isn't particularly good, but Abraham is a one-man wrecking crew.
We're only three weeks into the 2008 season and no matter what happens from here, the Falcons have already bettered their 2007 season.
They still need two more wins to equal their 2007 total, but the Falcons have already shown more promise, more stars and more refined execution than they ever did last year. Michael Turner has five rushing touchdowns in three weeks--the Falcons had seven rushing touchdowns in 2007. John Abraham already had six sacks and rookie quarterback Matt Ryan has had two good games in three weeks.
Could anyone watch this game yesterday and not think that the Falcons are in better shape to contend down the road than the Chiefs? Kansas City may have been starting its third-string quarterback, but it has serious problems on the offensive line, at receiver and on defense that will have to be fixed, and it's not clear there are the players on the current roster to fix all the problems.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
Stay on top of all the postseason action with 
In doing these 
It may not get as much notice as Cowboys-Ravens or Steelers-Titans, but there aren't many games this weekend bigger as far as playoff implications than the Falcons-Vikings' game.
If you look hard enough, every team around the NFL has a player on its roster that should have received an invite to the Pro Bowl. The St. Louis Rams, for example, 
For every Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson who views the game through ego-colored glasses, it's good to know that there are other NFL stars that realize that they aren't the only good player at their position.
The Falcons had long ago exceeded any expectations for the 2008 season, but on Sunday, they just added to coach 
Every Play Counts 
We're only three weeks into the 2008 season and no matter what happens from here, the Falcons have already bettered their 2007 season.
