Could you find two teams who are more polar opposite than Atlanta and Arizona right now? The Falcons have won 5 of their last 6 games and look like one of the hottest teams in the NFL, while the Cardinals have lost 4 of their last 6 and completely broke down at the end of the season. There are lots of fans and analysts who feel like the Cards don’t even belong in the postseason with the effort they’ve been putting forth lately.
Reasons to believe Atlanta will win: 1. Matt Ryan and Michael Turner are on fire right now, Turner was only 60 yards short of the NFL rushing title, and Ryan somehow looks like a veteran in the pocket.
2. The Falcons are a scrappy team – If you look at the scoreboard on all of Atlanta’s recent wins, they have mostly been by 7 points or less. Atlanta doesn’t give up in the 4th quarter and battle it out until the final whistle.
Reasons to believe Arizona will win:
1. The Cards are great at home – This team went 6-2 at home this season (and one of those games was a really close loss to the Giants), so Atlanta may have a tough time in the desert.
2. Atlanta’s defense sucks – I know folks may not believe it, but Atlanta’s defense is statistically worse than the Cardinals. They’re facing a team with an incredibly explosive offense on the road, so it’s really up in the air how they’ll perform here.
So who am I predicting to win it?
You’d be hard pressed to find ANYONE who thinks Arizona can win the way they’ve been playing lately, but I’m actually putting my chips behind Kurt Warner and the gang. Nobody takes this team seriously (with good reason), but Arizona possesses this mythical retard strength. Just when you’re expecting them to roll over and die, they’ll go crazy and flip over a Volkswagen Beetle and take a bite out of a tree.
Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons and Tony Sparano of the Miami Dolphins have both led their teams through astonishing transformations. The Falcons were 4-12 last year and currently sit at 11-4, the Dolphins were 1-15 last year and currently sit at 10-5, so the coach of the year award should obviously go to one of the two.
Which rookie coach do you think made the most out of the hands they were dealt?
Mike Smith had an Atlanta franchise who were completely cripped by the Mike Vick saga, and a head coach (Bobby Petrino) who completely abandoned them in the middle of last year’s season… oh yeah, they’re also starting a rookie quarterback. Tony Sparano had an organization full of aging players, no quarterback, and non existent discipline.
It’s a really tough choice but I’m apt to give the edge to Sparano. Aside from Pennington, Brown, Williams, and Porter… this team is full of no-name roleplayers who put their heads down and get the job done.
We all love to see players get the snot knocked out of them every week right? So from here on out I’ll try to provide animated .gifs of the best hits from the week of NFL action.
In this picture you’ll see Lawyer Milloy knock LJ Smith out of the game with a concussion. Milloy was flagged for laying wood on a defenseless receiver (you should notice that the ball was unreachable).
Are there any other hits I missed? Drop me a line in the comment section and I’ll hunt it down for ya.
Update: One of the commenters thinks the hit James Butler put on Nate Washington was the best of the week. In the .gif you’ll see Butler hit Washington so hard the ball pops up allowing an interception. It seems like Washington was really hurt because he lay there motionless, I didn’t watch the game myself so I’m not sure if he shook it off or not.
This is a pretty interesting watch, it chronicles how the entire case unfolded, from the very first clue to Michael Vick eventually pleading guilty. It’s amazing how one man getting pulled over for weed led to another man losing an $140 million dollar sports empire.
After serving a two year jail sentence, and losing every earthly possession, I hope he lands on his feet after he’s released.
Newly drafted Atlanta Falcons quarterback, Matt Ryan, is in a new tax bracket. The particulars of the contract are a six-year, $72 million contract with a hefty $34.75 million bonus.
This deal is exactly why there needs to be a cap on rookie contracts. Ryan has yet to play a down and has received almost a $35M bonus. What makes this even worse is that Ryan will have to fight for the starting job. In effect, the Falcons may have given $35M bonus to someone who won’t even start.
This will obviously affect the rest of the top 10 picks in the draft.
The difference here, obviously, is that the Falcons got six years out of Ryan while Miami signed Long for only five, so the bonus logically might have been higher. But $34.75 million is approximately $11 million more than last year’s third pick, Cleveland tackle Joe Thomas, got in guarantees. So this is a big win for Ryan and for the agents who don’t want to see teams sign first-round picks for less money than a year ago.
Could you find two teams who are more polar opposite than Atlanta and Arizona right now? The Falcons have won 5 of their last 6 games and look like one of the hottest teams in the NFL, while the Cardinals have lost 4 of their last 6 and completely broke down at the end of the season. There are lots of fans and analysts who feel like the Cards don’t even belong in the postseason with the effort they’ve been putting forth lately.
Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons and Tony Sparano of the Miami Dolphins have both led their teams through astonishing transformations. The Falcons were 4-12 last year and currently sit at 11-4, the Dolphins were 1-15 last year and currently sit at 10-5, so the coach of the year award should obviously go to one of the two.
We all love to see players get the snot knocked out of them every week right? So from here on out I’ll try to provide animated .gifs of the best hits from the week of NFL action.
Update: One of the commenters thinks the hit James Butler put on Nate Washington was the best of the week. In the .gif you’ll see Butler hit Washington so hard the ball pops up allowing an interception. It seems like Washington was really hurt because he lay there motionless, I didn’t watch the game myself so I’m not sure if he shook it off or not.