Sunday Football Fever

The Falcons put a beating on the Detroit Lions to open the 200 season.

Rookie QB Matt Ryan threw a TD with his first NFL pass and the route was on.  Michael Turner set a franchise single-game rushing record, with 220 yards and scored 2 TDs.  Jerious Norwood added 93 yards and TD.

The Good

The offensive line opened huge holes for Norwood and Turner and allowed Ryan plenty of time to look down field and find his receivers (allowed 1 sack).  Ryan looked good but still showed signs of inexperience, forcing some throws into coverage.  But overall, he looked poised and managed the game very well.  If Turner and Norwood can continue to put up yards like they did today, then Ryan won’t be asked to win many games this year.  And that’s a good thing.

The Bad

As I mentioned above, Ryan still made some poor decisions, but that should improve with more reps.  The Falcons still had too many penalties (7 for 68 yards) and most were stupid penalties.

The Ugly

Pass coverage.  John Kitna was 24/33 for 262 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT.  John Kitna.  The Lions had receivers wide open all game long and the only time the Falcons got any significant pressure on Kitna was late in the game, when the Lions had basically stopped running the ball.  The Falcons need to work on improving their pass rush and their coverage in the secondary.  They’ve still got Delhomme (twice), McNabb, Brees (twice) and Rivers, all of whom could torch the Falcons secondary if they don’t improve.

Interesting Stat

Attendance was 62,310.  Not a full house, but a good start, considering the bad taste left in most Atlantan’s mouth after the Michael Vick/Bobby Petrino mess of last season.

Overall it was a good job by Falcons.  Their offensive line played well enough to allow the running game to flourish and that took the pressure off Ryan.  As long as they can continue to play like they did today, then Ryan has a real opportunity to develop into the franchise QB the Falcons badly need.

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Tags: atlanta falcons, bobby petrino, defensive line, detroit lions, donovan mcnabb, drew brees, jake delhomme, jerious norwood, john kitna, matt ryan, michael turner, michael vick, offensive line, phillip rivers, secondary

The Boston Globe highlights a handful of rule changes for the upcoming NFL season.  Their article is largely about how the Patriots will deal with the changes (they’re a Boston paper, after all), but the changes are interesting.

• The “force out” ruling on sidelines catches is gone. In the past referees could rule that a player would have come down inbounds if he hadn’t been forced out of bounds.  Now you need two feet on the ground inbounds, period.  If the defender forces you out on your way down, too bad.
• The 5-yard incidental facemask penalty is gone. It’s either a 15-yarder or nothing.
• Instant reply on field-goal and extra-point attempts. This is certainly a result of Phil Dawson’s bizarre field goal against the Ravens last year.  It cleared the crossbar, then hit the curved part of the support bar, then bounced back over the crossbar.  It was initially ruled no good, but then the officials correctly changed that ruling.  It was a nice job by the officials, but it was silly that they weren’t allowed to use the replay on it.  Now they can.
• Teams can designate two defensive players to have radios in their helmets, but only one of them can be on the field at a time.

All in all, I like the changes.  The first two help to remove some arbitrary calls from the refs and make things more cut-and-dried, while the others are just standard steps forward.

The season is getting close!

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Tags: boston globe, facemask, instant reply, new england patriots, rules

This morning the NFL has opted out of the collective bargaining agreement it had held with the players.  According to ESPN, this could mean that 2010 won’t have a salary cap and 2011 might see a lockout.

The reason for the lockout, according to the NFL:

“The current labor agreement does not adequately recognize the cost of generating the revenues of which the players receive the largest shares; nor does the agreement recognize that those costs have increased substantially — and at an ever increasing rate — in recent years during a difficult economic climate in our country,”

The league had until November to opt out, but decided to do it early.  This was a wise move, as it gives them more time to negotiate a new agreement before the 2011 season.

Let’s hope it works out well.  I still cry for the NHL and the utter stupidity they showed a few years ago, which effectively ruined an already weak sport.

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Tags: cba, lockout, salary cap