We’re in the dead period of football (you can read about
how much I hate this period here)
http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/robert-alford-jersey , and with it, we don’t have much to talk about except for some speculation here
and there.I figured this would be a good time to look back on some moments in
Falcons history and maybe relive them while we wait for football to come
back.That idea has given rise to a new series of “Throwback Thursday” articles
I’m planning on writing throughout the dead period. Each week, we’ll relive and
discuss a certain moment in this franchise’s 52-year history.You can find last
week’s Throwback Thursday article, about Dan Quinn, here.The 1998 Atlanta
Falcons caught lightning in a bottle. Dan Reeves led a Falcons squad which had
been mired in mediocrity in the 1990s, though that mediocrity was a serious
upgrade over the awful performances of most of the 1980s.The birds made it to
the playoffs in the 1991 and 1995 seasons, registering a playoff win in ‘91.
Following that ‘95 playoff berth, and a subsequent 37-20 loss to the Green Bay
Packers, Atlanta went a combined 10-22 in 1996 and 1997.The team went into the
1998 season, the second year under Reeves, with hopes of getting back to the
playoffs, though a division title seemed out of reach with the juggernaut San
Francisco 49ers continuing to tower over the NFC West. The Niners had won the
West five times in the previous six seasons, and 13 times since 1981 (in 17
years). The Falcons didn’t have a division title to their name since that 1980
season.Business as usual turns into anything butIt looked to be business as
usual in terms of San Francisco owning the division in the early stages of the
1998 campaign, when they beat the Falcons by a 31-20 score in week 3 to improve
to 3-0.The Falcons, who employed a veteran group led by quarterback Chris
Chandler and running back Jamal Anderson, weren’t willing to kowtow to the
supremacy of the 49ers, however. Following a week 5 loss to the New York Jets,
which dropped their record to 5-2, the birds went on a nine-game winning streak
throughout the rest of the regular season, bringing their record to a
franchise-best 14-2. Head Coach Dan Reeves wasn’t with the team for the last two
regular season games because of heart surgery, but he would rejoin his Falcons
in the playoffs.QB Chris Chandler earned Pro Bowl honors, throwing to 3154 yards
and accounting for a TD/INT ratio of 25/12. The Falcons had a 13-1 record in
games started by Chandler, and were 1-1 when he was unavailable.RB Jamal
Anderson was both a Pro Bowler and a First-Team All-Pro selection with his 2165
yards from scrimmage and 16 total touchdowns. He was the engine that kept this
Falcons team churning, and his “dirty bird” touchdown dance still lives on in
Atlanta Falcon folklore.WRs Terrance Mathis and Tony Martin each accounted for
over 1100 receiving yards and a combined 17 receiving touchdowns.The defense was
maybe even more impressive, wreaking havoc on opposing offensive units week in
and week out. The starting defensive line accounted for 12 of the team’s
league-high 25 forced fumbles, paced by DE Lester Archambeau, who had five FF
along with a team-high 10.0 sacks. Chuck Smith accounted for 8.5 of his own
sacks along with three forced fumbles.The secondary came away with 18 of the
team’s 19 interceptions. They were led by CB Ray Buchanan with seven and FS
Eugene Robinson who had four. Both were Pro Bowl selections on the defensive
side of the ball along with LB Jessie Tuggle.Atlanta had both the fourth-highest
scoring offense and fourth best scoring defense in the NFL over the course of
the regular season in 1998. The defense also led the league with 44 takeaways,
and the team’s 33:10 minutes of position per game was good for first in the
NFL.The playoffsIn literally any other year, Atlanta’s 14-2 record would have
been good enough to earn them the top seed in the NFC and home-field advantage
throughout the playoffs, but that wasn’t the case in ‘98. That honor went to the
15-1 Minnesota Vikings, a team so talented that that one loss was more
surprising to see than those 15 wins.The Falcons did have a bye week in the
first round, and they hosted and squeaked by the rival 49ers, in the two teams’
third meeting of the season, 20-18. That would set the stage for an NFC
Championship game matchup against the Vikings.Minnesota was the heavy favorite
to not only rout the Falcons (they were an 11-point favorite according to the
Las Vegas line) but also to easily handle whoever they met in the Super Bowl
when they inevitably made it there. Their offense averaged 34.8 points per game,
the most in NFL history at that point in time. QB Randall Cunningham was a
First-Team All-Pro selection. RB Robert Smith was a Pro Bowler. They featured
two future Hall of Fame WRs in Chris Carter and Randy Moss, the latter of whom
was a First Team All-Pro selection after recording 1313 receiving yards and a
jaw-dropping 17 touchdown receptions in his rookie year.The defense wasn’t too
shabby either, ranking seventh in the league in terms of points allowed.
First-Team All-Pro selection DE John Randle led the unit with 10.5 sacks and
three forced fumbles. LB Ed McDaniel was also a Pro Bowler.The fated NFC
Conference Championship GameThe Vikings were overwhelming, and the Falcons did a
fantastic job to resist getting overwhelmed in that hostile Minnesota
environment. The birds even took an early 7-0 lead courtesy of a 5-yard TD run
by the dirty bird, Jamal Anderson. That was quickly countered by a 31-yard TD
connection from Cunningham to Moss
http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/jake-matthews-jersey , however.The game really blew open in the second quarter, and it looked like the
Vikings were about to run away with it, the way they had been doing so against
opponents all season. Through a pair of field goals and a 1-yard TD rush by the
QB, the hosts opened up a 20-7 lead. Cunningham and company looked poised to
seal the deal by halftime as they had the ball on their own 18-yard-line with
less than two minutes left. Chuck Smith came up with a massive sack and forced
fumble on 3rd and 10, however, to give Atlanta the ball back on Minnesota’s
14-yard-line. Terrance Mathis would catch a touchdown shortly afterward, keeping
Atlanta in the game. It was 20-14 at halftime.The Vikings did enough to win this
game. Leading 27-20, they drove down the field and lined up for a 38-yard
game-sealing field goal with 2:07 left in the fourth quarter. Kicks were
automatic points for them that season, thanks to Gary Anderson, who was a
perfect 35 for 35 on Field Goal attempts and 94 for 94 on all kicks in general
in 1998. It was the best season by a kicker ever, and as soon as he ran out onto
the field, the nail went into Atlanta’s coffin.It didn’t quite play out the way
Vikings (and even Falcons) fans were expecting, however. The pressure of the big
moment got to Anderson, and his kick sailed wide left to keep the Falcons within
one score. Atlanta was given new life while the Vikings players and fans were
left rattled.Against a shell-shocked defense, Chris Chandler led a quick 72-yard
drive down the field and capped it off with a game-tying TD pass to Mathis with
about a minute left in regulation.In overtime, Atlanta found themselves driving
the ball once again, getting into the field goal range of their own kicker named
Andersen — the Great Dane, Morten Andersen (yes, I know he has an e instead of
an o in his name, but just go with it for the sake of the pun). From 39 yards
out, Atlanta’s Andersen had ice in his veins and made a perfect kick to send the
Falcons to the Super Bowl and to leave the Vikings asking themselves “what just
happened?”The legacyIt was one of the great upsets in NFC Championship history.
For all of the suffering we have endured as Atlanta fans, the pain experienced
by Minnesota fans is right up there with our’s, and this game was the magnum
opus of Minnesota sports heartbreak. I do personally like to look at this game
as revenge for the 1991 World Series.Morten Andersen would eventually surpass
Gary Anderson’s NFL Field Goal record eight years later, once again as a member
of the Atlanta Falcons after a four-year period away from the team which
included a brief stint with the Vikings.The Falcons would go on to lose the
Super Bowl to John Elway and the Denver Broncos, before subsequently going back
to mediocrity in 1999 and beyond, but this magical season, capped off by this
magical moment, will never be forgotten here in Atlanta.Expect to see one more
of these “Throwback Thursday” articles next week, before the regular season
begins. Michigan’s offense is better now that Shea Patterson’s leading it, but
the main reason the Wolverines are in line to make their first College Football
Playoff is just what everyone thought it’d be. A defense that ranked No. 2 in
S&P+ in 2015 and 2016 and No. 10 in 2017 is back in the top two this year,
jostling with Clemson for the No. 1 spot.S&P+ says Michigan has about a 60
percent chance to beat Ohio State in Columbus the Saturday after Thanksgiving,
following what should be a freebie against Indiana. Big Ten West champ
Northwestern stayed close with Michigan earlier this year but really shouldn’t
be able to beat the Wolverines in the league title game. So The Game is even
more of a massive deal than usual. This time, Don Brown’s defense should push
Michigan to a win. Everything starts with aggression in the secondary.
Aggressive is that offseason buzzword you hear from every defensive coach in
America. But it’s the building block for everything Brown does. He’s gonna match
up his Jimmies with your Joes, and it’s up to them to find a way to win the
matchups. It’s a somewhat pro-style defense in that it’s more matchup-specific
than a college defense.There is little in the way of zone coverage happening
here ... ... and that’s the point. From a 2017 clinic talk Brown gave: The
aggression works, because Michigan’s secondary is loaded with blue-chips who
have developed. Lavert Hill and David Long were both top-12 cornerback recruits
in the class of 2016, and both have turned into excellent players. They get
valuable help over the top from two upperclass safeties, Tyree Kinnel and Josh
Metellus. Take a play against Penn State in Week 10. Michigan loves to use its
safeties to bracket receivers, forcing them either inside or out. The Wolverines
might line up all of their corners in press coverage, but Kinnel or Metellus
might start with his hips open
Authentic Keanu Neal Jersey , so he can funnel a receiver somewhere the offense would rather he not be forced to go: Here, Kinnel (circled) carries a vertical
route up the field, but he doesn’t turn his back. He keeps his eyes on Trace
McSorley and closes fast to escort him out of bounds. And every receiver’s
pretty much blanketed in the first place, because Michigan’s corners are good.
Mettelus is a one-man cleanup crew and a true throwback strong safety. This
sometimes gets him into trouble, like when he got thrown out of Week 1’s Notre
Dame game for targeting. But other times it just makes receivers think twice
about going near him.The secondary makes things easier on the front, and vice
versa.While the back of the defense stays the same most downs, Brown loves to
get creative with his front to further throw offenses off balance. Brown has
been a coordinator in plenty of places, but he’s on record saying Michigan
allows him to be creative. Creativity isn’t really something we associate with
football coaches, but Brown enjoys the freedom, and you can see it in the way he
gets rushers to the quarterback, with an emphasis on stunts designed to confuse
linemen: That controlled chaos regularly helps the Wolverines get pressure with
only four rushers, which makes all that aggression in the secondary a lot less
risky: But this team does blitz a hearty amount. Brown’s creative in where he
brings pressure from, too, like looping his Mike linebacker around to play like
an edge rusher: And, of course, his Wolverines will still just brute-force you
from time to time: The situation for offenses gets even more dire on passing
downs, when the Wolverines lean on pass-rush specialist Josh Uche. He leads the
team with seven sacks, and a lot of them have come on long passing downs. He’s a
nightmare of a speed rusher.If Michigan’s defensive tackle and edge rusher on
the other side of the formation hadn’t collapsed the pocket there, Michigan
State’s QB could’ve stepped up and eluded Uche. Again, look upfield there. Every
receiver’s blanketedWith this mix of overwhelming pressure and steadiness at the
back, the Wolverines have made it almost impossible to be either efficient or
explosive. The defense is eighth in Marginal Efficiency allowed and seventh in
Marginal Explosiveness. Explanations for those stats are here, but in short,
Michigan is great at keeping teams off schedule and equally great preventing
chunk gains. (Let’s all just agree to pretend the 80-yard TD Rutgers scored
against it did not happen. OK?) Only about one in three carries against Michigan
reaches the 5-yard threshold (the third-best rate in the country), and more than
one in four doesn’t get beyond the line of scrimmage (the ninth-best rate). The
Wolverines have pulled that off despite the best line recruit of recent times,
junior Rashan Gary, injuring a shoulder and missing three games. It helps to
have maybe the best linebacker in the country in Devin Bush, whose season might
be remembered for a pregame dustup at Michigan State but should be remembered
for the kind of brilliant all-around play that can close up holes wherever they
appear. You want run support? Watch Bush, No. 10: Maybe you’d like to see him in
pass coverage? And you know he can dip a shoulder and get to the quarterback:
Most defenses, even the best ones, have at least one weakness. Michigan sort of
does, but it tends to not even matter. The Wolverines are 110th in Success Rate
allowed on plays run inside their own 10. They’re 73rd in points allowed per
Scoring Opportunity, giving up 4.6 points per possession when teams do manage to
get inside the Michigan 40. Of course, that’s not often. The Michigan defense
starts its average series at the other team’s 24.3, the fourth-best defensive
field position in FBS. The average drive against Michigan then goes 18.6 yards
before the Wolverines just take the ball back. That’s the second best mark in
the country this year and one of the best in S&P+’s history. This is the
list of the shortest average defensive drive lengths since 2005. See if you spot
the thread here: 1. 2011 Alabama (15.5 yards)2. 2008 TCU (16.9)3. 2008 USC
(17.3)4. 2009 TCU (17.6)5. 2006 VT (17.6)6. 2018 Clemson (17.9)7. 2014 Clemson
(18.0)8. 2009 Texas (18.39. 2018 Michigan (18.6)10. 2007 Ohio State (18.8)11.
2015 Boston College, also coordinated by Brown (18.8)*Clemson and Michigan have
flip-flopped for first place as the season’s gone along, and we’ll see who
settles where. The Wolverine defense is not perfect. But it’s so good that its
biggest imperfection is almost irrelevant.
