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The Third Quarter

Thursday - 01/17/08, 03:34PM

Falcons Season Review: The Fourth Quarter

by J. Michael Moore, Atlantafalcons.com Managing Editor
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Features » Season Recap » News » Arizona » Tampa Bay » New Orleans » Seattle » Bobby Petrino » Emmitt Thomas » Alge Crumpler » Brent Grimes » Chris Redman » DeAngelo Hall » John Abraham » Jonathan Babineaux » Laurent Robinson » Lawyer Milloy » Michael Jenkins » Michael Vick » Morten Andersen » Roddy White » Hue Jackson »

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Over the past two weeks AtlantaFalcons.com reviewed the Falcons 2007 four games at a time. Today, we look at the final four games. Click here for the complete 2007 Season in Review.


FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- A year filled with frustrations took an unexpected -- and hard -- turn soon after the Falcons wrapped their 13th game of the season. Bobby Petrino abruptly resigned as head coach, leaving the final three games of this rough season in limbo. Luckily, secondary coach Emmitt Thomas, who took over as Interim Head Coach, inspired players and fans as the Falcons got progressively better in the final three games. The season finale? An upset win over the playoff-bound Seattle Seahawks.


New Orleans Saints 34, Atlanta Falcons 14
The Georgia Dome
Week 13

A day of deep, emotional off-the-field strain for the Falcons came to a close with loss on the field.

First, quarterback Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in jail on federal dogfighting charges. Then came a Monday Night Football showdown with NFC South rival New Orleans. The prime-time matchup offered a chance to make big news on a national stage. Instead, the Saints came up big in a game they needed to stay alive in the playoff race.

Falcons players talked all week at the Flowery Branch practice facility about limiting the Saints' love of the big play.

They didn't stop New Orleans from putting together big drives.

The Saints put on an offensive display at the Georgia Dome, totaling 473 yards of total offense and forming scoring drives of 99, 75, 94, 80 and 54 yards in a 34-14 victory.

Quarterback Drew Brees had 250 passing yards and two touchdown passes at halftime and finished the game with 328 yards through the air and three touchdowns.

"It was a bad day for us and it is a hard thing to take," former head coach Bobby Petrino said (he would resign his post the next day). "We couldn't stop them on defense. Any time you give up drives of 99 and 95 yards it is hard to win the game."

The Falcons were initially crisp on offense under new starting quarterback Chris Redman, but failed to convert on key third downs and were kept off the field by a brutally efficient Saints offense.

New Orleans drove 80 yards to open the third quarter with a touchdown and opened up a 24-7 lead.

"We couldn't get pressure on (Brees) because they had him in three-step drops," veteran safety Lawyer Milloy said of Brees and the Saints' system. "That obviously makes it harder to get pressure because he is able to get the ball of quicker. At some point you just have to make a play and we couldn't get it done tonight."


STAT OF THE GAME: Michael Jenkins hauled in a career-high nine catches for 83 yards as Redman completed 23 of 40 passes.


QUOTABLE: “I was really focused on the game and I wasn’t able to watch any of the news before the game," Redman said. "I didn’t listen to the hype or put myself in the situation to be distracted. Overall, I think we were in the position to stay in the game, but we just didn’t execute like we needed to.”


FROM THE BLOG: "I feel I have a responsibility to share with fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Falcons and, at the end of the day, make everyone feel good about being a fan. But, that's not the reason I always point out the positive. My wife may disagree but, at the end of the day, I'm a positive person."


MORE FROM THE FALCONS-SAINTS GAME:


Tampa Bay Buccaneers 37, Atlanta Falcons 3
Raymond James Stadium
Week 14

A steady, strong wind that passed through Raymond James Stadium Sunday could have marked the winds of change for the Atlanta Falcons, who officially started a new era without former head coach Bobby Petrino against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Falcons got swept away, however, as four turnovers resulted in 20 Buccaneers points in a 37-3 loss. Atlanta, working under Interim Head coach Emmitt Thomas, fell into a 27-3 hole in the first half and never recovered.

The Falcons took the ball to open the game but fell behind just one minute in as Pro Bowl cornerback Ronde Barber intercepted a Chris Redman pass on third down and returned it 29 yards for a score.Two more first-half turnovers led to 10 Buccaneers points while another long drive resulted in a field goal.

"I thought the guys came out with a lot of passion, fought hard, and we had some misfortune," Thomas said.  "Third down defensively we couldn’t get them out and third down offensively we didn’t make many plays. It was a team effort all the way around. What we are going to have to do today is, like I told the team earlier, a couple of years ago this happened when Dan Reeves was here. We went to Indianapolis and they beat us the same way. However, we came back as a staff, got our guys together and we worked hard.”

The Falcons defense was on the field for nearly 20 minutes in the opening half. Still, the unit surrendered only one touchdown, notched two sacks (John Abraham and Chauncey Davis) and got an impressive sideline interception by DeAngelo Hall in the first 30 minutes. 

"It was very frustrating," Hall said. "It’s very frustrating, obviously, when you feel like you’ve prepared to the best of your ability and you still come out and get just ran all up and down all over the field. It’s definitely frustrating.”

The Buccaneers finished the game with brutal efficiency on offense, holding the ball for 42:47 and enjoying great game management by Jeff Garcia.

Redman finished with two interceptions and just four completions for 34 yards as the offense failed to convert a third down in the game and gained 133 yards.

“Well, you see, that is professional sports," Thomas said. "You know you’re going to have those ups and downs, peaks and valleys. You have to hang in there. That is what I mean about character -- all the pushing and shoving and getting back at the officials. We have to settle down and play Falcon football and that is what we’re going to try and instill on them the next couple of weeks."


STAT OF THE GAME: Tampa Bay held the ball for 42:47 seconds.


QUOTABLE: "You can’t turn the ball over and not stop people on third down and beat a team like that," Thomas said.


FROM THE BLOG: "I just stepped onto the bus outside Raymond James Stadium and I must say that even in this season of downs it gets easier and easier to find a lift. Outside the tunnel are maybe 100 Falcons fans. At the front stands a boy -- maybe 10-years-old -- wearing an Alge Crumpler jersey and holding a sign that read: "The Falcons Are My Team."


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Arizona Cardinals 30, Atlanta Falcons 27 (OT)
University of Phoenix Stadium
Week 15

Falcons quarterback Chris Redman took another step in his career resurgence at University of Phoenix Stadium, but it was another thirty-something quarterback with a history out of football that finished off the game .

Kurt Warner captained a nine-play, 63-yard drive inside the final two minutes Sunday to put Neil Rackers in range for a 29-yard game-tying field goal. That sent the game into overtime, where a coin toss put the Cardinals offense back on the field. A little more than five minutes later Warner and Co. found their groove again, setting Rackers up for a 31-yard kick to give the home team a 30-27 win.

It was a valiant effort on the part of Redman and the Falcons. The team mounted an improbable charge in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points and holding the Cardinals to just nine yards on offense before the game-tying drive.

Redman was near perfect in the final period, leading scoring drives of 93, 48 and 37 yards to put the Falcons into the holiday spirit. He finished the game 28-of-42 for 315 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. His scoring toss to Alge Crumpler in the fourth quarter tied the game and his 74-yard strike to rookie wide receiver Laurent Robinson in the first half was a career long.

In the fourth quarter, Redman was 16-of-21 for 155 yards and a score. The offense scored twice inside the final seven minutes, including a 23-yard field goal by Morten Andersen that gave the team a brief 27-24 lead.

"Right now we're hurting for our football team," Interim Head Coach Emmitt Thomas said. "We're very proud of our football team. They showed a lot of character, a lot of perseverance, a lot of fight.  We got ourselves in a hole early in the ball game. We came back in the second half and played Falcon-type football.  We came up a little short, but we have to take our hats off to the Cardinals, too. They're a fine football team -- almost made the playoffs -- but our guys showed a lot of hustle and I'm very proud of them."

"It felt good, but I'm obviously disappointed because we needed one more," added Redman on his performance. "We've got to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to get one more out there. But I think a lot of guys played well, the offensive line blocked well, the receivers did a great job catching the ball."

Warner finished the game 36-of-53 for 361 yards and three touchdown passes. His favorite target was Anquan Boldin, who dominated the field with 13 catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

It was Roddy White that led the Falcons, however with 12 catches for 141 yards (a new career high in receptions). He also eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in receiving, becoming the first Falcon since 1999 to reach the milestone.

The Falcons defense prepared all week for the dual receiving threat of Boldin and Pro Bowler Larry Fitzgerald. Only one part of the duet presented real problems in the game, though, as Fitzgerald finished with six catches for 72 yards. Twenty-four year old Brent Grimes -- a first-year player from Shippensburg University -- saw his first action of the season with most of his work against Fitzgerald.


STAT OF THE GAME: Robinson got his first touchdown on a career- long 74-yard touchdown pass from Redman (also a career-long for the quarterback).


QUOTABLE: "Guys battled all the way to the end," Redman said. "We're all proud of the way we played. I liked how we were down at halftime and nobody in this locker room quit. We all wanted to rally together and we almost pulled it off."


FROM THE BLOG: "It's interesting to note that I and some other Falcons staffers witnessed two 'overtime' games in the same weekend. Saturday night the Coyotes lost in a shootout (after overtime). Sunday, the Falcons lost a tough one in overtime, 30-27."


MORE FROM THE FALCONS-CARDINALS GAME:


Atlanta Falcons 44, Seattle Seahawks 41
The Georgia Dome
Week 16

It wasn't a fairy tale season for the Falcons, but the team made sure to write a happy ending.

Atlanta closed out 2007 Sunday with a 44-41 victory over the playoff-bound Seattle Seahawks. The win was the first of Interim Head Coach Emmitt Thomas' career and, in spirit, did a little bit to erase the pain caused by quarterback Michael Vick's incarceration on federal dogfighting charges and the abrupt resignation of former coach Bobby Petrino with three games remaining on the schedule.

The Falcons painted the final chapter of the year with large, broad strokes that included three turnovers from the defense and 364 yards and eight scores from the offense. Quarterback Chris Redman led Atlanta to its best offensive outing of the season, completing 17 of 27 passes for 251 yards and a career-high four touchdown passes.

Tight end Alge Crumpler caught two touchdown passes in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, taking advantage of a fumble and an interception by Seattle backup quarterback Seneca Wallace.

The team's 44 points were the most since putting 51 on Carolina in 1998.

Before the final horn, Thomas got the traditional Gatorade shower along the sideline. It could be seen as symbolic for victory and the washing away all the frustrations of the 2007 season.

"I knew it was coming, but I was trying to get away," the coach said. "They managed to hold me up and get the job done, but after a win like that I will take it. I was so happy that it didn't even matter."

"Holding up" and "getting the job done" could be larger themes to the last quarter of the season, which featured Petrino's resignation, a blowout loss at Tampa Bay, an overtime defeat last week at Arizona and Sunday's emotional shootout.

Redman led the offense to three scoring drives in the second period. The team finished with five touchdowns and three Morten Andersen field goals.

"This was a great way to end the season, especially knowing that everybody put up their best effort," Redman said. "This has been a tough season, but everybody showed great resolve through it all. Coach (Hue) Jackson spoke in front of the team and gave us a great speech about not quitting and showing pride as professionals."

Matt Hasselbeck and other Seahawks starters stayed in the game for first half as the Falcons clawed their way to a 17-17 tie at intermission.

Atlanta then hit a second gear.

"I've longed to have a smile on my face at the end of a ball game at some point this season," Crumpler said. "With all the adversity and turmoil we've been through I just wanted us to be able to walk off the field with a smile on our face. Obviously there are no more games this season -- no playoffs, no Pro Bowls, nothing. This was it. Our guys stuck it out. The coaches that were here stuck it out and we were able to win the game."


STAT OF THE GAME: Atlanta played the entire game without a turnover.


QUOTABLE: “The biggest thing I can take from this game is that no one quit," defensive end John Abraham said. "Correction, no one that is still here quit. We had a though year, but in the end, it builds character.”


FROM THE BLOG: "The win may have caused some discussion about draft position and the like for the 4-12 team, but one name should forever be mentioned when the 2007 Falcons and their rocky season are discussed. It's not Vick or Petrino. It's Thomas."


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