‘Tis the Season: Buccaneers thrash the Falcons

All was not well in the house of Falcon.

After defeating the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers, with Joey Harrington as quarterback, the Atlanta Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino assigned quarterbacking duties to Byron Leftwich in their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Georgia Dome (televised by Fox). I’m not going to address this choice, but I’ll ponder about its implications further down.

Tampa Bay put fourteen points on the board by the end of the first half of the game (wide receiver Joey Galloway made a touchdown in the first quarter; cornerback Ronde Barber made a fumble recovery TD in the second quarter after Leftwich was sacked). 14 to 0.

In the second half of the game, the Buccaneers got three points from a field goal (third quarter). Shortly thereafter, tight end Alex Smith put another TD on the board, expanding the score gap even farther. Tampa Bay 24. Atlanta 0. Harrington went back in as quarterback near the bottom of the third quarter. The top of the fourth quarter greeted Atlanta with six more points and a one-point conversion by Tampa (thanks to running back Ernest Graham). Tampa Bay 31. Atlanta 0.

Falcons wide receiver Adam Jennings made a touchdown with about a minute left on the clock, but that just kept their loss from being a completely unmitigated plunder. Instead of Atlanta Rien, Zip, they get 7 to Tampa Bay’s 31.

Observations & Miscellania:

1. The greatest commercial featuring horses ever (possible exception is one of those Stetson cfs from the late 90s). The ad starts with a set of brown horse’s legs coming into frame from the left. One of the legs approaches a line in a field of snow and then it rewinds two times. The camera cuts to a long shot of two groups of brown horses on a snowy field, and there’s a zebra looking into an instan replay machine. The camera cuts of a medium close-up of the brown horses and then to two human males leaning against a fence. The younger man says, “That referee is a jackass.” The other, older man (with whiskers and donning a cowboy hat), replies, “Nope, I believe that’s a zebra.” And then cut to black and the Budweiser logo.

Apparently, it’s one of the commercials from Super Bowl 2003.

2. Whether or not today’s game’s outcome has more to do with who was quarterbacking and when for Atlanta (rather than receivers holding onto the ball better or linebackers blocking better) is ultimately unimportant. The implications of who feels more responsible or who has to bear that burden, however, are more relevant. Because football games are not won by individuals alone–they’re won by individual effort combining and working in harmony. When a team, like the Falcons, has not been able to cultivate the kind of chemistry and instinctual, tacit understanding between pertinent players necessary to be victorious consistently, what does one think is going to happen? Cynically speaking, games that are won may have more to do with luck and a weaker opponent than anything else.

C’est la vie.

Read more, get stats, and play-by-play here.

Edit:  According to an ad that played during the Patriots vs. Bills game, the Colts vs. Falcons Thanksgiving game will be on MyATLtv for all you Atlantans.  I’ll check the web site on Wednesday or Thursday to be sure.

The game between the Falcons and the Colts Thanksgiving night will be on NFL Network (not any local station as far as the Falcons web site suggests).