Rise The Falc Up

The Best Defense and Remembered by No One

This is how the 1977 Falcons defense stacks up up against two of the all-time great defenses in NFL history. The Ravens and the Bears both won Super Bowls with these squads.

The Best Defense and Remembered by No One

The Best Defense and Remembered by No One

The Best Defense and Remembered by No One

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

For 12 years Matt Ryan has started under center for the Atlanta Falcons. He’s hardly ever missed a game. He has been the field general for many good teams and the MVP of the league even. He has thrown over 300 TD passes and for more than 50,000 yards. All good things, but what I like most is his brains and cool under fire. 

I always feel good when Matty audibles. I feel like he can assess and react and get the Birds off on the right play. I feel like when the clock is winding down he can deliver the Falcons to a TD or a game-winning field goal.

He’s been durable, accountable and quick to heap praise upon his teammates while never really talking himself up. A consummate team player.

Also, it’s good to remember, Matt was drafted after the Michael Vick debacle. He was what the Falcons needed. A quarterback that could make you forget the shame that was being associated with this franchise. Matt came onto the field  in 2008 and with his first pass helped us on the road back to respectability. Here is that pass: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uz9ZgnTIEs

and then a little career retrospective:

Not blessed with game-breaking speed or punishing size, William Andrews was better than you would have ever thought he could be. At Auburn University he was an afterthought. He was the first guy into the hole that would deliver a hit on the linebacker that spring Cribbs or Brooks for a long gainer. Essentially he was a blocking back. 

Somehow he ended up on the Falcons. Someone in the front office perhaps took a call from an assistant coach at Auburn telling them about an unselfish running back who averaged 5.0 yards per carry. He probably told the Falcons brass about his motor, heart, balance and work ethic. Let’s all thank that assistant coach for making the call. Be also thankful the Falcons listened.

No one knew who he was but the first time he took a screen pass or went off-tackle we knew, as the Falcon faithful, we knew. He would carry the ball for eight yards then take a screen pass for 16. He would do this again and again. He’d punish a tackler and run by another one. He always got up and he was relentless. He wore a defense down. With Lynn Cain as his backfield mate (a blocking back himself for Marcus Allen at USC) they were the most productive backfield, in my opinion, the Falcons ever had. 

Not bad for the kid from Thomasville, GA. His name is in the ring of honor down at MBS. Watch these clips if you’d like to bear witness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yKv9_fFNhk

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Quintorris Lopez (Julio) Jones. Hands down the best receiver in Falcons history and arguably the best in the league. The Falcons gave up a ton to get him and it has paid off. His physical tools (size, speed, length, hands), mental makeup and durability make him the perfect wide receiver. He is destined for the Hall.

We gave up a lot to get him too. The Falcons traded with the Browns up to the 6th spot in the 2011 Draft. The Birds gave the Browns that year’s 26th overall pick, 2011 2nd rd pick, 2011 4th rd pick and the 2012 1st rd pick. It was a lot but damn if it wasn’t worth it. Julio is the falcons all-time leader in receiving yards and most likely by the time his career is over the leader in receptions and touchdowns to boot.

He is a big target and an athletic marvel who always wants the ball and never shrinks from the moment. Just ask Packers cornerback Ladarius Gunter in the 2016 NFC Championship game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWbh3Wpl85M

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Nobody but nobody ever looked better in the uniform than Deion Sanders. And he looked better in the Falcons uni than he did in 49ers or Cowboys unis. Neon Deion was electric. His speed was ridiculous. In the open field he danced around guys like they were running in a swamp. 

He also showed swagger that empowered Falcons fans to actually be fans of the Falcons. Haters gonna hate but there were fewer of them while No. 21 was around. While he was a Falcon and up until the time that he wasn’t there was no other player you wanted to watch on the field. And sometimes it would take the entire game to hear his name called. Opposing quarterbacks just simply stopped throwing over there. 

I hated him leaving and the circumstances under which he left but on some level I can’t blame him. Rankin Smith showed he was never going to put together consistent winner. Every once in a while we would look formidable but mostly the franchise was going to be around for other teams to beat and hopefully we would two wins against the Saints. So it sucked to see him go and maybe him sticking around would have turned things around but nothing in the Falcons history said it was going to happen.

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Once upon time, 35 years ago the Falcons had the first pick in the Draft. They needed a franchise defining QB. They decided on the nation’s top rated passer from Cal. He was from Iowa originally but his surfer good-looks definitely said west coast. 

In his first couple of seasons with Atlanta he did some on the job training and showed promise. The press heralded him as ‘Peachtree Bart’ a riff on Joe Namath’s nickname as ‘Broadway Joe’. He was pretty and talented and then he was hurt. Knee injury. In the late 1970s this was not setback it was more a death knell. Your time in this league is almost up. NFL stands for Not For Long. 

But Bart was made of stronger stuff. While his mobility was gone for the most part he still had his arm. The right one. The one that could throw a 25-yard sideline out with velocity and precision. He then set about torching secondaries with great heaves downfield and finesse when needed. He delivered on the promise. He led the league with 31 TD passes while leading the Falcons to the playoffs and added 30 more the next season. He was all about the downfield passing game too. In his 11 seasons under center for the Falcons Bartkowski always had at least 1 td pass of at least 50 yards.

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Number 6 on the list standing 6 feet tall and weighing in at a stout 305 lbs and hailing from Rockdale County HS by way of Clemson University...Grady Jarrett. You gotta have beef and no better place to have than on the interior line. Wreaking havoc, clogging things up, dropping a back for a loss. Grady (pictured  above introducing himself to an unsuspecting Cardinals QB) is a change the culture kind of defensive player. He is a guy you pay to stick around while a team that has never had a defensive culture gets one. 

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Not bad for a Jets cast-off. In 4 years with the Jets Mathis had 46 receptions and 3 touchdowns. The year after he was acquired by the Falcons, the former Redan HS star had 111 receptions to go with 11 TDs and he made the Pro Bowl too. 

The thing I liked about Mathis besides being an absolute steal was he was just very workman like in his approach to the game. He wasn’t particularly physically imposing or fast or shifty. But he was quick, dependable and precise. 

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or players who achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Don’t you hate it when someone is doing a top 10 list and they kinda cheat because one of the entries has three guys? Yeah, me too. That said and all self loathing aside these three receivers worked so well as a unit that it would be hard to choose one or two of them and overlook one or two of them. 

And I bet you never heard of any of them. But real Falcon fans will remember Bartkowski loading up and hitting Alfred Jackson to beat the Rams. Or Alfred Jenkins (Morris Brown out of Hogansville HS) grabbing a 42-yarder to put us ahead of the Bears. And lest we not forget Wallace Francis with an 81-yarder in a rout of the 49ers. My point was that these guys were reliable for all the catches and each one was a game breaker. 

My favorite thing to watch for was Bartkowski dropping back and letting it fly to one of these cats on then play following a turnover. It was a back-breaker and happened with a predictable frequency. 

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Number 10: Brian Jordan

The Falcons are my NFL team but truth be told, really love the Braves. My advice to any athlete who endeavors to play football professionally is ‘ have you tried to hit a curveball?’. Because if you can deliver on the old Uncle Charlie you would be best to pursue that path. “Why?”, you ask. Because old timers day at Yankee Stadium is something to behold, at The MetLife Stadium...not so much.

Brian Jordan could hit. On the field he could run like a deer and deliver a teeth-rattling payload on a receiver that would stop him in his tracks. He made the Pro-Bowl by his third season. Future looks rosy for ol’ No. 40. The problem, at least for the Falcons was, Brian Jordan could hit...on the diamond. The reason I like Brian Jordan is he knew the difference between the gridiron and the diamond. 

This is a list of my favorite Falcons of all-time. These are not necessarily the best statistically or achieved the most awards. These are just the my favorites.

Number 10: Lynn Cain