THE ATLANTA Falcons came to town Sunday and they brought a blueprint.
They used it to spank the Raiders all over the field and, for good
measure, slap the mammoth ego of Oakland's football architect.
Should Al Davis see past the debris of this 24-0 blasting of his team,
carried out before 61,196 disgruntled fans at the Coliseum, he will find
a plan worth reviewing.
Al's Raiders are a mess, but no more than the Falcons of last season,
when they were mired in controversy and scandal, disorganized at the
top, with a coaching staff in disarray. They were low on talent and
lower on morale.
Franchise quarterback Michael Vick was headed to prison. Head coach
Bobby Petrino, seeing which way the wind was blowing, up and quit.
General manager Rich McKay was treading water. Above it all was owner
Arthur Blank, whose faith in these men left him in a hole.
So Blank dug his way out. He consulted with friends and acquaintances
around the NFL in hopes of rebuilding not only a roster and an
organization but an entire image.
Blank responded by hiring qualified individuals — and, get this, getting
the hell out of the way.
He moved McKay into the role of team president and brought in Thomas
Dimitroff, son of a personnel executive, as general manager. A longtime
scout, Dimitroff, 42, had gone through Detroit and Cleveland but spent
the last five years in New England,where winning is a habit.
Ten days after he joined the franchise, Dimitroff hired a man named Mike
Smith to become head coach. A longtime assistant who had experienced
success, Smith and Dimitroff assembled an impressive staff, including
offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey.
Six weeks after Smith was hired, the Falcons signed free agent Michael
Turner as their featured running back. Seven weeks later, they used the
third overall pick to draft Matt Ryan out of Boston College as their
quarterback of the future.
Then, three weeks later, Dimitroff and McKay did something that served
notice that these were not the same old Falcons. They signed Ryan.
Ryan showed up to camp on time, earned the starting role and, voila, has
been one of the most impressive rookies in the league.
Amazing the effect of signing a QB early.
Ryan dazzled the Raiders with his accuracy (17-of-22, 220 yards, 138.4
rating) and his command. He called audibles at the line of scrimmage. He
smoothly operated the no-huddle offense. He was the most polished
quarterback on the field.
Which says as much about the environment and culture surrounding Ryan as
it does about the moving oil slick on which JaMarcus Russell, Oakland's
quarterback of the future, is trying to gain footing.
This was vividly illustrated Sunday, as Atlanta totaled 30 first downs,
to three for Oakland. The Falcons outgained the Raiders 453-77 in
offensive yards, ran 82 plays to the Raiders' 34 and controlled the ball
for more than 45 of the game's 60 minutes. Castlemont High could have
given the Falcons a better game.
Atlanta scored 24 points in less than 24 minutes and spent the rest of
the afternoon methodically running out the clock — because it could.
"They made us look bad," said wide receiver Ashley Lelie, a former
Falcon. "It was embarrassing."
So embarrassing that the Society of the Abused, generally referred to as
the Raider Nation, grumbled and groused and booed at will — and fled
long before the final gun.
Can they be blamed?
Their beloved Raiders were being schooled by a team that only last
season finished with the exact same 4-12 record. They saw how well the
Falcons have recovered, while the Raiders appear to be regressing. They
realized Atlanta's owner spent his offseason carefully constructing an
organization, while Oakland's owner was tossing money into the sea.
And, yes, they know Atlanta signed Ryan early and that, one year before,
Oakland was inexcusably tardy in signing Russell.
With a 5-3 record halfway through the season, the Falcons stand as proof
of the power of commitment and professionalism. At 2-6, after their
worst performance of the year, the Raiders proved only that they need
emergency help.
The Falcons offered precisely that. When Al is ready to stop the
insanity of doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a
different result, he might consider swiping their blueprint and using it
as a guide to get out of NFL hell.
