Meet Bobby Petrino. Well, that was fast. I don't question bringing in a college coach, even after the Nick Saban fiasco, but Rich McKay wanted somebody with head coaching experience. This is good...they'll throughout that West Coast offence garbage and maybe keep running that college option that worked so well early in the season.
Here's some of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 2006 season:
THE GOODAlge Crumpler: The bright spot in the team's passing game. Algernon made the Pro Bowl and caught a career high 8 touchdown passes (and dropped several others, the game in Week 3 against the Saints springs to mind...) and had 38 first downs. If only he were a better blocker...
Jerious Norwood: A 3rd round steal in this year's draft as he (and many other rookie RBs for that matter) managed to outrush Reggie Bush. He had 633 yards for a 6.4 yard per carry average, which was the best in the league among RBs with 20 or more carries. He's the future of this position for the Falcons.
Tyson Clabo: On an O-Line that doesn't know the meaning of the word "blocking," Clabo is the exception. After being undrafted and bounced around on several teams' practice squads and the waiver wire, he earned a starting position this season. Good on ya.
Lawyer Milloy: A veteran presence in the secondary, he surpassed expectations. He has sharp football instincts, and as strong safety, he did his job as he was in on virtually every play and made clean tackles. Unfortunately, he was held without an interception. Hey, at least it worked out way better than the last time the Bills and Falcons did business.
THE BAD
DeAngelo Hall: I know that it's bizarre to put a Pro Bowl selection down here, but he only made it because of 4 INTs and a TD. Those plays were the exception...the norm is for D'Lo to get lit up, give up on plays, and attempt to intercept hail mary bombs when a good DB would simply knock it down. He's a selfish player and deserved every drop of the face-spitting TO gave him.
Edgerton Hartwell: Exposed as a fraud. Jamal Lewis made him look so good in Baltimore that he was signed to the Falcons to a big contract to be a run-stopping middle linebacker. He ended up being injured half the season, and in his absence, Keith Brooking did a better job in the middle than he did. Time to move Jordan Beck up to this position.
Roddy White: Roddy showed flashes of brilliance like in the Dallas game where he racked up 102 receiving yards, but he had a bad case of the dropsies this year. It was bad enough for Jim Mora to sit Roddy's ass on the bench and have Ashley Lelie start in his place (who didn't do a lot better.) As a former first round draft pick in his second year, I expected to see a lot more development than this.
Michael Koenen: I'm kind of reaching with this one, but Koenen was so bad in the placekicking department that the front office had to thaw out Morten "Old Balls" Anderson to take over those duties. After hammering a 58 yarder for the franchise record last season, Koenen missed on tries of 50, 50, 30, 36, 30, and 40 in the first two games of the season. However, I might as well give the blame to the field goal/punt unit as a whole because two of those tries were actually blocked, and the next game, the Saints managed to block a punt for a TD. Three blocks in three games? Come on guys, one is too many for the season!
THE UGLY
Matt Lehr: A friggin' turnstile, and a steroid monkey to boot. When you play left guard, and the quarterback is left hand, which way is he going to go? Maybe to the left? Which means it might be a good idea to block somebody instead of watching as Vick gets sacked yet again. And if you're going to cheat and break the substance abuse policy, you should at least have something to show for it!
Jim Mora: This is more of an afterthought, but he still deserves a mention. His antics both on and off the field were an embarrassment to himself and to the team. I scarcely need to mention that squeaky-clean owner Arthur Blank had no patience for that shit. After going 11-5, he posted an 8-8 season despite starting 6-2 and took the team to 7-9 this year despite starting 5-2.
Michael Vick: He had a career high for passing TDs (20) and rushing yards (1076). So what's the deal? As pictured above, Vick's antics created a sideshow for the Falcons and an unnecessary distraction. The Ron Mexico scandal put him on thin ice, and now that ice has broken. It's time fans stopped saying "All he does is win games," because he no longer does.
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