Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Falcons, Part II

We're back for Part II of my extensive interview with Dawson Devitt of The Bird Cage! You can find Part I at , and if you so desire, check out the answers that I gave him over at this link.

Additionally, Dawson told me during the interviews how Falcons fans have generally found Packers fans very agreeable and easy to get along with, and asked me what Packer fans thought of Falcons fans. Having never met a Falcons fan, I was unable to answer, but what about my readers? If you have any stories about meeting Falcons fans, please leave them in the comments, and I will pass them along to Dawson and Co.

Andy Tisdel: The perception in Wisconsin is that the Falcons will be out for blood this time and ready to avenge their playoff loss last year. Is this accurate for the team? For the fans?

Dawson Devitt: Fans from our blog surely can’t speak for all fans, but we really don’t see this game as any sort of revenge and it didn’t seem to create any bad blood for the Packers and their fans. If anything, we were jealous that a team could look that good embarrassing a #1 seed on their own turn all the way to the Lombardi Trophy. For most fans perspective, it seemed to be more anger towards our team, specifically our coaching staff, than anything else. There’s no reason to be angry or feel like this is game that will “make everything alright” because you’re the ones with the Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl rings.

That being said, a win against the Packers would really do wonders for a fan base that has been shaken to their core since the last time the Packers entered the Dome. Anything else will just be piling angst on an already deteriorating coaching staff. A loss here will all but tell us that we’re not even close to being elite, because that would make us 0–5 in our most recent games against elite or at least major contending teams (New Orleans, Green Bay, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and another Green Bay loss).

AT: The Falcons tried everything to stop Aaron Rodgers in January. Nothing worked. What might they try this time, and will ex-Viking Ray Edwards be a major part of whatever they do try?

DD: Try to not have him score 8 TDs and throw for 700 yards? In all seriousness, Rodgers is the best player going of any in the NFL right now and I’m sure our predictable, swiss cheese, jumbo jet (the size of the holes in our “zone”) defense will try to limit Rodgers' big plays and make him earn it, which he has proven he can do. Once again, this goes back to coaching as well. Fans feel like this is one of the best and most athletic defenses in franchise history. Thomas Dimitroff has drafted well and we have developed players pretty good also. Major angst is levied at both coordinators these days and it just depends who gets more from week to week. Right now, it appears that Brian Van Gorder is more disliked this week. We literally can make any quarterback look like a future Hall of Famer. One of the points from the last post was titled “A Quarterback’s Dream,” and it basically says how, regardless of experience or talent, this Falcons defense will make you look fantastic.

Elite quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have shredded this defense, but it goes much deeper than that. We can make a mid-range QB, rookies, and even former backups look like Pro Bowlers. The zone is a ridiculously soft gameplan that many high school defenses would be ashamed of. Van Gorder puts our corners 8 -10 yards off of every receiver and there are literally enormous holes anytime a receiver catches a ball. Always only rush 4 linemen (and many times only 3) with limited success and never employ any type of exotic blitz scheme or aggressive play-calling whatsoever.

The defense seems to boil down to a “bend-but-don’t-break” philosophy that is getting decimated on a weekly basis. In terms of Ray Edwards, we all hailed the pick, especially for the price we got him for ($6 million a year compared to $12 million a year for Charles Johnson). Some are upset that he hasn’t done more so far, but the vast majority lay the blame at the feet of the defensive coaches. Speaking on schemes, Van Gorder actually came out and said that he “liked the way our defense played” against the Packers in the playoffs, just that “we didn’t tackle well.” Yes, he actually said that.

AT: After four games, what conclusions can you draw about the 2011 Falcons?

DD: First of all, we didn’t win one preseason game and looked pretty awful doing it. We tried to rationalize that away as only being “preseason.” Many of us thought that we would get a tough game in Chicago on opening day, but the way we came out and played so poorly in all aspects of the game was tough to stomach. We made Jay Cutler look like Joe Montana, Roy Williams like Jerry Rice, and our much ballyhooed “explosive” offense couldn’t even muster a touchdown.

We were able to bounce back against the Eagles in a monumental win for this franchise's psyche by beating Michael Vick in the Georgia Dome and finally put that saga to rest, a least a little bit. In that game, Vick was taken out of the game and we still tried to allow a 3rd string QB beat us at the end. We turn around and lose to the youngest team in the NFL with rookies and 2nd year players up and down the roster. Not taking anything away from Tampa Bay because they are extremely talented, but we feel that we should have won that game, for no other reason that we are farther along in the process than them. Losing to them absolutely let them in the door as a legit threat to the NFC South crown.

We play lights out against a weak Seattle team in the first half, only to let them come storming back and nearly beat us in the 2nd half. A few different decisions by Pete Carroll and we easily lose that game. Frankly, if only for a few plays we easily could be 0-4 right now. As mentioned earlier, this team (specifically the coaches) seemed to have never recovered from that embarrassing night in January on our own home turf. Some feel that you all ripped the mask off of this coaching staff who have been squeaking by and flying under the radar in 2010.

We’ll know a lot more about this team the next three weeks. We can obviously stomach a loss to the Packers, who are the defending Super Bowl Champions and one of the hottest teams in the NFL, but absolutely cannot lose to Carolina, Detroit or Indianapolis. If we make it to 5-3 at the midpoint of the schedule with the harder part coming in the first half, many of us will breathe a little easier and still have hope. But if we hit 4-4 or 3-5 while losing to the teams other than Green Bay, you’ll have a hard time seeing many fans with a ton of hope. Frankly, if we lose to Carolina with rookie Cam Newton starting at QB at home, it’s hard to defend how we are even close to competing for any titles this year.

AT: Is this the Falcons’ chance to make a “statement” win and get their season back on track?

DD: As mentioned earlier, this is a really big chance for the coaching staff to prove they still have what it takes to compete on the highest level. Most of us wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a statement game, per se, but it would do wonders for a very nervous and shaky fan base concerning this coaching staff. Most fans believed that we would likely lose the Packers game if for no other reason than the nightmare from January and they were OK with that. However, they surely didn’t think that they would have lost to both Chicago and Tampa Bay playing the way they did. A win here got much, much bigger when the Falcons lost to both the Bears and Bucs, and nearly losing to the Eagles and Seahawks. In conclusion, Falcons fans need a reason to believe this team is capable of competing at the highest levels again.

AT: What’s your predicted final score?

DD: You’re getting some fans believing that this could be big upset, but most are taking the “believe it when we see it” approach and, frankly, the 2011 Atlanta Falcons haven’t done a great job of inspiring hope with the way they’ve played so far this season.

Green Bay – 38, Atlanta - 17