Game 10 Preview: Falcons

Five Things You Didn't Know About The Falcons

1. Alge Crumpler's real first name is Algernon. His father named him after the mouse in the book, Flowers For Algernon. Alge's father later regretted the decision after reading a Thundercats comic and seeing all the much cooler names in there.
2. Arthur Blank's mustache, much like a conical singularity, does not exist in normal space-time, but is in fact a fixed point across an infinite multi-dimensional spectrum. This explains why it always appears to be there, yet not there.
3. Next time you see Byron Leftwich, walk up to him and say, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" He loves that.
4. Speaking of Leftwich, the whole reason he was drafted so high from Marshall is because of that comeback he had where he broke his shin and was carried around by his linemen from play to play. Does no one remember that the comeback was against Akron? What was his team doing down by 17 against Akron in the first place?
5. The Falcons web site has players as well as other Falcons employees picking various college games. Last week, the Arkansas/Tennessee game came up and everyone except center Todd McClure and cheerleader Nicole Mo picked Arkansas. I'd like to offer a big, wet fuck you to the rest of those people.
   ("Mo" couldn't have been an easy name to have as a high school cheerleader.)

Bobby Petrino wants Leftwich to start this game even though Joey Harrington has led them to a two game winning streak (can winning two games really be called a "streak"?) Leftwich may not be ready to come back, so we don't know who it will be, but either way it's good for the Bucs. If Harrington starts, you know he's going to be pissed off because he's basically been told he has nothing to play for and Leftwich will eventually replace him regardless of how well he does. If Leftwich starts, the rest of the team will probably be upset that the guy who is finally leading them to wins is sitting on the bench while the crippled dude who they have no chemistry or timing with is out on the field. Add to that the fact that the Bucs defense is #3 in passing yards allowed, #6 in total points allowed and #4 in points allowed, and I think we can count on the Falcons scoring 13 points at most on Sunday.

The Falcons are giving up 121 yards rushing per game and the Bucs get to give Earnest Graham a break on third downs now because Michael Pittman should be back in the lineup. Add a speedy Michael Bennett on a couple plays on the outside (please stop running Bennett in the interior... he's a perimeter guy) and the Bucs should rack up a lot of rushing yards and make some key plays with play-action. One receiver (probably Joey Galloway) will make a big play or two in the passing game, but I see this one being won mainly on the ground. Bucs by 14.