Jim Mora Jr. to the white courtesy phone, please

I guess all Vick needs is Marvin Harrison, Chad Johnson, Steve Smith, LT, a few All-Pro offensive linemen, Shawne Merriman, Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis, Brian Dawkins and Champ Bailey and he'll finally have the opportunity to realize his potential.

 

i'm convinced that if Vick had decent receivers he could win consistently. hell, he got to the NFC Championship Game with Dez White and Peerless Price? he's 39-27 in 66 career starts (.591), he won a playoff game at Lambeau a few years back when beating the Packers in Lambeau was unheard of, he beat the Rams in a wild-card game two years ago, good career TD-to-INT ratio (71 / 52), obviously the rushing yards in there

look, I don't think Vick is a top-5 quarterback, but I do think you can win with him and I do think he's unfairly branded as a guy who can't read defenses or throw the ball. when Brett Favre throws three interceptions, he's a gunslinger. when Vick throws one, he can't read defenses. that's my issue.

 

Top 32, at least.

Oh wait, forgot about Matt Schaub.

Well, top 35, probably. Is Greg Landry still in the league? Cause he'd be ahead of Vick, too.

 

I think this had very little to do with Vick. He's a phenomenal talent, and he's been done no favors at all by his receivers. But Mora's problem is Mora. The team not winning is bad enough, but then he made the silly-assed comment on the radio about the University of Washington. Even if he in all sincerity was joking, the second those works come out of his mouth he's lost the clubhouse. It's human nature for the Falcons players to say, "what are we, chopped liver?" If you're and NFL coach and you let on that it's not your dream job, something is wrong.

 

So I guess TO isn't coming to Atlanta.

 

Sign of a newbie: He doesn't realize this argument's been thoroughly deconstructed on this board. The Falcons' receivers aren't even in the top 10 in dropped passes.

 

Mora needs to act like a coach at his next stop, wherever that might be. He's not in that position to be buddies with his players or their shoulder to cry on.

 

Why is it always a "white" courtesy phone, anyway?

 

'Cause if it was a black courtesy phone, The Man would have a heart attack. [/Nate X]

 

I worked really hard on this post last night, so I hope nobody minds a re-post.

Frustrated Falcons fan here.

With the firing of Jim Mora Jr., the Falcons now have a tremendous opportunity to establish a long-awaited new era of a team built around a physical, tough and attacking defense. Too much emphasis has been placed on the performance of Vick, the receivers and a better offense in general, when in reality, it's a lack of interior strength and defensive domination that has been destroying any shot at consistent success for the Falcons. They simply don't scare anyone -- except maybe their fans. Just look at Carolina's first drive in that 10-3 Christmas Eve debacle, which saw Carolina control the ball for 42 out of a possible 60 minutes.

Offensively, while the Falcons were leading the league in rushing, it was done with a gimmick (the cut-blocking scheme of Alex Gibbs). The tactics may have been different, but the Mora era generally lacked on-field discipline and accountability (especially this season), and the Falcons gradually became more and more reminiscent of the soft "Run-and-Shoot" days of June Jones. Too much finesse, an inability to play "smash-mouth" football, wearing down in the second half of the season, incapable of 4th quarter comebacks. The coaching staff simply wasn't winning games the Falcons would have/should have lost, but it can be easily argued they were losing games the Falcons would have/should have won, like Detroit and Cleveland.

The top person to consider as Mora's replacement should be Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. Scouts, Inc. on ESPN.com lists him as the number one assistant in the NFL right now. Here's the write-up:

It would be silly for the Falcons to shy away from Ryan just because of the coincidence that, like Mora, he's the son of a former NFL head coach. While Ron Rivera and Mike Singletary are other great candidates to consider, especially Rivera, who's listed as the second-best assistant by Scouts Inc., Ryan has the strongest background of success and experience to bring the Falcons the kind of philosophy that leads to a consistent ability to compete for the Super Bowl.

The Falcons have had poor chemistry the last couple of years and have done a very suspect job evaluating talent (which must fall on Rich McKay and Arthur Blank as well as the coaches and scouts). With a bruising defense, the pressure would come off Vick. With a philosophy of power over finesse, the Falcons can rebuild the offensive line to create much better pass protection than Vick has ever gotten. Stop putting the weight of the franchise on Vick.

Dan Reeves came the closest to getting it right in Atlanta. His '98 team was easily the best in Falcons history. But even under Reeves, the success of the defense relied on how much the offense controlled the ball. For the first time, at least since the "Gritz Blitz" under Leeman Bennett (and I have learned-- Jerry Glanville as the defensive coordinator), the Falcons defense could start dictating the flow of the game. This kind of fundamentally sound, tough approach would also play very well with the fan base in the heart of the South.

 

Buddy and son are about as far apart personality-wise as can be. But their defenses play the same.

 

My top three: Whisenhunt, Martz, Jim Grobe (Hey, he can coach option quarterbacks. it'll be like "Coach").