So who gets fired first?

The Art Shell countdown begins.....

 

Outing alert! Chef is Ryan Seacrest!

 

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I've always been under the impression that Jerry Glanville was the assistant coach under Leeman Bennett who coined the whole "Gritz Blitz" phenomenon.

 

Right you are, sir.

http://images.si.com/inside_game/dr_z/news/2001/10/17/drz_insider/

 

You are right -- I didn't know that.

Anyway..... If everyone will allow me to give my thoughts on this........

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.

 

Surprised that Denny got it. I thought it was a little too early but those meltdowns didn't help.

 

Lugnuts, I don't care who Atlanta gets ... as long as that cut-blocking scheme goes. That's my problem with the Falcons. The cut- and chop-blocking has taken out too many players over the years. The NFL Competition Committee needs to address the situation, but if it won't, making sure Gibbs isn't employed anywhere is the next best alternative.