By Don Stone - Football Atlanta
It was on the
verge of being one of the most miserable sports weekends in Atlanta history.
And, we've certainly had more than our share of those to compare it with.
Things got off to a bad start Friday night when the Braves hosted
the Cardinals in a new format adding an extra wild card team to face the
normal wild card team in a do or die winner take all game. On paper,
everything was in Atlanta's favor. They had beaten St. Louis 5 of 6 times
this season. They finished with a record six games better than the Cards.
They had Kris Medlen
(10-1)
on the mound with the team having won a major league record 23 games
straight when he had started. And, the game was at Turner Field.
But no one counted on the Braves self destructing with three
costly errors giving the opponent 5 of their 6 runs...or an infield fly rule
being called on a play 40 feet in left field that may have turned the game
around...or Chipper Jones
getting only a soft infield single in 5 at bats in
his final game. St. Louis only managed 4 hits, but they capitalized on
Braves mistakes when they needed to and Atlanta, as they had unfortunately
done all season, left ten runners on base, many in scoring position. So, once
again, the team watched another team celebrate in an elimination game at
Turner Field and went into a wait 'til next year mode again.
At least we had some great games to look forward to the next day in
college football to take our minds off the loss.
A friend had been planning an interesting road trip this weekend to
South Carolina. He was going to spend Friday night in Myrtle Beach, then go to
the Georgia Tech game at Clemson and make the two hour drive down I-385 to
Columbia to see the Bulldogs play in Columbia. Now he's glad he didn't. He
didn't miss much.
Actually, he did. The reason he didn't make the trip was because he
had bought tickets for the Wild Card game and for Game One of the NLDS
against the Nationals Sunday...at Turner Field. That didn't happen either.
There wasn't a lot expected of the Yellow Jackets this weekend after their
miserable showing the previous Saturday at home against Middle Tennessee State, who
embarrassed them by three touchdowns. But, there was hope since they had
played Clemson well in recent years. And, in fact, the game was tied at
halftime. But, the Tigers poured it on in the second half and easily won by
16 points 47-31. The loss puts the Jackets at 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the
ACC, all but wiping out any hopes of a second half comeback to catch the
Miami Hurricanes (4-2, 3-0 ACC), who were embarrassed themselves 41-3 by Notre
Dame.
But, down the road a few hours later, the other team from the Peach
State was having an even worse with another team from the Palmetto State. A
previously undefeated 5-0 Georgia team that had been scoring around 50 points
a game and was ranked #5 in the nation had their own dose of humiliation at
the hands of long time nemesis Steve Spurrier
who decimated them in every aspect of the game. A useless touchdown at the
end is all that prevented a shutout. Not much consolation in a 35-7
shellacking.
"This was a special one beating three years in a row a school that
used to own you," gloated Spurrier. "They can't say they own us anymore,
that's for sure."
It could have been very profitable with losses by #3 FSU and #4
LSU. But, instead, the Gamecocks moved into their spots up to #3 while the
Bulldogs dropped 9 spots to #14. Even more important, South Carolina, as
with last season, holds a crucial edge in the SEC East, leaving UGA to hope,
as with last season, that they stumble somewhere along the way.
Entering the weekend, sports talk shows carried the optimistic
comments of fans seeing a magnificent weekend of victories ahead. Once the
Braves knocked off the Cardinals, they would take the first two on Sunday
and Monday at Turner Field against a Washington team that had been slipping
in recent weeks and move to DC for the kill. Tech might pull off an upset
and UGA would continue their winning ways and the Falcons would remain
undefeated.
As kickoff came Sunday at 1:00, local fans knew the first three
parts of that puzzle would not come to pass and were putting all of their
dwindling hopes on the NFL. But, it was looking like another DC team might
be dashing Atlanta hopes as well as the Redskins defense was stopping the
potent Falcons offense with a scoreless first quarter by both teams.
The second quarter got off to a bad start as Matt Ryan
was intercepted by Ryan Kerrigan
who ran it back for a pick six giving the Skins a 7-0 lead. As the first
half was nearing an end, the Falcons would catch up with a Tony Gonzalez
touchdown catch, one of 13 passes he brought in for the day. Washington
would go up again 10-7 making another Falcons fourth quarter comeback
necessary. An 18 yarder to Julio Jones
put them up 14-10 but the lead was short lived as backup quarterback Kirk Cousins, filling in
for injured Robert Griffin III, hit
Santana Moss for 77 yards and a 17-14 lead.
Matt Bryant would tie
it with his reliable second field goal of the day.
Ryan then proceeded to engineer his 18th fourth quarter come
from behind win with a 13 yard Michael Turner
rush to the end zone. Two interceptions of Cousins by Dunte Robinson
and Thomas DeCoud and the worries were
over. It took 17 fourth quarter points, but Atlanta had its first 5-0 start in team history, their first season
going 3-0 on the road since 1986 and a lost weekend salvaged by the team that is
proving to be the one you can count on when things aren't going well
elsewhere.
Now, they have the local stage all to themselves. No Braves
anymore and both Tech and Georgia have bye weeks. So, the Falcons will be
the only game in town Sunday when they host the Oakland Raiders at the Dome
in uncharted territory going for 6-0.
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