Atlanta Falcons' Fans: Don't Get Greedy...the Playoffs Are Good Enough!

Remember how easy it was being a Falcons' fan four months ago?

Okay, yeah, it sucked, but it was easy. There were no...expectations. Well, there were, but only from sporting outlets predicting that the team would go 1-15, 1-14-1 at most (wait, there are ties?).

Everyone would have been happy to hit anywhere south of .500, and albeit awful, we were blissful. No one cares when a bad team fails; it's the good teams failing that get you down.

If the Falcons went 8-8, that would be a feel-good story, maybe even a miracle. If the Patriots went 8-8 (with Tom Brady, mind you), the media would have a field day. The Falcons were going to be bad for a long, long time and everyone knew it.

Then, highly-doubted Matt Ryan hit Michael Jenkins for a 62-yard touchdown on the first pass of his career, highly-paid Michael Turner rumbled for 220 yards, and the Atlanta Falcons steamrolled the Detroit Lions. Sure, it was the Lions, but this was when they had one loss, not sixteen.

The Falcons looked powerful, and whispers were made about this team being much better than people thought. The most hopeful of the hopeful predicted that 8-8 season, but that was such a long shot that no one gave it much thought.

The next game against Tampa was a return to reality—Matty Ice looked like the rookie he was, Turner sputtered, and the loss was inevitable.

The Falcons then trounced Kansas City, pulled a Tampa Bay in Carolina, and had the unenviable task of going into Lambeau to play the Packers.

Yet, this is when Mike Smith shined, spouting the memorable quote "That f****** field is 100 yards long and 53-1/2 yards wide just like all the other f****** fields."

Matt Ryan proved his nickname and, like he-who-must-not-be-named six years earlier, beat the Packers in Lambeau.

Win-loss-win-loss-win.

If the pattern kept, the Falcons would reach that 8-8 plateau we all dreamed of. That pattern-following loss seemed inevitable one week later, when the Chicago Bears took the lead on them with 11 seconds left. But, this had been a season of defied expectations so far.

Could the team that had won two games more than anyone thought pull out a miracle here against the Bears?

You betcha! Offseason pick-up, Jason Elam redeemed himself for a missed field goal by kicking the winning field goal, after Ryan's 26-yard pass to Jenkins. 

This team could do anything, couldn't it?

Losses started to hurt more, because we knew what the Falcons were capable of. When the Falcons passed .500 with the gritty win against the Bucs, 11-5 was the only acceptable finish.

When Carolina denied the Falcons the second seed in the conference and dropped them all the way to the fifth seed (the fifth!), it was a huge bummer. And when the Falcons finally looked like the team that had been 4-12 the year before, in that loss to the Cardinals, my, and probably many others', reaction was disappointment.

But when the loss sank in, and I gained some hindsight, I realized the folly of my disappointment.

Who thought this team would get this far?

This team exceeded expectations the entire year, and I'm going to get in a tiff because they lost a playoff game? Let's consider all the enormous positives this season had to offer:

- Matt Ryan, Offensive Rookie of the Year, probably the next Peyton Manning, made us forget Michael Vick.

- Mike Smith, Coach of the Year, washed out the sour taste of Bobby Petrino and treated his players like human beings.

- Michael Turner, Offseason Acquisition of the Year, was second in the NFL in rushing and touchdowns.

- Roddy White had his second straight 1,000-yard season and set the Falcons record for yards in a season.

- John Abraham, Biggest Pro Bowl snub, had 16.5 sacks while only playing in half the game.

- The punt coverage set the NFL record for least yards allowed in a season.

- The offensive line gave up 30 less sacks than the year before.

- They got rid of Adam Jennings.

 

These are the 2008 Falcons, one year removed from the abyss of despair.

Can you imagine what the 2009 Falcons will be like? 2010? The playoffs were supposed to be 2010 at the earliest.

Thus, I salute you, Atlanta Falcons.

You made true Falcons fans as joyous and proud as humanly possible, and I shall not be disappointed.