"Bowling Ball with Spikes" Crashes KC's Trip to Atlanta

Watching the Falcons week in and week out you get a steady dose of FOX networks "C" team of announcers calling each game.  Today's game was broadcast on CBS, and the change in network brought about a fresh set of announcers who's commentary and insight was a breath of fresh air.

Former All-Pro Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker in his color analysis loudly proclaimed that trying to tackle Falcons running back Michael Turner was like "trying to grab a bowling ball with spikes on it."  That analogy was certainly fitting today as Turner gashed the now 0-3 Chiefs for 104 yards and three touchdowns while rookie Matt Ryan added to his growing resume when he hit Roddy White for a 70 yard touchdown pass.  So while the Falcons piled on the points on their way to a 38-14 win over KC, I kept mulling over that bowling ball quote again and again.

While the image of Turner plowing over defenders certainly calls for something as descriptive as Tasker's simile, it also seems to encompass this entire team.  In three short weeks the ghosts of last years 17 week debacle are gone.  They've been exorcised by the healing hands of Dimitroff and Smith.  Gone are the defeatist attitudes and playing only three quarters of football.  Gone are the locker-room squabbles and on-field fights, and gone are the check marks next to Atlanta on other teams' schedules.  These Falcons might only win 3 more games this season but no team is going to pencil them in as an automatic win.

Everyone on this team has been playing like that bowling ball with spikes.  The offensive line was so good today, Ryan was hardly touched.  They used that tough as nails mentality to overcome last weeks sack fest to reassert themselves as an asset rather than a liability. 

When the defense gave up two scores they could have easily folded but they didn't.  Instead they got right back in the game and held on a 4th and goal.  Every time KC seemed to knock the wind out of them, they stood right back up and bloodied the noses of their Chief counterparts.

This unit is a different Falcon team, a new Falcon team with a renewed attitude and spirit.  With each lesson learned from every game played this team will continue to erase the doormat label that has plagued them year after year and grow more spikes on that hard to tackle bowling ball.