Falcons Rout Defenseless Chiefs

Don't look now, but the Atlanta Falcons are in first place. It's a three-way tie, but when you're in a rebuilding of the Falcons' magnitude, bright spots are easy to find.

Whether this kind of fortune continues remains to be seen (they eventually have to play teams other than the NFL's worst—right?), but right now Atlanta fans have something to cheer about. More than just something—quite a bit: exciting play from the rookie quarterback, the league's leading rusher in free-agent Michael Turner and a surprisingly opportunistic and scrappy defense led by the NFL's current sack king John Abraham. Yes, that is correct naysayers, the Atlanta Falcons have two statistical leaders on its team. (I will not make a joke about dog fighting here, nor will I ever.)

The idea that a strong football team is built from the inside out was on display Sunday as the Falcons thoroughly dispatched the Kansas City Chiefs. Strong line play, on both sides of the ball was a major topic of discussion among the Atlanta contingent during the offseason. Jake Long vs. Glenn Dorsey. Dorsey vs. Matt Ryan. The Atlanta brass chose to begin the rebuild with Ryan, but grabbed an offensive line piece late in the first round with the selection of promising left tackle Sam Baker. The d-line will continue to be pieced together with effort, a questionable first-round pick (Jamaal Anderson from the 2007 draft) and one elite player in Abraham.

The offensive line continued to gel and appeared at times on Sunday seemed to cast a concrete wall as they gave Ryan all the time he needed to do just enough to balance the running game of Turner and Jerious Norwood (104 yards and 3 touchdowns for Turner and 75 yards for Norwood). The highlight was a 70 yard touchdown reception to Roddy White in the first quarter.

Ryan did his best Doug Flutie impression as he heaved a pass deep down field as White raced past two defensive backs to catch it in stride and saunter into the end zone. It's not Montana to Rice just yet, but Ryan to White has a nice ring to it. White finished the day 119 yards receiving to accompany his flip-inducing (yes he did a flip) touchdown.

Michael Turner continued his assault on NFL defenses. In San Diego, he earned the nickname "The Burner," for his speed. He does show speed and great burst but what he is quickly becoming known for is his bruising running style.

He did not break multiple huge runs like he did against Detroit but he ran over, around, under, over again and even dragged Chiefs defenders. Yes, on one running play Turner dragged a Chiefs player, who was holding onto his hips, for seven yards.

His 38-yard run late in the first quarter led to a touchdown run five plays later. This came after three consecutive three-and-outs for both teams. Turner seemed to break the will of the Kansas City players with his running throughout the first quarter and that touchdown was the last straw. It was all Falcons after that.

The defense gave up two touchdowns on two straight possessions, but there was never a sense the Chiefs were ever in the game. A touchdown pass to Dwayne Bowe ended the second quarter. Credit must be given to the Atlanta corner backs however, as they were aggressive all day. They played tight coverage (something not seen in Atlanta in a long time) and showed a fearless ability to jump routes and go for interceptions, ending the day with three of them. That touchdown pass to Bowe occurred because of those kind of high-risk-high-reward plays. The defense got that score back with a pick-6 from Chris Houston late in the game.

Larry Johnson (is he still sponsored by Roc-A-Fella?) ran for 121 yards and by anyone's standards, that's a good day. But don't be fooled, it didn't come easily. He broke one play for 48 yards on some bad tackling (missed tackles are still a problem).

Take out that run and his line looks quite different: 73 yards and 3.17 yards per carry. It's easy to play the "if that hadn't happened" game and it exposes a weakness for the Falcons—their susceptibility to the big running play—but the point remains: They made Larry Johnson look like what everyone else has made him look like in the past season and a quarter—a shell of his former self.

The Falcons did what good teams should do (yes, I'm going out on a limb and officially saying the Falcons are a "good team"): beat bad teams. The Lions and the Chiefs? Bad teams. The Bucs? A pretty good team that they played tough and hung around with late into the fourth quarter.

The Falcons' defense frustrated Kansas City, making first-time starter Tyler Thigpen look like he didn't belong on the same field. This should have been expected.

A real test of the Falcons is upcoming with the Carolina Panthers. Do they show themselves as spoilers in the seasons of the elite teams or as a real player in the NFC playoff hunt? It's early to say "must-win," but Atlanta does not want to find themselves 2-2 heading into Lambeau, followed by a Bears defense that will be bloodthirsty for a rookie qb and followed after that with a trip to Philly.

The row to hoe gets tougher here and we will soon see just what kind of team Coach Smith has sown.