Monthly Archives: September 2009

Three and Out: Bye Bye Wednesday

By John Manasso | Published: September 30, 2009
Usually Wednesday is the busiest day of the week for me up here. It’s one day of the week when Michael Turner, Matt Ryan and Tony Gonzalez talk, plus it’s the day when you do conference calls with the opposing team’s coach and a player. Obviously, with this being the bye week, there were no [...]
Posted in Three-and-Out | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

What They’re Saying

By John Manasso | Published: September 29, 2009
This morning as I was listening to ESPN.com national NFL writer Len Pasquarelli on 790 The Zone, he made the comment about the Falcons’ 26-10 loss to the Patriots — and I can’t remember his exact phraseology — that it was not a devastating loss. In terms of how the Falcons are being considered around [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Three and Out: Monday Afternoon Quarterback

By John Manasso | Published: September 28, 2009
Waiting here in the Falcons’ media room up in Flowery Branch after gorging myself on some Papa John’s Pizza (what, no veggie today?) and thinking about what to ask Falcons Head Coach Mike Smith for his weekly Monday post-mortem on Sunday’s game. First Down One of the first things that Smith said in his postgame comments on [...]
Posted in Three-and-Out | Comments closed

Wrap Up: Falcons at Patriots

By John Manasso | Published: September 27, 2009
Humbling. I think that’s the best way to sum up today’s game for the Falcons. Let’s give credit where it’s due. New England was playing at home and coming off its own humbling loss. That’s the NFL. One week you’re humbled, the next week you’re the humbler. As Joe Buck said minutes ago, “You just don’t [...]
Posted in Gameday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Only One Quarter Left

By John Manasso | Published: September 27, 2009
Remember earlier when I was guessing that there’s probably a huge correlation between successful fourth-down conversions and wins? Well, New England had two successful fourth-down conversions on its last monster drive for a field goal, including one from their own 24-yard line, which expanded the Patriots’ lead to nine points. The fourth-down conversions are fueling a few [...]
Posted in Gameday | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Halftime Adjustments

By John Manasso | Published: September 27, 2009
The Falcons’ defense bent again, but it did not break. Down by three points at halftime, I’m thinking that despite all of the yards they’ve accumulated the Falcons are probably thinking they could have done a lot better. In fact, judging from the look of Tom Brady, whom the broadcast showed in a number of situations looking angry [...]
Posted in Gameday | Comments closed

First Quarter Thoughts

By John Manasso | Published: September 27, 2009
Well, if you expected to see an exposition of offense in this game, it looks like it’s here. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that defense will win this game — red zone defense. So far, both offenses appear to have moved the ball at will (although without Jamaal Anderson’s 15-yard [...]
Posted in Gameday | Comments closed

Memories of Foxborough

By John Manasso | Published: September 27, 2009
It’s been a funny thing for me to watch the New England Patriots go from NFL also-ran to dynasty of epic proportions. When I was growing up 10 miles from Foxboro Stadium — at times named Sullivan Stadium, at times named Schaeffer Stadium — our neighbors who were season ticket holders couldn’t give their tickets away. [...]
Posted in Gameday, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed