Monday Night Game Preview

On their second of three Monday Night games. The 4-2 Atlanta Falcons will play the 2-4 New York Jets at the Georgia Dome. For the Jets, they hit the road for the second consecutive week, this time in front of a crunk Atlanta crowd and a national audience.

Defensively, the Falcons dropped an unacceptable 13 spots to 25th in in total yards last week. Atlanta is allowing five yards per carry, tied for second-worst in the NFL. Which means the Jets will try to run the 51 year old Curtis Martin every chance they get.

The Falcons have been hit for long runs in every game this season. That's not Curtis Martin's game, he's averaging only 3 yards per game. Martin is still dangerous with the ball at his age, but he'll be running behind a bad offensive line that only got worse when they lost Pro Bowl center Kevin Mawae to a season-ending triceps injury. With Mawae, the Jets were averaging only 80 yards per game rushing and gave up 5 sacks to the Bills last week. So now Pete Kendell has to move from Gaurd to Center and go up against Rod Coleman.

Let's pray for him.

Call me crazy, but i think the Falcons will hold Curtis Martin down tonight. The Defense's best game was on Monday Night Football. You know Jim Mora has chewed them out all week long during practice. I think the Defense will finally be ready to Rock n Roll tonight. If that happens, the Falcons should be able to get to the Jets washed up QB.

Vinny Testaverde, was the first overall pick in the 1920 NFL Draft. He entered the NFL when Michael Vick was only 7. But, since i'm clowning on his age, don't sleep on Vinny T, not on Monday Night. On Oct. 23, 2000, Vinny wrote the story that is now known as "The Midnight Miracle." Trailing the Dolphins 30-7 at the start of the fourth quarter, Testaverde rallied the Jets to a 40-37 overtime victory that didn't end until 1:15 a.m. That game is considered the greatest comeback victory in Monday night history. Vinny threw five touchdown passes that night.

But, as Rick Patino once said "The 2000 version of Vinny T ain't walking threw that door"

Instead, the Falcons will be looking at a graying, balding, 41 year old version of Vinny Testaverde. The Jets receiving corp is down to three healthy bodies, with Justin McCareins (calf) unlikely to play. Meaning Wayne Chrebet, who Keyshawn Johnson once said was a "Flash Light compared to his to Star" is going into the starting lineup. Our underperforming secondary is going to have to give Rod Coleman and company some time to hit Vinny in the mouth. Vinny is still a gunslinger, he will put a couple of balls up in the air for us, he's done it his whole career. The Safety's are going to have to be ready to make plays, because the Falcons are going to come out of the locker room ready to blitz Vinny. And if we can hit him hard a couple of times, he might be ready to take a Grandpa nap in the Fourth Quarter. There will be no more "Midnight Miracles" for Vinny T. Hell, Midnight is probably Vinny's bed time nowadays

On Offense, it'll be same ol, same ol for the Falcons. The DVD has a scratch on it, with T.J. Duckett expected to miss tonights game. But, you can expect the Falcons to keep playing it. The Falcons are averaging just under 25 pass attempts per game, while leading the NFL in rushing with more than 185 yards per game on an average of 34 carries. Leading Caption Obvious, Brian Finneran to say this

"That's the nature of the offense," Brian Finneran said "We have such good running backs and offensive linemen, I'm sure we'll go with that until we struggle. But I'd like to see us up around 30 passes a game so people will stop asking the receivers about it."

This won't be the game buddy.

The Jets run defense is almost as brutal as the ours, even though middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma leads the NFL in tackles. With T.J. Duckett out, Justin Gritth will backup Warrick Dunn when he needs breaks. I'm excited by Justin getting extra carries, he deserves it. The Falcons are going to run the ball to death, this might be the game Dunn gets the 20-25 carries he's always bitching about. On Offense, you can expect more Michael Vick passes too.

On the Monday night stage, Vick will be playing in front of a fired-up Georgia Dome crowd that feeds off of him. He'll be looking to improve on his first ever Monday night game, a 14-10 victory over the iggles.

This is a big game for Vick, he's the sexy name on the field. And he Jets defense will be looking to make a name for themselves by containing Vick. Vick will be looking to shut up his many critics by dominating the J-E-T-S, he has no choice but to have a big game. Jim Mora's rant to the New York media has put even more pressure on Mike's back. It was a simple question that didn't get a simple answer

The question, asking about Vick's "development as a quarterback, per se," inferred that he was less true quarterback and more a runner.

"What do you mean, as a quarterback per se?" Mora asked back "In the mold of Peyton Manning, or in the mold of Michael Vick?" Mora said. "Because in the mold of Michael Vick, he's outstanding. He wins two-thirds of his games.

"I think it's unfortunate people always put him in a mold. Let him be him. He's a quarterback. He's a great quarterback. I see him do things that other quarterbacks don't do. When are we going to start talking about when Peyton Manning is going to start doing what Mike Vick does? Let's flip it. Mike Vick wins games and that's the role of the quarterback, to win games."

"He doesn't need to do anything," Mora went on. "I think it's ridiculous that people keep asking me that question. I don't know why people are so narrow-minded that they can't understand why the guy is a great player. Let him do what he does best. Why does everyone have to be the same? It doesn't make sense to me. Never has, never will. There are a lot of different ways to have success, and he's finding his own way. He's ingenious. The guy is a genius."

Not to be undone, the quote machine himself, had this goodie about Vick

"Ever go in the alley and in the alley it's you and a black cat?" Herman Edwards said. "Try to catch the cat? Pretty hard, pretty hard. Looks good at first, and then he starts running around and before you know it, you trip over yourself."

What the hell is he talking about? who chases cats in alley's? I guess that's a compliment.

Anywhoo, Dez White's ass is finally on the bench. The Jets have two young safetys in Erik Coleman and Kerry Rhodes. Coleman is a second year player and Rhodes is a rookie. Last week against the Bills, they both gave up big plays in the passing game. Both are aggressive players that are prone to making mistakes on play-action passes and double moves. Alge Crumpler should smell blood against these two kids, he will be unstoppable tonight. The Falcons need to take some deep shots down field and the new receivers have to make plays when their number is called. Michael Jenkins will most likely be the main deep threat with Roddy White to be used on some deep throws too. He seems to be getting into a nice little groove and could provide some big plays as the new third receiver. Ty Law is questionable for tonight's game, if he doesn't start, look for Vick to attack David Barrett.

Falcons Daily Prediction: 31-20 Falcons win

Tamara, will be a special Monday Night addition of In Game Notes.

Oh Joy.