ROLLASON: Atlanta Falcons — Helping save a city

It was another playoff Sunday in January and once again the Atlanta Falcons had their fans (and more or less the entire state of Georgia) glued to a television screen to see if the dirty birds could finally win a playoff game.

The Falcons have had their fair share of heart breaking losses in the playoffs in recent years. Coming into this past Sunday’s divisional game against the Seahawks, Atlanta had yet to win a playoff game under current head coach Mike Smith.

With 31 seconds left in the game, the Seahawks kicked the extra point to their last minute touchdown to put their team up 28-27 in what seemed to be another heart breaking playoff loss for the Falcons.

In past playoff losses the Falcons simply did not show up to play, this game was different, Atlanta actually played very well in the first have and had a 27-7 lead going into the fourth quarter — losing this game would most certainly sting deeper than the playoff losses they have suffered in the past.

But with 25 second s left the Falcons had the ball at their own 28 yard line with two timeouts when Matt Ryan finally stepped up for his team in the playoffs. It would be different this time around, just when it seemed like all hope was lost the Falcons were able to bounce back from the Seattle comeback and hit a game winning field goal.

Atlanta finally won a playoff game and saved their fans major depression for another offseason. Take a second and think about what would happen in Atlanta if the Falcons would have let their fans down one more time — scary thought.

And while Atlanta is celebrating this game (as they should) the realists would ask to take a moment and ponder on what actually transpired on Sunday.
The Falcons, who are the number 1 seed in the NFC, lost a fourth quarter 20-point lead to the Seahawks. Yes they did win, but is there reason to be concerned for what is to come?

Let’s be real, it is phenomenal that the Falcons were finally able to win a playoff game. But there is still a lot of work to be done, and up next for the Falcons is the explosive San Francisco 49ers.

Atlanta should be concerned. Their defense showed some holes in containing Seattle’s Russell Wilson. This Sunday they face off against Colin Kaepernick who is coming off the performance of a lifetime against the Packers, the Falcons need to clean up some things before their contest with the 49ers.

The NFC championship will be contested between the top two teams in the conference, and while the Falcons are undoubtedly excited to have won a playoff game, they still have a tough game coming up this Sunday. If they lose to the 49ers there will still be much disappointment in the city of Atlanta.

There will be plenty of people picking the 49ers, but the Falcons should have success moving the ball through the air on the San Francisco defense. It might by a very high scoring game, but I see the Falcons coming out on top and moving on to the Super Bowl.

Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to
tyrollason@yahoo.com.