Let’s hear it for the Atlanta Falcons. They beat the Washington Redskins yesterday for their first-ever 5-0 start. Future Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez racked up his 99th career touchdown reception while catching 13 passes from quarterback Matt Ryan. Even so, the Falcons had their hands full and only closed out the win after the ‘Skins starting QB left the game with an injury.

Otherwise, the results for Georgia teams ranged from debacle and embarrassing to trouncing.

The Braves provided debacle and embarrassment in their wild card game, wild being the mild term for their first and last game of the post-season. They lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, same team that beat them last post-season. “Wild” and “lost” describe what happened Friday night at Turner Field. Fan favorite Chipper Jones, playing his last game, made a wild throw to second base in the third inning, allowing a Cardinal run, and later two other Braves made throwing errors, adding two more Cardinal runs.

Things came unhinged in the eighth inning when an umpire invoked the wacky infield fly rule after Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons hit a fly ball into shallow left field and two Cardinals let it drop. The ump said Simmons was out – leaving runners on second and third with two out instead of the bases loaded with one out. Braves manager Freddie Gonzalez argued angrily with the umpires to no avail, and then unfortunately many Braves fans began throwing bottles, cans and other objects onto the field.

Sportswriters and fans agreed it was a bad call because the ball fell 50 feet from the infield. But no bad call justifies the kind of embarrassing bad behavior some of the Atlanta fans exhibited. And the call did not beat the Braves. They had enough opportunities to win the game – in the eighth inning after the furor died down: they loaded the bases but couldn’t score. St. Louis won 6-2.

Next up, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech which sank to 2-4 at the hands of the Clemson Tigers. Coach Paul Johnson made another of his bad fourth down calls early in the first quarter with a fourth and one attempt at the Tech 37. It failed, giving the ball to Clemson and leading to a quick score. Tech came back and played tough but made some fatal errors including a safety and two missed field goals. Result: Clemson 47, Tech 31.

Tech fans already were in a state of shock and depression over the trouncing the Yellow Jackets got from Middle Tennessee State (does anybody know where that is?) on the previous Saturday, 49-28. Unbelievable.

Last Saturday closed out with the South Carolina Gamecocks trouncing the Georgia Bulldogs, 35-7, shutting out the Dogs until the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. For Georgia fans, it was flat out incredible. And Georgia fell all the way from fifth place in the AP poll to 14th, while South Carolina moved up from sixth to third.

Just wait ‘til next Saturday?



dmckee9613@aol.com