The Falcons take flight this weekend to the Meadowlands for one of their two final games they will ever play at the New Jersey stadium. (The Giants and Jets are opening a new stadium next year.) If past experiences have any bearing on future outcomes, one thing is for sure. Atlanta doesn’t mind visiting the state of Jersey to face the Giants.
The Falcons have captured five games in-a-row at Giants Stadium and have not lost there since 1979. One game in particular stands out in my mind and mirrors the position the 2009 Falcons find themselves in at this point.
In 2002 Atlanta was coming off a 20-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and looking to rebound. A strong defensive effort highlighted with a pair of forced turnovers deep in Falcons territory in the fourth quarter sealed the win at Giants Stadium.
Falcons cornerback Juran Bolden picked off a Kerry Collins pass attempt for wide receiver Ike Hilliard at the Giants 6-yard line early in the final stanza. The turnover stopped the Giants from breaking a 10-10 tie.
Then, safety Henry Jones forced a late fumble that cornerback Kevin Mathis recovered at the Falcons 15-yard line with 3:32 to play to snuff out another scoring opportunity for New York to add to the day’s defensive heroics. The Falcons winning score came on a 14-yard pass to wide receiver Brian Finneran as the birds held on for a close 17-10 victory.
The win against the Giants on the road propelled the Falcons to a four-game winning streak en route to an eventual playoff berth. Can this game on Sunday prove to be a springboard for better things to come as it did in 2002?
With three-straight home games on the horizon after this trip, the Falcons hope to right the ship this weekend in some successful past surroundings up north.
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9 Comments
This sounds very optamistic. I think we will win despite our issues. I really wanna see some break out plays from our young guys and back ups. Why not us why not now.
at this point, win or lose I just want to see Elam kicking the ball between two poles & Matty getting over his ‘happy feet’
If elam is hurt he needs to sit. Matt Ryan will no longer “Matty Ice”. Michael Jenkins sucks. D-Line is undersized and therefore gets zero pressure on qb….oh yeah Jamal Anderson needs to go. Can’t hate on the db’s if the QB has all day in the pocket!!!
DBS CANT COVER AND THEY HAVE THE NERVE TO GO MAN TO MAN WITH TALLER BIGGER RECEIVERS! ITS TIME FOR JENKINS TO GO, WE NEED TO SIGN SOME VETS IN THE SECONDARY AND SPEND SOME DOE
People need to get over Matt Ryan’s troubles! If he was having this much trouble last year we all would’ve said oh he is growing into his role! He still is! None of the top QBs in the league started out great and just stayed there! They had growing pains too! I do wish he was a little more comfortable in the pocket though! I heard that Roddy White said despite Mike’s injury he will play Sunday! We will need him. If he’s not available then it’s time for Matt Ryan to grow up a little and lead the team! We aren’t out of the Wild Card race! A win here would go a long way! Let’s have faith in our team guys!
Go Falcons!
check out the new dirty bird song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4K266bGlo
I LIKE THE FALCONS I HOPE WE WINN WE HAVE A GREAT TEAM DFENCE NEED TO STEP UP DOE AND MATT RYAN WITH THE PICKS
Falcons are still not out of it even if they lose this game to the giants cuz the numbers are against us! First of all Turner wont play until the Eagles come in town, secondly Giants have already lost 4 games in a row, and Third of all, Giants are coming off their bye week. Even if we lose this game we still not out of the playoff race. We got Tampa twice and i believe we can win against the Eagles and probably lose to the Saints and then win against the jets and buafflo and finish it off with tampa. Which comes out with 10-6 making the wild card with The giants. we probably be the sixth seed cuz we lost to the giants head up and probably end up playing against Arizona cuz they will have a better record then Dallas. giants are going to end up playing against the dallas and giants will end up again at vikings and we end up at saints and we will beat the saints and the vikings will beat the giants and it will be NFC championship game all over again back in 98 when we played against the vikings.
will someone please fire Jason Elam!