Oh, I know, but let us not forget our D held a VERY good offense to three-and-out on its penultimate AND antipenultimate drive. I will not condemn them for "failing" to stop Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Julio Jones and Tony Gonzales from getting a first down on three straight drives, especially when our best nickelback missed the game with an injury and the guy we have had covering Tony Gonzales for seven years is on a six game suspension.

We held the Falcons to SEVEN POINTS IN THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF! The D did not really give up much in the first half either; Atlanta got the ball at our 1 to start the first drive, and it STILL took them three downs to punch it into the endzone, so no blame to the D there. Mannings other two picks gave Atlanta a shortfield for each of their next two drives also, but they only got FGs out of each. We gave up a TD after Morenos fumble, but by then our D had been on the field for all but half a dozen plays of the ENTIRE FIRST QUARTER (which lasted a full hour.)

After that they only gave up 7 points in three quarters of play. No, I do not fault the D for that game at all. When I expected the D to play well and the offense struggle against Pitt the opposite happened; when I expected the offense to play well and the D to collapse against Atlanta the opposite happened. From now on I will just go into every game expecting the whole freaking team to be awful; it prevents disappointment, and worked out amazingly well last year. I do not blame our defense for finally giving up a first down after three tries by Atlanta last night though; I blame the offense for all OUR three-and-outs, and, of course, for the four first quarter turnovers.