Inside the NFL

There's an excellent story about Justin Blalock of the Atlanta Falcons today in Peter King's Monday Morning QB - Tuesday Edition article on Sports Illustrated. I'd like to share it here since the Monday night game was such a garbage contest and I have nothing else to really talk about.

Now for the Blalock story. I'm almost rooting for the Falcons to make it, just so Blalock gets his due. Think back to overtime Sunday, Atlanta and Tampa Bay tied at 10, the Falcons driving. On second-and-eight from the Buc 43, Matt Ryan scrambled forward, and from behind Buc defensive end Kevin Carter dove on his back and stripped the ball from Ryan at the Buc 39. Tampa Bay linebacker linebacker Barrett Ruud dove on the ball, cradled it in his right arm as he attempted to curl his body over the ball, and within a millsecond was snowed under by Bucs and Falcons alike.

Six seconds later, as the officials pried bodies away from the pile, they signaled for the Falcons and yelled, "Atlanta ball!'' And Blalock emerged with the football.

So what happened?

"Mostly grasping, gouging and punching in some unmentionable areas,'' said Blalock, a second-year guard from Texas. "Just chaos. Hopefully our season doesn't come down to that one play, but if that's the big one, I'm glad I was able to make it.''

What happens on the bottom of scrums is one of the great mysteries of the NFL. Once, Boomer Esiason told me he was at the bottom of a pile, having lost a fumble, and looked over to see Cleveland Browns nose tackle Bob Golic right next to his face. They couldn't go anywhere, so Boomer said to him: "Hey, you ever get those boots I sent you?'' Seems that Esiason had sent Golic a pair of Cowboy boots as thanks for an appearance on a radio show of his, and Golic said yes, he got them, and thank you. But it's usually not that cordial under there.

In this case, Blalock saw the ball come out, saw Ruud beginning to cradle it, and just dove for it. "He [Ruud] had one hand on it and he was trying to get his body over it so no one could pry it loose. I got my right arm in there, then wedged my body closer and just sort of moved him out of the way and got on the ball. It's physics. I'm just bigger, and I had the leverage. Then it was just crazy, with everybody jumping in there and trying to get it. My guys kept asking, 'You got it? You got it?' And I said I had it.''

He said it didn't occur to him how big the play was at the time. But the Falcons finished the drive with the winning Jason Elam field goal. If Ruud recovers that fumble, the Bucs would have needed to drive 30 yards to try a winning field goal of their own. At 8-6, Atlanta would have been a longshot in the NFC playoff race, needing two wins and lots of help to make it. At 9-5, they're major players.

"I didn't have the luxury to think about that at the time, obviously,'' Blalock said. "Now that I can think about it, I'm pretty happy. The strange thing is, that's only the second time I've ever touched the ball in a football game. At Texas once, I recovered a fumbled snap late one game. But that's it. This one is probably a little bigger.''

This one, in fact, is the kind of thievery that can save a season.