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stkelly52 · 01-13-2005, 08:32 PM

CONFERENCE SEMIFINAL
Atlanta 12-5 @ Washington 11-5
The team is excited following the team's second ever postseason victory. We look to continue that trend against a very good Washington. Washington has among the highest power ratings in the NFC. The Redskins have one of the best RBs in the NFL. They are second in the league in rushing, and they have a decent passing game to go along with it. They also have one of the top 5 defenses in the league. Nixon will likely have some difficulties because Washington has the best running defense in the NFL.

Washington came into this game with everyone thinking that they would be easily able to stop Nixon and therefore stop us. Apparently they forgot to tell Leland Nixon this. Leland was determined to show the world that he can be one of the better RBs in the league, and he made a statement today. On our first drive of the day, Nixon picked up all but 16 of our 57 yards that led to a 29 yard field goal. Midway through the second we were trailing 6-3 when we decided to let Leland carry the ball on 7 consecutive plays. The shortest of those runs was for 3 yards, as he moved the ball all 50 yards for the TD to give us a 10-6 lead. Washington would cut that lead to one with another field goal. Nixon continued the next drive like as he had left off on the previous. Six more runs, 45 more yards. Then the team decided that they needed to mix things up with a few passes. 2 big penalties and a sack later and we were looking at 4th and goal from the 40 yard line. We had to punt. Two drives later, we again turned to Nixon to pick up the majority of our yards. He brought us down to the 6 yard line. But another big 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty knocked us back. Two incomplete passes later we settled for another field goal, 13-9 we lead.

We then traded a few punts, with our punter doing a much better job. We were able to shorten our field a lot. With just over 10 minutes left in the game we started our drive at the Redskins' 42. six of the next seven plays were to Nixon and he was able to pick up 30 yards in those plays. It was clear though that Leland was just exhausted at this point. He needed to take a couple plays off as his back up came in to bring the ball down to the 2 yard line. Leland was then able to punch the ball into the end zone with a two yard run around the left tackle for his second TD of the day. This gave us the a 20-9 lead with just over 4 minutes left to play.

Washington's next drive ended in a desperate but futile attempt to convert a 4th and 3 from near the mid field stripe. A sack gave us the ball with 3:01 left. We turned once again to Nixon, who gave us just enough for the first down each time as we were able to run out the clock and secure another post-season victory!

The MVP award for this game went to Leland Nixon who averaged 4.6 yards per carry, picking up a total of 177 yards and 2 TDs. Nixon had the 8th best rushing total in postseason history, and the best in Falcon history (of course that has only been 8 games).

01-13-2005, 08:32 PM	#41
stkelly52 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Seattle WA	CONFERENCE SEMIFINAL Atlanta 12-5 @ Washington 11-5 The team is excited following the team's second ever postseason victory. We look to continue that trend against a very good Washington. Washington has among the highest power ratings in the NFC. The Redskins have one of the best RBs in the NFL. They are second in the league in rushing, and they have a decent passing game to go along with it. They also have one of the top 5 defenses in the league. Nixon will likely have some difficulties because Washington has the best running defense in the NFL. Washington came into this game with everyone thinking that they would be easily able to stop Nixon and therefore stop us. Apparently they forgot to tell Leland Nixon this. Leland was determined to show the world that he can be one of the better RBs in the league, and he made a statement today. On our first drive of the day, Nixon picked up all but 16 of our 57 yards that led to a 29 yard field goal. Midway through the second we were trailing 6-3 when we decided to let Leland carry the ball on 7 consecutive plays. The shortest of those runs was for 3 yards, as he moved the ball all 50 yards for the TD to give us a 10-6 lead. Washington would cut that lead to one with another field goal. Nixon continued the next drive like as he had left off on the previous. Six more runs, 45 more yards. Then the team decided that they needed to mix things up with a few passes. 2 big penalties and a sack later and we were looking at 4th and goal from the 40 yard line. We had to punt. Two drives later, we again turned to Nixon to pick up the majority of our yards. He brought us down to the 6 yard line. But another big 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty knocked us back. Two incomplete passes later we settled for another field goal, 13-9 we lead. We then traded a few punts, with our punter doing a much better job. We were able to shorten our field a lot. With just over 10 minutes left in the game we started our drive at the Redskins' 42. six of the next seven plays were to Nixon and he was able to pick up 30 yards in those plays. It was clear though that Leland was just exhausted at this point. He needed to take a couple plays off as his back up came in to bring the ball down to the 2 yard line. Leland was then able to punch the ball into the end zone with a two yard run around the left tackle for his second TD of the day. This gave us the a 20-9 lead with just over 4 minutes left to play. Washington's next drive ended in a desperate but futile attempt to convert a 4th and 3 from near the mid field stripe. A sack gave us the ball with 3:01 left. We turned once again to Nixon, who gave us just enough for the first down each time as we were able to run out the clock and secure another post-season victory! The MVP award for this game went to Leland Nixon who averaged 4.6 yards per carry, picking up a total of 177 yards and 2 TDs. Nixon had the 8th best rushing total in postseason history, and the best in Falcon history (of course that has only been 8 games).