It’s safe. Really.

          Stop looking around. Quit bellyaching about the past. Even talking about it now is not jinxing it, and I’m big on shut-up-you’ll-jinx-it.

          The Falcons are a playoff team. They’re an opponent reaching the point of being a playoff favorite. A couple more weeks, they’ll be considered just about on the same level as the Lions and Eagles. Atlanta, Minnesota, and Washington will be the outliers talked about with the favorites.

          There is one big issue: Atlanta keeps letting teams hang around for 15 rounds when they need some real knockouts and some TKOs by the 10th round.

          Sunday – with another Atlanta-as-a-fan-base-city-overall-is-mediocre – was another example. Sure, Atlanta was better than Dallas.

          Won by six. Sure, Dallas’ last touchdown came with only 88 seconds left, but onside kicks in the NFL are watchable because there are so few of them, so teams no doubt work on them a lot less than they used to.

          And a six-point win over a reeling team isn’t enough. Dallas had more rushing and more passing yards, even with backup Cooper Rush playing substantially and CeeDee Lamb half of himself for most of the second half.

          Atlanta should’ve pulled away in the second half. As it is, a 6-3 team has scored only five more points than it’s given up.

* Oct. 28 MMQB: Georgia-Florida week? Really?; CFP sermon; area HS stat stuff; Loughdmouthings: Good games, Falcons, hotseats, HS players, new coaches/old coaches …
* Oct. 21 MMQB: A really good - not epic - win in Austin, with silliness; weekly CFB playoff sermon; Loughdmouthings: Dumb Ho orn (this week) fans, really good HS 🏈slate, Falcons are fine, but …
* Oct. 14, MMQB: Monday Morning QB: Which Nation is the most absurd this week?; HS stat stuff, playoffs sermon; Loughdmouthings galore: stats, QB shoving, tackling, Falcons,and Jerry’s happy-for-us birthday
* Oct. 7 MMQB:  Saturday like most others (really); the new Falcons? They still need O; Loughdmouthings galore (the wit, the wisdom, the sarcasm …)
* Oct. 1, MMQB: Missing the point - and tackles - on UGA-Bama; Falcons getting there, but about the O …; Loughdmouthings galore (the wit, the wisdom, the sarcasm …)

* Sept 23, MMQB: Two good weeks of football for Atlanta?; Loughdmouthings galore (the wit, the wisdom, the sarcasm)
* Sept 16: MMQB: Another black-n-blue battle in Lexington; Loughdmouthings: Falcons, silly second-guessing (UGA, county records
* Sept. 9: MMQB: Suddenly, we saw Ridder and Smith in Falcons black again; notable numbers, on campus, and Loughdmouthings galore
* Sept.8 Column-Not just yet, but brace yourself to think good thoughts about the Falcons in 2024
* Sept. 2: MMQB: Notes, reviews, Loughdmouthings

* Aug. 28: MMQB: What we know and what we’re not sure about; Loughdmouthings galore
* Aug. 16: Sit down, get comfy, and let’s just babble high school football for a bit

          Seriously good teams flex muscles more than every so often against a bad team. They need to pummel New Orleans this week and get backups in. They need to control Denver in two weeks, though on the road is notable.

          And they need some momentum football against the Chargers before heading to Minnesota.

          As seriously as more people are taking Atlanta – mostly outside of the “fan” base – now at 6-3, the Falcons do need that performance and execution that raises eyebrows a little.

          The good news is that Atlanta knows how to win close games. Now, if they can just get a 90-percent home crowd for home games. It’s time. They deserve it.

This week’s playoff sermon

          It being America, the teevecomtwits and assorted “media” wasted megabytes and air time blathering irrelevantly – OK, that whole clause was redundant, and on a daily basis – the first college football playoff rankings.

          Sure, guess what the list is, and move on. There isn’t a single “what it means” and “what the loss to ___” or “win over ___” means. Not a big. Nothing.

          But folks love being airheads and wasting time. Broadening horizons is a lovely possibility.

          The first ranking will be irrelevant by midnight Saturday, thanks to Miami-Georgia Tech (keep an eye out), Georgia-Mississippi, Alabama-LSU, Nevada-Boise State, BYU-Utah, Army-North Texas, and three other games along the way.

And it’s a slow week for big games. More traffic awaits.

          Save your stress. Look at it, ponder a second, and let it go. When we get around plans for Thanksgiving, we can talk about it.

Stat stuff

          Westside’s Kadiphius Iverson is having a season.

          The senior running back leads the state in Class AA – according to information submitted by teams to MaxPreps – with 1,655 yards, leading Andrew Beard of Prince Avenue by 205 yards.

          His 24 rushing touchdowns rank first by six, and he has the AA lead in total points by 22 points, over Beard.

          Iverson is seventh rushers in all classes, and fifth in rushing touchdowns, tied with Northeast’s Nick Woodford for third.

          Iverson’s 4,110 career rushing yards are behind the 5,134 of Woodford, whose 2,278 yards in 2022 ranks 15th on the state’s single-season all-time list.

          Westside’s Travis Evans has the Bibb County rushing record, with 6,279 yards from 2000-03. That’s still mighty safe for awhile. Had Woodford not gotten hurt last season, though, it would’ve been seriously challenged.

Hotseat watch

          The first vacancy of the year is the least surprising, Ben Bailey at Northside. It wasn’t expected to come so quickly.

          In reading the room early, it was fairly doomed from the start, thanks to a pretty good chunk of, how shall I say, administrative meddling and favoritism.

          From there, as per nearly all accounts, it just was never really going forward, from an almost-from the-start lack of confidence and support from part of the fan base, and the booster club to staffing issues to disciplinary issues – which had started before Bailey took over – to staffing issues, to  That never improved, because the results never improved, which also falls on the players, some of whom were disciplinary issues.

          It serves as a reminder that this isn’t 2015 or 2002 at Northside, or anywhere else. Nothing is automatic.

This Week

* Roundup, coming Saturday morning
* Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games, coming Friday
* Maxwell Predictions, coming Friday
* Who’s going to win this week’s games, coming Thursday
* Central Georgia state composite rankings, coming Wednesday
* Tuesday’s Roundup, coming Wednesday
* Central Georgia rankings coming Tuesday
* Monday Morning Quarterback Safe to hop on Falcons bandwagon; CFP sermon; Westside's Iverson & Northeast's Woodford; Northside news; Loughdmouthings-Cowboys/TV tiff, GHSA playoffs ...
* GIAA playoffs are set, GHSA picture much clearer but still has some fuzzy going on
* The schedule

Last week
* Roundup, Warner Robins wins thriller; Upson-Lee dumps No. 5; Dublin finishes perfect regular season; Spoon Risper gets milestone win; Washington County edges ACE
* Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
* Maxwell Predictions
* Who’s going to win this week’s games
* Central Georgia rankings
* The GHSA and GIAA football playoffs are here, and almost here. Breaking things down, it's complicated
* Monday Morning Quarterback: Georgia-Florida week? Really?; CFP sermon; area HS stat stuff; Loughdmouthings: Good games, Falcons, hotseats, HS players, new coaches/old coaches …
* Macon Touchdown Club players of the week

Two weeks ago
* Roundup, Houston County battles TCC; Perry bows up again; Northeast, Woodford pop Dodge County; Baldwin O sharp; Mary Persons stuns No. 1; FPD wins region in OT thriller
* Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
* Maxwell Predictions
* Who’s going to win this week’s games?
* Central Georgia state composite rankings
* Central Georgia’s rankings
* Macon Touchdown Club players of the week
* Monday Morning QB: A really good - not epic - win in Austin, with silliness; weekly CFB playoff sermon; Loughdmouthings: Dumb Ho orn (this week) fans, really good HS slate, Falcons are fine, but …
* The schedule

          It serves as a reminder that mottos are really, in reality, irrelevant and serve almost to mask issues. Northside, for a variety of reasons, had stopped being The Program it constantly posted about, and to keep pushing that narrative while things were floundering made the situation worse.

          Let the branding come from winning.

          The present doesn’t care about the past. Fans need to start considering that reality, among others, a little bit.

          It’s a reminder about the influence of “outsiders”/outsiders being a tainted influence, and those outsiders aren’t held accountable when a situation fails.

          The next coach has a lot of fence-mending to do, needs the freedom to hire some full-time coaches who will get players’ attention. And players need their attention gotten (Sorry, English teachers).

          Another of the potential vacancies involves similar issues, a board of education meddling and being sweet-talked/suckered a few times by a superintendent who got a whole lotta money, and then bolted.

          The egos of many administrators and board people matches the egos of coaches, and that’s a big task.

          The guess of how many changes are coming remains at six.

 Loughdmouthings

          Far be it from me to defend a Cowboy and all, but really, Trevon Diggs little rant against a Dallas TV reporter for a clearly verbal clickbait social media post wasn’t much.

          Had some unneeded arrogance in there – well, he is a pro athlete and he is a Cowboy – but was grumpy after another loss, and dealing with a poor, reaching question.

          I hate not hustling like most people and not thrilled a player was checking his feed right after a game, but on this play in question, no, Diggs wasn’t loafing, did no George Pickens impersonation, on a play that wasn’t a touchdown and was largely the result of – here it comes – AMERICA’S CRAPPY TACKLING EPIDEMIC.

          Double props to Diggs for apologizing in a non-patronizing way.  …

          No, figuring out how the GHSA computer works for the power ratings is impossible unless you’re doing the programming, but it sure will be nice to see playoff brackets with a minimal number of 1-9 teams that didn’t win a region game and lost by an average of 37 points while a 6-4 team that split in region sits home.

          The postseason isn’t supposed to be about showing up for 10 weeks, it’s supposed to be for deserving teams. Period. …

          OK, Lincoln Riley has been a bust in following Clay Helton. Brent Venables has been a bust following Lincoln Riley.

          Clay Helton to Oklahoma? …

          From David Hale of ESPN.com on the sinking ship captained by Lincoln Riley: “Riley has already cut off practice access to the media and he has cut back on player interviews, too. His next move is to cut back on players' screen time, have the media report all stories via Morse code and cancel Moss's birthday party. Sure, the deposit on the clown is nonrefundable, but drastic times call for drastic measures.”