Jim Mora in Familiar Spot

by: Chris Sullivan

In doing a bit of research for another piece I'm working on for the blog, I stumbled upon a pretty telling article about the 2003/2004 Falcons squads. In 2003, the Falcons had a lot of buzz going for them; they had been good the year prior and even had a few people talking Super Bowl. Early on in the pre-season, an injury struck their star player (Michael Vick) and their entire season was thrown into turmoil. The Falcons ended up with a 5-11 record in 2003, and Jim Mora was hired to right the ship.

In 2004, the Falcons went 11-5 (including a meaningless Week 17 loss to Holmgren's Hawks, woo woo!) and lost to the Eagles in the conference championship game. With health on their side, a new offense installed, and a zone blocking scheme implemented to take full advantage of the QB's skillset, Mora did indeed turn the Falcons around in his first year.

I see some clear parallels between the 2003 Falcons and the 2008 Seahawks, and hope to see something similar out of Mora's inaugural season in 2009 (but not a repeat of his 2005-06 efforts, gulp!). ~END~