Alive and Kicking

I think it was a few seconds sometime before the third field goal dud that I said it from my seat at the Georgia Dome. “Go for it! Forget the field goal! Go for it!” The lady in front of me kinda smirked. I was dead serious. Michael Koeanan had missed two FGs last week and already had matched the futility (one was blocked) in Week 2. Going into the season, I honestly didn’t have much of an issue with Koenan handling all three kicking duties: field goals, punts and kick-offs. Like The 2 Live Stews’ Ryan Stewart said on the air the other day, if a linebacker can get all banged up for 60+ plays a game, a kicker should certainly be able to handle 12 plays or so. Of course, it helps if the kicker actually knows what he’s doing.

46-year-old Morten Anderson knows how to make the ball go through the posts—not around them. The eight-time Pro Bowler only has 2,358 points, second in NFL history to fellow kicker Gary Anderson’s 2,434. "In my heart, I knew I could still play," Andersen told reporters seven days before his first game since playing with Minnesota in ‘04. "It's been a test of endurance for me over the last year and half since I last played for the Minnesota Vikings. I'm really excited to be back in the NFL, especially playing the Saints this week because of the significance of this game for the city of New Orleans and the people of Louisiana."

Falcons fans are pretty geeked up, too. Now that the kicking game appears rectified, there’s just one knot in the Birds’ feathers—the receiving corp. I can only tell you what Arthur Blank might: “One step at a time, my friends…”