A Troubling Statistical Trend

[cooperbh]

(01-23-2011 04:30 PM)Jesus Wrote:  I think in the end the scheme really hurt Turners numbers and eventually the team offense as a whole. In 98 when JA32 put up his great season, he ran a lot like Turner, he had huge holes in the line, not because the line was better, it was not, but because the deep ball and play action kept the defense honest. If Jam was held up at the line and the box was filled, Chandler threw the ball up to Martin or Mathis, they both averaged almost 18 ypc. White, Jenks and Gonzo averaged: 12.1, 12.3 & 9.1 respectively.

Every year in this offense we keep going backwards in yards per catch. Ryan has been going 13.0 to 11.1 to 10.4. Thats with the same receiving weapons every year, except Gonzo who has gone down each year he has been here. He has seen his two worst years for ypc since coming to Atlanta. It's not him it's the system.

As much as I heard about it all season, I just didn't really see opposing defenses stacking the box against Turner unless he was lined up in an obvious short yardage formation. I think this is just another leg-less message board meme along the lines of "opposing defenses blitzed 6-8 defenders against us 70% of the time."

What I saw more often than not against the quality defenses of the league was exactly what we saw against the Packers: Frontline defenders swarming into the backfield on both run and pass plays. As much as I would like to see us take more deep shots, it wouldn't help with this issue because, as it stands now, opposing safeties aren't cheating up to stop Turner and opposing pass rushers are pressuring Ryan without blitzing.

Screen passes would definitely help but, as Mularkey himself has stated, we don't have the O-line personnel to run them. That's why we never ran them even when Norwood was healthy.

I'm not saying that the O-line is the only limiting factor for this offense, just the biggest. If we can somehow fix it, then we can plug any RB in there and have success, just as teams like the Pats, Jets and Texans do.

[cooperbh]

(01-23-2011 08:18 PM)Beef Wrote:  That only makes sense IF we actually had a deep threat receiving corps. Heck, even Roddy isn't a speedster who can blow by CB's with ease. HD is our only 4.3 speed receiver. The problem is, every time we put him on the outside & he did exactly that, simply run right past the CB, he dropped the pass.

It's extremely difficult to say the O-line is at fault for no deep passes when we really don't have any deep threats & when Roddy does go deep he's usually double-covered.

Since when did you need a 4.3 forty time to be considered a deep threat? Are Andre Johnson, Greg Jennings and Vincent Jackson not deep threats?

Roddy and Jenkins are both plenty fast enough to stretch defenses, Ryan just needs longer than 2 seconds of clean pocket to allow them get downfield before he launches it.

[Jesus]

The line is the same line we had three years ago. Yet each year the average yards per play went down, but our points and wins went up this year. The line hasn't regressed. When Ryan is allowed to make throws like he did in 2008 he was sacked less. He will have the time in the right system. When this team plays from behind they struggle because they lack explosive plays in their offense. All four of our loses are a result of the offense not being able play catch up because the offense doesn't stretch the field enough. The lack of personnel for screens probably means the backs. Or line is athletic, note not fat, to run around. But with Turners hands and his backups always hurt, you can see what happens.

[Radical]

Notice in all our losses, our offensive line was abused.

Matt Ryan can still make the throws he made in 08, the line was better then and team's didn't have film on us.

That's right. Todd Weiner > Sam Baker. In a serious way.

[Radical]

(01-23-2011 08:38 PM)cooperbh Wrote:  Since when did you need a 4.3 forty time to be considered a deep threat? Are Andre Johnson, Greg Jennings and Vincent Jackson not deep threats?

Roddy and Jenkins are both plenty fast enough to stretch defenses, Ryan just needs longer than 2 seconds of clean pocket to allow them get downfield before he launches it.

I think Roddy can do it. Jenkins... not as much. Doesn't fight for the ball like he should. Most of his deep plays are simply him using his body to block the CB out of the play.

[Jesus]

(01-23-2011 09:24 PM)Radical Wrote:  Doesn't fight for the ball like he should. Most of his deep plays are simply him using his body to block the CB out of the play.

Isn't that the same thing?

[cooperbh]

(01-23-2011 09:05 PM)Jesus Wrote:  The line is the same line we had three years ago. Yet each year the average yards per play went down, but our points and wins went up this year. The line hasn't regressed. When Ryan is allowed to make throws like he did in 2008 he was sacked less. He will have the time in the right system. When this team plays from behind they struggle because they lack explosive plays in their offense. All four of our loses are a result of the offense not being able play catch up because the offense doesn't stretch the field enough. The lack of personnel for screens probably means the backs. Or line is athletic, note not fat, to run around. But with Turners hands and his backups always hurt, you can see what happens.

The line is definitely not the same as it was three years ago. McClure has declined considerably in pass protection since that time. Weiner started most of the 2008 season at LT and was not near the liability in both run and pass blocking that Sam Baker currently is. Hartsock was a force in the run game - Gonzo is a farce.

The line was much better in 2008.

[Radical]

(01-23-2011 09:27 PM)Jesus Wrote:  Isn't that the same thing?

Attacking the ball in the air with his hands and jumping for the ball instead of letting it fall to him.

You want to see a classic example of attacking the ball, check out Larry Fitzgerald.

[cooperbh]

(01-23-2011 09:24 PM)Radical Wrote:  I think Roddy can do it. Jenkins... not as much. Doesn't fight for the ball like he should. Most of his deep plays are simply him using his body to block the CB out of the play.

No argument about Jenkins' questionable ball skills. I think he's plenty fast enough to get down the field and do damage if you hit him in stride, though.

[Jesus]

(01-23-2011 09:31 PM)cooperbh Wrote:  No argument about Jenkins' questionable ball skills. I think he's plenty fast enough to get down the field and do damage if you hit him in stride, though.

Which can be done if we would run those plays more often. We can all agree that this offense is not living up to it's potential which is costing us wins.