ATL Sports: Around The ATL 8/15/11

[Zodiac]

Hello and g'day. As many of you know the Falcons had their first preaseason game of the year. So with no further delay let's dive right into it. The biggest story coming and out of the game was Julio Jones, many people speculated that Jones would do well in his first game, but many didn't expect that 2 Catch 41 Yard performance he turned in along with 1 Rush for 12. Julio burned Cornerback Vontae Davis on the very first play, but Matt Ryan was offf target with the throw. later on during the second offensive drive Julio caught a short drag route underneath and took it about 20 yards into the Redzone, he then had another big catch for a first down in double coverage followed by a reverse for 12 yards and a first. Great is an understatement for Julio's performance, it was simply phenomenal on nearly every play there was a man wide open, Julio and Roddy were gardenring so much attention that the flats were clear almost every play and so were some intermediate routes, he also had an effect on the run game, Miami started out stacking about 8 in the box but quickly dropped to only 6 after the Atlanta passing attack burned them several times, this allowed Michael Turner and Jason Snelling to each break off long runs. On one of those long runs, Harvey Dahl's replacement Garret Reynolds blew open a hole for Michael Turner to hit, Reynolds constantly dominated in the run game, but did have trouble in the passing game at times, but overall turned in a great performance, the other competitor for the job, Mike Johnson was out with a concussion, but was back praticing this week. Of the backups two really caught my eye, Darrin Walls an UDFA CB from ND, and Jose Valdez a backup LT. We'll start off with Valdez who has quite a hype surrouding him over the past few weeks, ever since reports broke that he was motivated to win a starting job this year. Valdez look completely dominant at times keeping his man completely out of the play, but like any LT he did get pushed back at times, and looked confused on a blitz or two. Overall he didn't allow a sack or have a penalty called on him. Sam Baker however continued his struggles, he was called for a false start and was blown up by Jared Odrick twice. The door is wide open for Jose Valdez if he continues his rapid improvement. The one guy on defense who caught my eye was Darrin Walls, Walls blanketed his man nearly all night, barring one bad play where he and S Shann Schillinger blew the coverage scheme, but I won' t hold it against him as he hasn't been in the system but for about 2-3 weeks. On another play Walls positioned himself perfectly and made a great play on the ball which lead to a Rafael Bush INT, strongly considered a PS guy before this game he's now a favorite for the 53 man, where as Chris Owens may find himself on the streets, he continued his struggles blowing coverage more then once (one of which lead to a touchdown) for a Rookie who showed so much progress, Owens has rapidly regressed and may soon find himself out of a job. We had some scary new come out of camp on Sunday, DT Corey Peters was carted off with a left knee injury, we've since learned that he won't require surgery, is day to day, but will miss the Jacksonville game, this will give former 2009 1st round pick Peria Jerry a chance to step in and make an impact, Jerry has been hampered by a severe knee injury since his rookie year and is only now 100%.


Dan Uggla's historic hit streak ended at 33, one of the longest in MLB history and the longest in current Atlanta Brave history, Uggla who has been red hot since July, didn't completely flame out, he had a sac fly and was robbed of a bloop hit by a tremendous diving catch by Darwin Barney. The Braves who are pretty much out of the NL East race at this point are quickly losing their lead in the WC, they have a big series against the 2nd place WC team in San Francisico and then another against Arizona, these two series will determine how bad the Braves really want to make the playoffs. The Braves also moved Tommy Hanson to the 15 day DL with shoulder tendonitis and called up Randall Delgaldo to make a spot start.


Thank you for reading, all future comments and criticisms appreciated.