Falcons: Atlanta Falcons have top CB tandem KC Joyner Article

[Polar Bear Jones]

Quote:Atlanta Falcons have top CB tandem
Brent Grimes and Dunta Robinson are the top CB pairing in the NFLEmail Print Comments By KC Joyner
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Vontae Davis threw down a proverbial gauntlet a couple of weeks ago when he said, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say [Sean Smith and I] the best [cornerback] tandem in the league."

That statement did not sit well with Darrelle Revis, as he is of the mindset that he and Antonio Cromartie are the best set of starting cornerbacks in the NFL.

Philadelphia Eagles backers wouldn't agree with either of those two, as they would say the combination of Asante Samuel and Nnamdi Asomugha is the best.

So who is correct? Rather than settle this via opinions, let's put it to the metric test.

To make it even more interesting, let's open the competition up to four other teams with highly talented cornerback tandems: Atlanta (Brent Grimes and Dunta Robinson), Green Bay (Tramon Williams and Charles Woodson), Kansas City (Brandon Carr and Brandon Flowers) and San Diego (Antoine Cason and Quentin Jammer).

Each of these seven cornerback pairings will be graded in six different metric categories. The top group in each metric will receive a varying amount of points for its ranking in the category.

Category No. 1 -- Yards per attempt versus yellow-rated wide receivers

The yellow rating is one that is used throughout the TFS material to describe a solid/good wide receiver. From a metric perspective, it means a wideout that gained anywhere from 7.0 to 8.9 yards per attempt (YPA) last season. Top-level cornerbacks should be able to keep this level of competition in check.

The point totals are seven for first place, six for second, etc.

Here are the rankings:

1st -- NY Jets (4.6 YPA)
Tied for 2nd -- Philadelphia and San Diego (5.9 YPA)
4th -- Atlanta (6.0 YPA)
5th -- Kansas City (6.3 YPA)
6th -- Miami (6.7 YPA)
7th -- Green Bay (7.2 YPA)

Miami's tandem doesn't start off the competition on a high note, but the most notable item here may be the last place finish by the Super Bowl champions.

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Category No. 2 -- Yards per attempt versus green-rated wide receivers

A green rating indicates that the wide receiver had elite or near-elite metrics (in this case, an overall YPA of nine or more yards).

The rankings:

1st -- Atlanta (5.7 YPA)
2nd -- San Diego (7.0 YPA)
3rd -- NY Jets (8.1 YPA)
4th -- Green Bay (8.2 YPA)
5th -- Kansas City (10.4 YPA)
6th -- Philadelphia (10.5 YPA)
7th -- Miami (11.4 YPA)

It's very surprising to see these elite cornerback groups fare so poorly against green-rated competition. It shows that the best wideouts are probably going to post quality yards regardless of the level of competition they are facing.

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Category No. 3 -- Combined yards per attempts versus yellow-rated and green-rated wide receivers

The value in this metric is that it gauges how well the cornerbacks do against any level of solid competition.

The rankings:

Tied for 1st -- NY Jets and Atlanta (5.9 YPA)
3rd -- San Diego (6.4 YPA)
Tied for 4th -- Green Bay and Philadelphia (7.5 YPA)
6th -- Miami (7.8 YPA)
7th -- Kansas City (8.4 YPA)

The Jets finishing at the top of this list may be an expected result, but to share that honor with the Falcons is most certainly unexpected.

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Category No. 4 -- Vertical YPA

Vertical passes are those thrown 11 or more yards downfield. Stopping these passes is a very important part of any cornerback's job description.

The rankings:

1st -- Atlanta (5.5 YPA)
2nd -- Philadelphia (6.1 YPA)
3rd -- NY Jets (6.3 YPA)
4th -- San Diego (7.0 YPA)
5th -- Miami (7.1 YPA)
6th -- Kansas City (7.7 YPA)
7th -- Green Bay (8.5 YPA)

Atlanta again tops a category, while Miami clearly struggles defending the deep ball.

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Category No. 5 -- Stretch vertical YPA

Stretch vertical passes are those thrown 20 or more yards downfield. An inability to stop these aerials will mean benching and eventual professional football unemployment.

The rankings:

1st -- NY Jets (4.5 YPA)
2nd -- Atlanta (4.6 YPA)
3rd -- San Diego (6.8 YPA)
4th -- Philadelphia (7.6 YPA)
5th -- Green Bay (9.2 YPA)
6th -- Kansas City (9.6 YPA)
7th -- Miami (10.6 YPA)

Revis and Cromartie shut down the long pass, but the Falcons fared nearly as well. This may have been the worst showing for the Dolphins tandem.

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Category No. 6 -- Overall YPA

This all-important category gauges how well the cornerbacks did on all passes targeted their way and is thus worth more in this competition. First place will get nine points, second place eight points, etc.

The rankings:

Tied for 1st -- Philadelphia and Atlanta (5.8 YPA)
3rd -- NY Jets (6.0 YPA)
4th -- Green Bay (6.5 YPA)
5th -- Kansas City (6.6 YPA)
6th -- San Diego (6.7 YPA)
7th -- Miami (7.5 YPA)

Atlanta's showing here may actually be more impressive because their 5.8 YPA total was based on 172 targets versus Philadelphia's total of 66 targets.

Now let's look at the overall points:

1st -- Atlanta (40 points)
2nd -- NY Jets (38 points)
3rd -- Philadelphia (31 points)
4th -- San Diego (30 points)
5th -- Green Bay (19 points)
6th -- Kansas City (16 points)
7th -- Miami (12 points)

The Falcons consistently high ranking in nearly every category leads them to a close win over the more highly-regarded Jets cornerbacks. It's just another reason Atlanta's Super Bowl aspirations could come true this year.

On the flip side, the Dolphins dead last ranking in this competition shows that Revis was correct when he said, "they're a good tandem but they have a lot of work to do."

Stuff like this has me dreading BG's contract negotiations.

[Peyton]

I am going to save this thread for the next time someone talks about how often Grimes is thrown at.....since this shows that it is obviously a losing strategy, even if teams continue to do it.

[Statick]

I'm not much for stats, but that is AWESOME.

Hope we keep it up.

[Paulitik]

That's really surprising. So were our issues with big plays on the Safeties?

[Peyton]

(09-07-2011 01:38 PM)Paulitik Wrote:  That's really surprising. So were our issues with big plays on the Safeties?

Thomas DeCoud was responsible for most of the big plays last year, both the runs and the passes.

[Paulitik]

(09-07-2011 01:49 PM)Peyton Wrote:  Thomas DeCoud was responsible for most of the big plays last year, both the runs and the passes.

Good thing we got Sanders, hopefully that lights a fire under him.

I hope Robinson steps up. I hope he's healthy, and gets better with the zone coverage. He really needs to show us something.

My only concern with Grimes is in the end zone covering bigger receivers, let's hope our D can that from happening as little as possible.

[Beef]

What confuses me when I see stuff like this is when you look at the end resulting stats.

#22 in pass defense total yards allowed(3625).
#22 in pass defense yards per game allowed(227).
#28 in completion percentage allowed(65%, 364/560).
#13 in passing TD's allowed(23).
#14 in QB rating against us(82.2).
#20 in sacks(31).

And the only 3 really good stats we had on passing defense were:
#4 in Interceptions(22).
#5 in pass defense average yards per completion allowed(10.6).
#10 in pass defense first downs allowed(284).

Now considering we had the 4th most completions allowed by any team(364) and the fact we were top 5 in yards per completion allowed, that's pretty damn extraordinary.

It also completely exposes the problem with the soft zone bullshit BVG keeps running. Sure, we are holding folks to 10.6 yards per reception, which is obviously great considering it's top 5 in the league, but we're letting them complete way too damn many of those short passes because we're so far off the line most of the time.

But I guess the argument can also be made that even though we're giving up all those short passes, we're still also top 10 in the league in preventing them from getting a 1st down on those plays.

It's still frustrating though and I think it's preventing our defense from stepping into the elite category because the "elite" teams/QB's in this league know how to abuse the bend-but-don't-break system, just like Rodgers did in the playoffs.

We have to learn how to bump these guys off their routes on the line to disrupt the timing routes that many of the elite QB's live by. Our LB's also need to step it up and learn to cover those short zones better too. I think it's a mistake to keep dropping back our freaking DE's into coverage, even though Abraham already has an Int this preseason doing just that. Our DE's should be rushing, period.

[phocis850]

That was impressive.

Beef, DR is not a bump guy. He gives 5-7 yards and then closes fast. It works for his style of play. Grimes can bump because he is quick, but he is too small against larger receivers and would just waste energy.

[NOVAFalconFan]

(09-07-2011 01:49 PM)Peyton Wrote:  Thomas DeCoud was responsible for most of the big plays last year, both the runs and the passes.

Decoud and Owens.

[Beef]

(09-07-2011 02:23 PM)phocis850 Wrote:  That was impressive.

Beef, DR is not a bump guy. He gives 5-7 yards and then closes fast. It works for his style of play. Grimes can bump because he is quick, but he is too small against larger receivers and would just waste energy.

It really doesn't take much to disrupt a timing route though. It's MUCH harder to do off the line when the receiver is near full speed already and can simply widen the route in our out away from the CB simply by changing his angle.

In college, small CB's are jabbing at the elite receivers on the line as the norm because it gives them that extra half second to swivel their hips and start running with the receiver, and of course it disrupts the timing route and forces QB's to checkdown.

If you can't do this in the NFL, then you shouldn't be able to make a team as a CB. I think Dunta can do it just fine. He was a man-coverage CB his first year in the NFL when Vic Fangio was Houston's DC and he got 6 interceptions. But then Kubiak and Richard Smith came in the next year and switched to a zone scheme and his interceptions were never close to that again.

Dunta is extremely physical and he's certainly not slow. He absolutely knows how to play zone because he's been doing it for 6 seasons now, but I think he would be even better if he played man full time. Might give up some deeper routes, but he'd get more ints/pds and help more against the run. Plus if our CB's were on the line more, we could do a lot more surprise blitzing.

I just hate our soft zone with a passion. It's easily the worst thing about this team. I freaking hate it.