Falcons: Coaching Staff Ratings: Mike Mularkey

[RFlagg]

Here's the poll/thread for Mularkey.

[RFlagg]

I'm actually a little surprised by the 2 "Good" votes right now. Going back to a consistent argument, Mularkey has shown no creativity in my opinion, he almost never runs screens, he doesn't use draw plays, and it seems like we only run from run formations and pass from pass formations.

[Beef]

Until I start seeing us win because of the plays being called and not because our players are having to make incredible plays, I'm calling MM no better than average.

[cooperbh]

(09-30-2011 01:41 PM)RFlagg Wrote:  I'm actually a little surprised by the 2 "Good" votes right now. Going back to a consistent argument, Mularkey has shown no creativity in my opinion, he almost never runs screens, he doesn't use draw plays, and it seems like we only run from run formations and pass from pass formations.

Hard to run screens when you have arguably the least athletic offensive line in the NFL. As for the run/pass formation "issue," you could apply that to every o-coordinator in the league. Most Mularkey detractors don't (or won't) even notice when he passes out of a run formation or vice versa anyway.

Mularkey has his flaws, but his o-line hasn't given him much to work with the past few years. Same thing is happening with the Steelers once-potent offense this season.

[Beef]

(09-30-2011 02:11 PM)cooperbh Wrote:  Hard to run screens when you have arguably the least athletic offensive line in the NFL. As for the run/pass formation "issue," you could apply that to every o-coordinator in the league. Most Mularkey detractors don't (or won't) even notice when he passes out of a run formation or vice versa anyway.

Mularkey has his flaws, but his o-line hasn't given him much to work with the past few years. Same thing is happening with the Steelers once-potent offense this season.

I've seen you use that "least athletic" excuse several times now and after actually thinking more about it, I don't buy it. These are professionals in the NFL who run 5.5-6.5 40's and play 50-70 high level aerobic plays over 3 hours. I don't buy the notion that none of our guys is capable of not engaging in a block and instead taking a step back then sprinting 5 yards to the left or right to pick up a different block. It's not an ironman triathlon or rocket science. It's fucking simple and a 400 lb 50 IQ retard could probably do it.

Not to mention, there's other things that don't even require linemen to pull and sprint out. How about Ryan simply backpeddling as the OL let's the DL run right by them, then he drops a dump pass to the RB over a 4 charging DL's and now the OL is engaging with much smaller LB's still between the hash marks.

Or toss sweeps, draw plays, play-action? I'm a fan and I can come up with 6 different types of plays that can be run 2-3 different ways each that would help take pressure off a struggling OL and force defenses to stop bull-rushing and blitzing 6+ every down. That's like 12-18 different looks that I almost never see us run.

Last week we threw a lateral to Julio and put him 1v1 vs. a CB and he juked the guy out of his jock and ran for 20 yards. We didn't run that play in either of the prior 2 games and we didn't run it again not once after the first successful time.

Matt did a 7-step drop, backpeddled another 3 steps and tossed the ball to Turner 5 yards up the seam and he ran it for 55 more yards. That was the first time in 3 games I had seen that and the last time I had seen that.

2 easy plays that destroy a blitz, both incredibly successful, yet only attempted and run once each in 3 games. And there's at least a dozen more of those types we could run, yet don't.

[Radical]

A coach with the team mentioned that about our offensive line back in 08 or 09. Said they weren't really that great in space and weren't very athletic.

It isn't like teams are killing us by blitzing us. They're rushing four and blowing our line up, consistently. This isn't getting beat after 3 or so seconds, it's linemen blowing right by these guys or throwing them to the ground on first contact on the snap.

I'll say it again, there is NOTHING an offense can do when 3-4 defensive linemen are consistently beating 5 offensive linemen. Absolutely nothing. It kills an offense.

[Beef]

(09-30-2011 02:46 PM)Radical Wrote:  A coach with the team mentioned that about our offensive line back in 08 or 09. Said they weren't really that great in space and weren't very athletic.

It isn't like teams are killing us by blitzing us. They're rushing four and blowing our line up, consistently. This isn't getting beat after 3 or so seconds, it's linemen blowing right by these guys or throwing them to the ground on first contact on the snap.

I'll say it again, there is NOTHING an offense can do when 3-4 defensive linemen are consistently beating 5 offensive linemen. Absolutely nothing. It kills an offense.

We'll just have to agree to disagree then. If Matt is 8 steps behind the line with 4 DL's in his face and we have a RB standing in open space with a couple 330 lb blockers inbetween him and a couple LB's, I think you can make that DL pay for being too aggressive.

Sweeps, screens, draws, and dumps, are all designed to allow a DL to bulldoze right through an OL and then put them out of position for doing just that.

[cooperbh]

(09-30-2011 02:42 PM)Beef Wrote:  I've seen you use that "least athletic" excuse several times now and after actually thinking more about it, I don't buy it. These are professionals in the NFL who run 5.5-6.5 40's and play 50-70 high level aerobic plays over 3 hours. I don't buy the notion that none of our guys is capable of not engaging in a block and instead taking a step back then sprinting 5 yards to the left or right to pick up a different block. It's not an ironman triathlon or rocket science. It's fucking simple and a 400 lb 50 IQ retard could probably do it.

If you want to see an example of what an unathletic lineman looks like, just cue up the replay of Turner's goaline TD against the Eagles and watch as Clabo falls down flat on his face untouched while trying to pull on a toss. It's fortunate for him and the Falcons that the guy he was attempting to block was a CB who had no intention of taking on Turner one-on-one.

[Radical]

(09-30-2011 02:57 PM)Beef Wrote:  We'll just have to agree to disagree then. If Matt is 8 steps behind the line with 4 DL's in his face and we have a RB standing in open space with a couple 330 lb blockers inbetween him and a couple LB's, I think you can make that DL pay for being too aggressive.

Sweeps, screens, draws, and dumps, are all designed to allow a DL to bulldoze right through an OL and then put them out of position for doing just that.

I guess, but you'll see the first time a quarterback has died during a game. Screens take time to set up, sweeps require pulling blockers that can function in space, draws require an offensive line that doesn't have the center of it blown out off the snap, and dumps require LBs that are playing down hill or the middle of the field.

[Beef]

(09-30-2011 03:04 PM)Radical Wrote:  I guess, but you'll see the first time a quarterback has died during a game. Screens take time to set up, sweeps require pulling blockers that can function in space, draws require an offensive line that doesn't have the center of it blown out off the snap, and dumps require LBs that are playing down hill or the middle of the field.

How will Matt get killed if he's backpeddling away from the rush as he drops the ball over them and never stops?

Come on. It's not like I'm saying stuff that isn't done by other teams and QB's all the time and the QB's get touched even less because they're moving away.

And screens use the same tactic. It's easy to let a screen set up if your QB is backpeddling away from the rush. It's actually required so you draw them further away from the RB for goodness sakes.

And draws are set up just like anything else. If the defense is bullrushing the center, fine, you run some sweeps and screens. If they're stacking the box, great you throw some passes. If they dropping into zone, fine, you bulldoze Turner up the middle. The point is, if you're unpredictable and come at them from multiple angles all game long, you use other plays to set up other plays. It's not just using the pass to set up the run or the run to set up the pass. Certain runs and certain passes move defenders all over the place and when you see a tendancy of an alignment, you've essentially set up your counter.

This is what I do not see us doing. Teams stack the box on us and bullrush 6, 7, 8, and we don't run plays that are great at countering it and we don't set up our next play. When you play the Falcons, you know what's comming.