Falcons: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Week 1

[ChrisD]

This is completely my opinion, but here goes:

Atlanta Falcons

The Good:

- Sam Baker looked great at LT. Despite a lot being worried about the loss of Svitek, it looked like Baker held his own. And even though the Chiefs' best pass rusher (Tamba Hali) was missing, I think Baker will have a good season from what I saw yesterday.

- Matt Ryan looks to be ready to take the next step in his progression. He made all the right calls yesterday, and looked great in a performance that ended with 3 touchdown passes (1 Rush TD). I expect to see more of this as the season continues and the team meshes together as a complete unit. This should be the best year of his career.

- JaQuizz Rodgers displayed his big play ability yesterday when he took off for a 77 yard kick return. We will see more of Rodgers if Turner continues to stumble and that could be a good thing.


The Bad:

- The Defense looked bad in the first half of the game, allowing easy 3rd down conversions from all lengths, and giving up passes that otherwise should have been knocked down - couple that in with the spotty tackling, and the Falcons could get in trouble if they don't improve. However, the upside to all of this? Mike Nolan seemed to make a lot of adjustments to come out in the second half. The defense performed much better.

- The Running Game wasn't really visible at all. Other than a few good runs by JaQuizz Rodgers, we didn't see much out of the backfield. For a team that is used to rushing for 100+ yards per game the past few seasons, this could be bad news. Despite the passing game coming to fruition, the Falcons will still need their rushing game to help get through tougher opponents this season.

The Ugly:

- It's hard to label anything "ugly" from Sundays win against the Chiefs, but Michael Turner didn't help wave off any of the critics that are saying he's starting to "slow down". Turner rushed for only 32 yards on 11 carries, with no touchdowns in the game. If Turner continues to run like this next week and into week 3 - You can fully expect the Falcons to turn the backfield into the Snelling/Rodgers show (Two guys who have shown can get the job done when Turner can't).

[RnB]

If you look at the run blocking during the game, it was just bad. It doesn't matter who is back there when there is nowhere to go with the football. All three of our backs looked fine to me but the running game certainly did not. Whether it was the schemes, gameplan, or just shitty execution; seeing us not be able to run the ball at all was a little strange. Matt had fully 1/3rd of our rushing yards yesterday.

59 total from Turner (11 touches), Quizz (7 touches), Snelling (2 touches). Matt had 25 and a TD on 3 runs. Granted, its not really the same comparing QB rushing stats with designed run calls but it is still a very strange thing to see from our team these days. I am withholding judgement until we get a better feel for how Koetter is going to handle the running game.

[phocis850]

Yep. We don't know what our run game actually looks like because we can't make a hole. I think they've focused on passing so much that the run game will be in form by mid season, just when we need it.

[AUTiger7222]

I saw absolutely no difference between Turner running the ball and Rodgers running the ball. I'm sick of the Turner crap. Turner had a 2.9 average. Rodgers had a 3.1 average. Turner's longest run was 11 yards. Rodgers longest run was 6 yards. But yet Rodgers gets heap of praise and Turner gets heap of shit? How is that even remotely correct?

[juraitwaluzka]

(09-15-2012 03:58 AM)AUTiger7222 Wrote:  I saw absolutely no difference between Turner running the ball and Rodgers running the ball. I'm sick of the Turner crap. Turner had a 2.9 average. Rodgers had a 3.1 average. Turner's longest run was 11 yards. Rodgers longest run was 6 yards. But yet Rodgers gets heap of praise and Turner gets heap of shit? How is that even remotely correct?

Ok now, don't let facts cloud your judgement

[AUTiger7222]

(09-15-2012 10:32 AM)juraitwaluzka Wrote:  Ok now, don't let facts cloud your judgement

I know exactly what you did there!