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+--- Thread: Falcons: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan (/Thread-Falcons-It-s-Not-Mularkey-It-s-Ryan)
It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - cooperbh - 10-10-2011 02:34 PM
Mularkey is not the one ignoring Julio Jones when he is single covered for quarters at a time.
Mularkey is not the one yelling "Kill! Kill! Kill!" and then watching as Turner runs into a wall of defenders instead of looking for the hot read when he senses a blitz.
Mularkey is not the one who slides two yards shy of the first down marker instead of doing whatever it take to pick up a new set of downs late in a close game.
Mularkey is not the one lobbing passes out of bounds when he has a receiver running with a step on a DB down the sideline.
Mularkey is not the one who dances around and leaves the pocket at even the slightest hint of pressure.
Mularkey is not the one unecessarily pump faking phantom safeties instead of getting the ball out the instant the receiver breaks open.
It's time to face a harsh truth: When we have needed him to the most, Ryan has not been playing at a high level for quite some time. The guy who once pushed the ball down the field with regularity and fearlessly launched himself into the end zone at the Metrodome during his rookie season has been slowly replaced since then with a QB whose style of play can best be described as "safe," or even "timid."
We can only blame Mularkey, the O-line, lack of weapons, etc. for so long. Ryan simply has to start making things happen on the field when the opportunities present themselves in order to take that next step and make this team a consistent playoff winner. The pieces are in place. The time for excuses is over. Whether or not the Falcons are still playing this January or sitting at home is on him now.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - papachaz - 10-10-2011 02:40 PM
coop, can't disagree with most of that. but, go back to 08, how many sacks did we give up, was that the year is was only 17, or was that 09?
the failure over the last 2 years and most of this year to protect him, have taken it's toll. Last night wasn't nearly as bad, but he still had happy feet and rushed himself a lot. yes you're right, he yelled 'kill kill kill' every time he sensed the rush, because he knows he's about to get his ass creamed because the guys in front of him can't do their jobs.
I do agree with you though, man we saw him push the ball down the field a lot the first two years until the injury. i'm with you, for someone who is supposed to be so football smart, and have so much of 'IT', he sure does miss seeing a lot of open recievers. And he either don't trust any of the recievers other than TG to go up and get the ball, or he no longer trusts his ability to get it to them when they're one on one and have a step.
it's just sad to see it happening
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - Radical - 10-10-2011 02:43 PM
Concerning last nights game, I think it was just one of those "death by 1,000 cuts" scenarios. Little mistakes, little errors, penalties, etc. added up to a big fuck-up.
Concerning Ryan, he could change some things, but there was a stark contrast in our approach offensively going from first half to second half. What specifically happened, I don't know. Based off Smith's post-game press conference comments though, I think there is some sort of disconnect from him and the coordinators, specifically Mularkey in this instance.
It makes no sense to me that we would go from such effective execution to a screaming halt like that on offense. We were being aggressive, using a lot of misdirection, screens, fake screens, and then it just stopped after the half. Ryan needs to work on his deep ball accuracy, but that alone shouldn't have killed us offensively.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - JDaveG - 10-10-2011 02:44 PM
(10-10-2011 02:40 PM)papachaz Wrote: coop, can't disagree with most of that. but, go back to 08, how many sacks did we give up, was that the year is was only 17, or was that 09?
the failure over the last 2 years and most of this year to protect him, have taken it's toll. Last night wasn't nearly as bad, but he still had happy feet and rushed himself a lot. yes you're right, he yelled 'kill kill kill' every time he sensed the rush, because he knows he's about to get his ass creamed because the guys in front of him can't do their jobs.
I do agree with you though, man we saw him push the ball down the field a lot the first two years until the injury. i'm with you, for someone who is supposed to be so football smart, and have so much of 'IT', he sure does miss seeing a lot of open recievers. And he either don't trust any of the recievers other than TG to go up and get the ball, or he no longer trusts his ability to get it to them when they're one on one and have a step.
it's just sad to see it happening
In 2008, after Baker got hurt, Weiner stepped in and covered his blindside. We haven't had that since that year.
I think it's far more of a systemic failure, though. The pieces are in place, with the SOLE exception of the o-line (and one or two pieces there would vastly improve that unit). We've seen them have success. But then a penalty here or a drop there or a bad pass here or a missed block there and we just kill ourselves. Add to that the fact that we get away from what is clearly working in order to do, what, run up the middle against an 8 man box?
I don't get it at all. But I don't think it's all Matt Ryan's fault. And I still think it's more Mularkey than Ryan by a long shot.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - Paulitik - 10-10-2011 03:05 PM
Everytime Julio was one on one Baker shit the bed and they attacked pushing Matt to the other side. Matt needs to quit overthrowing to the sideline, but I'd say the penalties and deflections/drops that turned to INTs were the culprit more than Matt. I just think our entire ball control, trying not to lose philipsophy makes all of our players suck. It drains them of any swagger, any fire. We have a culture problem on this team.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - cooperbh - 10-10-2011 03:06 PM
Last night, I heard Ryan check out of the play on a 3rd and 4 or so and hand the ball to Snelling, who predictably got swarmed over and flattened for little to no gain.
Of course, Mularkey will get the blame for that "playcall."
Mularkey is not above criticism, but he is not the primary reason our offense struggles after halftime. The explosive game-changing plays are there for the taking. Our field general needs to open his eyes, stop thinking and start taking them.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - JDaveG - 10-10-2011 03:12 PM
(10-10-2011 03:06 PM)cooperbh Wrote: Last night, I heard Ryan check out of the play on a 3rd and 4 or so and hand the ball to Snelling, who predictably got swarmed over and flattened for little to no gain.
Of course, Mularkey will get the blame for that "playcall."
Mularkey is not above criticism, but he is not the primary reason our offense struggles after halftime. The explosive game-changing plays are there for the taking. Our field general needs to open his eyes, stop thinking and start taking them.
The problem with your analysis is you can't see what Matt Ryan sees. So you don't know what keys caused him to audible.
It's easy to say Snelling "predictably" got swarmed over and flattened." But you also don't know what assignment may have been missed, etc.
Ryan is certainly to blame when he misses a receiver, or throws one up too high or too far or too short. But I don't see what you are claiming with regard to his decision making on the field. If anything, the offense typically gets more explosive when he's running the no huddle. That trap we hit against the Eagles was all him, for example. That was not the case last night, but then, we didn't really do all that much no huddle last night anyway. A lot of spread, single-back stuff, but not a lot of true no-huddle.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - Radical - 10-10-2011 03:14 PM
(10-10-2011 02:44 PM)JDaveG Wrote: Add to that the fact that we get away from what is clearly working in order to do, what, run up the middle against an 8 man box?
That wasn't really what happened in the 2nd half. We weren't running very often at all.
Last night though, through the second half, every single facet of our offense failed in one way or another. Offensive line fails, bad passes, poor runs, and a strange shift in our approach in terms of play calling.
I'm not buying for a second that we're an average team or that it's "play calling" holding us back. I think we just haven't clicked yet. We're close, but not quite there. It just isn't as bad as it seems. On a good note though, Joe Hawley and Reynolds both did good jobs last night. Hawley especially, I think will be our center of the future if he continues to progress along from how he played last night.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - JDaveG - 10-10-2011 03:19 PM
(10-10-2011 03:14 PM)Radical Wrote: That wasn't really what happened in the 2nd half. We weren't running very often at all.
Fair point.
Quote:Last night though, through the second half, every single facet of our offense failed in one way or another. Offensive line fails, bad passes, poor runs, and a strange shift in our approach in terms of play calling.
I'm not buying for a second that we're an average team or that it's "play calling" holding us back. I think we just haven't clicked yet. We're close, but not quite there. It just isn't as bad as it seems. On a good note though, Joe Hawley and Reynolds did pretty good jobs last night. Hawley especially, I think will be our center of the future if he continues to progress along from how he played last night.
I agree with that. It was good to see some production out of the line. Baker missing that blitz was ridiculous, but for the most part our protection was better than usual.
RE: It's Not Mularkey, It's Ryan - Beef - 10-10-2011 03:23 PM
(10-10-2011 02:34 PM)cooperbh Wrote: Mularkey is not the one ignoring Julio Jones when he is single covered for quarters at a time.
Mularkey is not the one yelling "Kill! Kill! Kill!" and then watching as Turner runs into a wall of defenders instead of looking for the hot read when he senses a blitz.
Mularkey is not the one who slides two yards shy of the first down marker instead of doing whatever it take to pick up a new set of downs late in a close game.
Mularkey is not the one lobbing passes out of bounds when he has a receiver running with a step on a DB down the sideline.
Mularkey is not the one who dances around and leaves the pocket at even the slightest hint of pressure.
Mularkey is not the one unecessarily pump faking phantom safeties instead of getting the ball out the instant the receiver breaks open.
It's time to face a harsh truth: When we have needed him to the most, Ryan has not been playing at a high level for quite some time. The guy who once pushed the ball down the field with regularity and fearlessly launched himself into the end zone at the Metrodome during his rookie season has been slowly replaced since then with a QB whose style of play can best be described as "safe," or even "timid."
We can only blame Mularkey, the O-line, lack of weapons, etc. for so long. Ryan simply has to start making things happen on the field when the opportunities present themselves in order to take that next step and make this team a consistent playoff winner. The pieces are in place. The time for excuses is over. Whether or not the Falcons are still playing this January or sitting at home is on him now.
The bolded part is simply wrong. No, we certainly can blame Mularkey and the O-line for as long as they are sucking and causing the vast majority of the problems. It makes no sense to stop blaming the cause and point the finger at something that's a result of the problem instead.
Matty has no confidence in his O-line and it's causing him to be timid, have happy feet, be off on timing, be less accurate, stop checking progressions to run and/or roll out and toss it out of bounds. It's called fear. It makes you look and play much worse than you're capable of. And he's got every right to be fearful.
Mularkey's plays and play calling are fucking horrible. A dozen or so unique and unpredictable plays for good gains in the first half and then we don't run a single one of those plays again afterwards is a coaching problem.
And BVG's prevent conservative shit is beyond bad and takes away from the offense too. When you're pressing because you know your defense is hot garbage if you put them back on the field, you're even more susceptible to mistakes.
Matty has made all the plays to win before and put this team on his shoulders countless times and lead them to victory in several big games and a bunch of incredible come-backs. Now all of a sudden he's just said fuck it, this isn't important, I'm going to slack off, get worse at this and not be able to do it? No way is that the case. That's bullshit.