(06-29-2012 09:43 AM)phocis850 Wrote:  You have a lot of questions for a team that has been to the playoffs the last 3 out of 4 years.
Yet, you don't question the Panthers? The team that had 6 wins last year and 2 wins the year before?

You KNOW that even with no change at coaching spots, you can't justify the Falcons coming in 3rd. You simply cannot do it.

I don't believe anyone here sees the Saints with lower than 9 wins. Nor does anyone here see the Falcons with lower than 9 wins. The Panthers would be lucky to get 9 wins.

(06-28-2012 09:14 AM)Beef Wrote:  So you've based your decision on prior styles of play alone and totally disregarded what everyone knows about Nolan's style and the fact that Koetter and Smith have already openly stated we will finally have a screen game and use Quizz and other RBs more and Turner less.

If you go to the Falcons site and watch the interview videos from offensive players, they ALL keep saying that the defense looks completely different, that they are constantly being fooled by amazing blitz packages they've never seen them do before and the pressure is ramped up almost 10-fold.

You mentioned depth as an issue, but it's not. It's not like after Abraham and Edwards we have nobody but junk. Biermann and Sidbury should thrive in Nolan's style. Matthews and Massaquoi are unknown commodities and can't just be prematurely labeled. And after Babs and Peters it's not like Jerry and Walker suck, they are both very good rotational players. And the new kid, Robertson is beastly strong and raw.

LB is actually a strong suit. Spoon is going to be a top 3 LB and a sure probowler this year. Dent lead the special teams in tackles as a rookie, and he's a LB. He's not even a gunner and he wracked up crazy tackle numbers. Tatupu has a ton to prove and he's in incredible shape right now. And Nicholas is a starter on 25 teams in this league at OLB because he's that solid. That's 4 LBs and we're going to be in the big nickel only playing 2 of them the majority of the time.

As for our secondary, with Robinson on the inside embracing that role, and 2 of the best cover corners in the league on the outside and one of the best cover safeties and hardest hitters in Moore, along with Nolan's pressure system forcing QBs to make hasty throws, there's no question we'll be significantly improved on defense as a whole.

Now take out Mularkey's predictable play calling, his horrible short hook and out routes on every passing down, no screen game, and Turner up the middle 35x a game, and you've improved our offense by default. Now add to that the emergence of Julio, Quizz, and receivers being thrown to in stride, and Matt working out being noticeably stronger and throwing harder.

The OL is really the only question mark. But other than LT, you can't question depth on the OL any longer. We have 3 centers and 6 guards now. We just have to figure out which ones can hold down the middle and RG best. Nobody is happy about LT, but if we're strong as hell at 21 other positions, 1 average to below average bad apple isn't a team killer. Svitek can do the job just fine if Baker can't. We already know this.

Getting our RBs involved in the short passing game with screens and dumps alone could solve all of our OL woes as it is.

Basing your decision on prior performance when you know it won't look or be the same makes your analysis inaccurate by default.

There's no question we're going to be an improved team over last year, and yet you have us missing the playoffs with Carolina leap-frogging us somehow. You media guys are so caught up on the Cam hype, as if this isn't a team sport and he can win it by himself with significantly more pockets of average talent around him compared to us.

Not one of you're better mental projections this round, Digs. You can't use the fact you don't know what will change so you have to go by last year as a basis for anything. That's lazy analysis. You have to dig deeper and make educated decisions. Saying maybe Nolan and Koetter will change things when it's an absolute certainty they already have and then ignoring the differences and just going off old data isn't how you make educated predictions on accurate basis.

(06-29-2012 09:21 AM)EmDiggy Wrote:  As much as a Saints fan I am,

(06-30-2012 10:42 AM)Templar Wrote:  This is the only statement that really needs to be read to understand that no "honest" evaluation is possible.

In fact, it makes it clear that this review was written, and shared on this site to be an annoyance to Falcons fans, an irritant, like a rash or a fungus. Perhaps a fungus similar to jock itch, which is also a close relative to most aint fans.