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Taking away the opponent's strengths - ZeUlti - 11-12-2012 03:55 PM
I wanted to hear back from you guys about this, but when I and a few other Falcon fans were tweeting with The Falcoholic, one of them mentioned something that I had personally never thought about:
"Here’s why falcons can’t beat saints and can’t win in playoffs — we NEVER are able to take away a GOOD team’s strengths and force them to beat us some other way. I've been trying to pinpoint the reason, and that’s it."
We are not able to take away a Good team's "Strengths." I thought about that for awhile and *unfortunately* looked back at our playoff losses.
**Please correct me if I'm wrong here when I discuss the strengths of the teams we lost to in the playoffs**:
Against Arizona, we were a young team, but Kurt Warner and the Cards seemed to have an incredible balanced attack. Kurt also could throw it anywhere he wanted, which played a hand in why we lost
Against Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers essentially spread the field out on us. Add in his mobility, and once again, we were dead (this time, before halftime).
And last year against the Giants. Pure strength with the D-line, and a QB who could maneuver anywhere in the pocket. Our worst playoff loss to date.
The common denominator: We weren't able to take anyway ANY of the strengths of those teams. Whether it be personnel or what have you, we lack the ability to stop it. Until Atlanta gains the ability (and fixes some of the offense/defense), we'll be seeing the same result a few games down the line, I fear.
What are your thoughts on this? (and sorry for the long post)
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - FullMetalFalcon23 - 11-12-2012 04:01 PM
In the past we haven't, but I'd say this year the team has been doing that well. We tripped up. Now get up and start building pace again.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - AUTiger7222 - 11-12-2012 04:17 PM
We have done better at that this season until the Saints game when we had no answer for Jimmy Graham. I don't know if Spoon would have made much difference.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - FullMetalFalcon23 - 11-12-2012 05:08 PM
Spoon would have been able to allow better contain on graham. Schematically it makes sense. Spoon ha been used to cover tightens or the middle, and that allows the safeties to play differently. As it was NO did a lot of smart shit to take advantage of man coverage. Eg splitting Graham out and taking Moore out of his centre field comfort zone. That play was blown when Moore turned his hips and DeCoud worked in field rather than staying over the top. Same thing we have done when we had tony Julio and Roddy out there. We have to bring on those other guys more. Start getting it moving.
Again we need to start getting the bench out in the field in the closing weeks of the season. Getting those reps in with the first teamers. People need to be ready to have their number called. Mary's int wouldn't have been one if Julio was on the field. No doubt about it Julio would have claimed that ball and muscled the DB or just flat burned him. But you can't live on would have and ifs. You have to be ready in the moment and sometimes just getting that experience plays a big part in it.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - AUTiger7222 - 11-12-2012 05:37 PM
(11-12-2012 05:08 PM)FullMetalFalcon23 Wrote: Spoon would have been able to allow better contain on graham. Schematically it makes sense. Spoon ha been used to cover tightens or the middle, and that allows the safeties to play differently. As it was NO did a lot of smart shit to take advantage of man coverage. Eg splitting Graham out and taking Moore out of his centre field comfort zone. That play was blown when Moore turned his hips and DeCoud worked in field rather than staying over the top. Same thing we have done when we had tony Julio and Roddy out there. We have to bring on those other guys more. Start getting it moving.
Again we need to start getting the bench out in the field in the closing weeks of the season. Getting those reps in with the first teamers. People need to be ready to have their number called. Mary's int wouldn't have been one if Julio was on the field. No doubt about it Julio would have claimed that ball and muscled the DB or just flat burned him. But you can't live on would have and ifs. You have to be ready in the moment and sometimes just getting that experience plays a big part in it.
But the Falcons haven't faced a TE like Graham this season. I don't understand why we didn't try to double Graham at any point. We tried both Nicholas and McClain one-on-one and both got exposed by Graham. Nicholas because he wasn't fast enough and McClain because he wasn't big enough.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - FullMetalFalcon23 - 11-13-2012 02:32 AM
I'd still say Witten is better than Graham and they did a good job with him.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - phocis850 - 11-13-2012 03:18 AM
We played very vanilla. We are purposely holding our hand back. We will be in the playoffs this year. We don't need to give anymore tape like what we did with Manning.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - AUTiger7222 - 11-13-2012 10:25 AM
(11-13-2012 02:32 AM)FullMetalFalcon23 Wrote: I'd still say Witten is better than Graham and they did a good job with him.
I completely disagree that Witten is better than Graham. Graham is a lot faster than Witten which is why he has been a complete mismatch for the Falcons defense since he's been in the NFL.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - Jesus - 11-13-2012 10:36 AM
(11-13-2012 03:18 AM)phocis850 Wrote: We played very vanilla. We are purposely holding our hand back. We will be in the playoffs this year. We don't need to give anymore tape like what we did with Manning.
One minute people want us to go all out the next they say we are holding back. We haven't clinched anything yet. Besides if 400 yards passing and almost losing while inside the 5 is holding back. Maybe its best that we don't unload, might throw off the equilibrium of the earth.
RE: Taking away the opponent's strengths - FullMetalFalcon23 - 11-13-2012 11:02 AM
(11-13-2012 10:36 AM)Jesus Wrote: One minute people want us to go all out the next they say we are holding back. We haven't clinched anything yet. Besides if 400 yards passing and almost losing while inside the 5 is holding back. Maybe its best that we don't unload, might throw off the equilibrium of the earth.
They play calling and rhythm we went with was most definitely vanilla. Didn't attempt to cause them any disruption through our game management or our play calls. They were being quite aggressive with their front. You telling me at no time were any of those screens a viable option?
You can game plan and play call vanilla and still produce. In an instance like that its the players job to get it done. This was one of those games I expected the heat to be turned up and it wasn't. Breeze extends plays but he isn't a running QB. There was the opportunity to run the amoeba defense and it wasn't used. Both the O and D coordinator our playing to win out there make no mistake. But they aren't willing to throw out their best. I think this rings true more for Nolan than Koetter who has been pretty aggressive throughout. Even when they routes or play calls themselves are not.
What is going to hurt us. Is teams selling out in the pass even in play action. We need those runs to start getting yardage. Shit 4 yards a carry consistently would start to unsettle a defense rather than nothing nothin big chunk nothing nothing big chunk.
We have 4 backs on our roster. Lets starting using them all rather than just the one.