Tag Archives: Atlanta Falcons

Saturday Divisional Games

14 Saturday Jan 2017

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Seattle Seahawks @ Atlanta Falcons

The injury to Earl Thomas robbed us of the chance to see a full strength Seattle defence go up against the number one ranked offence by DVOA in the league, but this should still be a fascinating contest.

The Falcons have the options on offence, and the players to challenge Seattle down the seams and see if they find a weakness in the secondary without Thomas patrolling the rear of the defence. Their offence has been in great shape all year, moving away on the reliance on Julio Jones to spread the ball around a number of receivers and the combination of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman have caused many teams problems out of the backfield. They are a team that run more traditional sets with a fullback than almost any other team in the league, and I am looking forward to seeing how Kyle Shanahan plans to attach the Seahawks defence. The Atlanta defence has pretty ordinary for most of the season, but Vic Beasley led the lead in sacks and with the offence playing so well, they only have to do so much to keep the Falcons in the game.

I was impressed by the the Seahawks renewed commitment to the run last week, which helped their offensive line play better and sparked an improved performance. Against a defence that ranks twenty-ninth in rush defence by DVOA this might help the Seahawks limit the time the Falcons offence has on the field, but given the problems they’ve had with the offensive line you could see Vic Beasley getting pressure on Russel Wilson. The defence also looked better last week, but the Falcons offence is a very different prospect that the Lions with their injured quarterback.

In the end I fancy the Falcons to win, but we really shouldn’t discount the playoff experience of the Seahawks, but the problems they have had against the pass since Thomas was injured could really hurt them in this one.

Houston Texans @ New England Patriots

The Patriots went 14-2 this season despite having Tom Brady suspended for four games, losing one with him and one without. In their previous meeting the Patriots ran out 27-0 winners with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback so it is hard to see anything other than a Patriots’ win in this game.

The offence has been its usual efficient self, and has barely missed a beat since Rob Gronkowski was lost to injury as it appears that nothing can slow down Brady who has managed to get himself into the MVP discussion despite his suspension. The defence struggled earlier in the season, but has come on over the course of the season and whilst finishing a modest sixteenth by DVOA, they will have scheme enough for a Texans offence that has sputtered all season.

The Texans got their win last week, and will no doubt want to put in a better performance than their last visit to Gillette Stadium. However, whilst their defence should be competitive, with a number of players stepping out of JJ Watt’s shadow to lead the team, the offence is likely to struggle. The Texans stressed surrounding Brock Osweiler with options in the passing game, but he struggled to make use of them for much of the year. He looked a bit better last week, but I’m not sure he’ll have the tools to attack this Patriots defence. I can see Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney causing problems with their pass rush abilitiy, and AJ Abouye has looked like an excellent pick up at corner, but you just have a feeling that the Patriots will find a way to win out in the end. They have for most of this season.

Falcons @ Buccaneers

06 Sunday Nov 2016

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28
Atlanta Falcons 43

This turned out to be a fairly straight forward win for the Falcons as they eased away in the second half and withstood a late push from the Buccaneers when the game was already out of reach.

The Buccaneers started off the game well, their opening drive going for a touchdown as their offence moved the ball, particularly through the air. The problem for them was however the costly mistakes they made rather than general bad play. In many games, throwing for two hundred and sixty-one yards and three touchdowns would win you the game, but sadly whilst Mike Evans caught eleven balls for one hundred and fifty of those yards as well as two of the touchdowns, he also had too many drops. If you are a Bucs fan Evans must be a frustrating player as he is capable of great catches, and made a spectacular one handed grab near the side line in this game, but he also drops easy balls that a receiver of his quality should really catch. There were plenty of other players catching the ball, but the real problems were a combination of the running game where the Buccaneers have lots of injuries, and turnovers with the Buccaneers fumbling the ball twice and were lucky to only give up field goals off these turnovers. One of the fumbles was particularly bad as a problem with the hand-off was exacerbated by defensive end Adrian Clayborn getting into the backfield and disrupting the play allowing linebacker De’Vondre Campbell to knock the ball out of Antone Smith’s hands. The other was again in the first quarter when Jameis Winston was trying a quarterback sneak to pick up a first down on third and one. However, the inability of the Bucs to sustain drives meant that they could not keep up with the top ranked offence by DVOA in the league.

The Falcons defence is not even in the top twenty of the league by DVOA, but it is doing enough for them to win games. The Buccaneers had success moving the ball through the air, but the Falcons defence did enough against the run and rushed the passer enough to get them the win. The combination of players in the front seven is starting to come together with Vic Beasley beginning to develop in his second year, even if he isn’t the pass rusher they had hoped for, but combined with Adrian Clayborn and others the Falcons managed three sacks and eight quarterback hits in this game. They are not a particularly good defence, but they are trending in the right direction and if they can keep doing enough whilst the Falcons offence is this good then they should keep winning games.

The Falcons offence just kept rolling in this one, with Matt Ryan throwing for three hundred and forty-four yards and four touchdowns. Julio Jones started the game quietly in the first quarter, but finished the game with one hundred and eleven yards and a touchdown. Fellow receiver Taylor Gabriel caught the eye with his speed, catching five passes for fifty-two yards with a long of twenty-six, but also running for twenty-four yards after taking two hand-offs whilst in motion. Devonta Freeman fan for over four yards a carry as he racked up seventy-seven yards and the team managed a total of one hundred and thirty-six yards on the ground. Balance seems to be the watchword for the Falcons this year, with the running game working well in tandem with the passing game, Mohamed Sanu establishing himself as the second receiver opposite Julio Jones. In fact Matt Ryan had seven different players catch the ball in this game, and with an offensive line that is playing well, it is easy to see why the Falcons have looked as good as anyone on offence this year.

The Buccaneers defence struggled in this game, often the Falcons were able to attack the seams of their zone coverage when passing the ball, and whilst the Buccaneers had to sustain drives for long periods to score, the Falcons frequently were able to get long plays in the air. The Bucs defence was able to make the Falcons kick field goals a couple of times, but they only generated one turnover and the Falcons did not have to punt the ball once. They did manage to get eight quarterback hits but Gerald McCoy was often doubled teamed and he was only able to get one sack as for the most part this defence did not catch the eye. That is perhaps is not surprising given the offence they were playing against, but it does make me want to go to the coaching tape at some point to find out if I can see a bit more clearly what is going on.

Overall the Falcons are now 6-3, and are the better team. They were able to keep sustaining their success, particularly on offence and ran out easy winners, scoring over forty points for the third time this season. They got off to a great start last year but could not sustain it, but things look to be a bit more stable this year although there are some tough games against the Eagles, Cardinals, and Chiefs on the horizon.

The Buccaneers looked okay on offence, but they are struggling to run the ball thanks to injuries, whilst their defence still needs work. They went 6-10 last season, and having gone 3-5 in the first half this year, it does not look like they are going to be improving on that record particularly soon.

Does the NFL Have a Problem?

27 Thursday Oct 2016

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It seems that everyone is writing some variation on what is wrong with the NFL, or questioning whether there are any good teams. The ratings for TV in the States are down, and the quality of the prime time games has been called into question, yet as ever, I think that the situation is more complicated than that.

Certainly there do seem to have been a lot of less than stellar games in the prime time slots, but part of that is due to the lack of flexing games until later in the season, and the very nature of the Thursday games. As it allows me to watch every team, and I get a chance to watch without knowing the score, I watch and write up the Thursday night games and you can frequently see them descend into an easy win for the home team. Playing a game three days early when it takes a week to recover has always caused problems for NFL teams, and it certainly calls into question the NFL’s claim that safety is their prime concern.

However, whilst these games are deliberately chosen to show case every team to the nation, the big prime time Sunday night and Monday night games are meant to be the best of the week’s matchups. The problem with that though, is these fixtures are selected whilst the army of computers that are used to churn out the schedule are working overtime to find the best fit that they can out of the incredibly complex mix of team requirements, TV requirements, the cycle of divisional opponents and various other factors that goes into making the NFL schedule. The difficulty being that when these decisions are being made, nobody knows who the good teams are going to be in the upcoming season. Even a safe looking selection like the New England Patriots visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers can take a turn for the worse when an important player like Ben Roethlisberger picks up and injury that keeps him out of the game.

There has been mention of the NFL having gone up against the presidential debates, but whilst there is a lot of focus on the race, the league have only had games go up directly against two of the three televised debates. So what is going on?

Part of it could well be that the NFL seems to be lacking teams that are definitively good this season. Week seven saw the last undefeated record go, and there are only three teams with a solitary loss. The New England Patriots look as good as anyone now that Tom Brady has come back from his suspension, but their defence seems to lack pass rushing and may be vulnerable to a high powered offence. The Dallas Cowboys have looked good as they have gone 5-1, largely thanks to the performance of two key rookies on offence and a defence that seems to have made a definite step up in play when compared to last season. The only other team to with a solitary loss are the Minnesota Vikings who were the last undefeated team this year, but the injuries to their already suspect offensive line allowed the Philadelphia Eagles to pressure them into a loss. This is a team that has already lost their starting quarterback to a practice injury in the preseason and their leading rusher.

Not team is ever perfect, but it feels like the presence of a major flaw is looming over a lot of teams this season. The Seattle Seahawks are as competitive a team in the league, but their offensive line is not good, and now an injured Russell Wilson is struggling to perform behind it. The Atlanta Falcons have the second ranked offence by DVOA, but their defence is ranked a lowly twenty-sixth and such a disparity makes it hard to look like a super team.

Once again though, there could be more to it. Certainly the games haven’t always been the best spectacle, people want excitement, and when games are being called with so many penalties as they currently are, it is hard to keep people engaged. My only personal frustration is the five yard illegal contact that seems to get called the moment a corner back breathes on a receiver, along with an unnecessarily generous automatic first down. If you are going to call a penalty that often, it shouldn’t just come with a first down, and a bit of hand fighting is hardly the biggest problem in the NFL. In fact I’ll try to approach that right now.

There are so many topics to cover and once again I am running out of time so let’s circle round to the biggy, at the centre of so many questions. The league office, and in particular Roger Goodell. There have been many words dedicated to his performance over the last couple of years. For a very on point summary of his handling of the Josh Brown case look no further than Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post (article here) and the really troubling this is that we have been here before and Goodell has not learnt his lessons. So the NFL are stuck with a commissioner who is happy to fine players for daring to twerk in the end zone, but can’t stick to his own policy on domestic abuse and yet again is blaming local law enforcement. The owners are happy to have him as he acts as firewall for criticism aimed at the league, but with dropping ratings, questions about safety and concussions, plus for possibly the first time there is potentially a serious rival league in the NBA who might be able to mount a genuine attempt at replacing football as America’s number one sport, it might be time for them to realise that the NFL is not too big to fail.

It is a long way from that, but they have to address youth football, get out of their own way when it comes to officiating, and find the right balance between player safety and allowing coaches to coach. To look at whether the rosters are too young, what new training tools like the robotic tackling dummies that we saw in this seasons Hard Knocks can give to the game. Football can be a conservative game, but with the challenges it faces, and to ensure its policy, it has to look to the future and embrace it, and that might just mean a forward looking commissioner that inspires confidence.

Of course, in four weeks’ time these stories could all just disappear, but the problems won’t and that should concern owners, players, and fans alike.

Jaguars @ Titans (-3.5)

My rule for the Thursday night games going forward is to always pick the home team unless there is a compelling number of points, or an amazingly good team on the road against a poor team. By this formula there is nothing about the Jaguars who seem to have gone backwards this season on offence for me to do anything other than pick the Titans.

Gee’s Pick:          Titans
Dan’s Pick:          Titans

The End of Streaks

29 Thursday Sep 2016

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It was a strange week three that saw many a game going differently to how people expected, and saw both Dan and I get murdered on our picks.

I wrote before making my picks last week that I expected more teams to get their first loss or win than continue their streaks, but it seems I picked all of the wrong ones and even in the games where I made the right choice, those choices were hardly convincing.

  • One of the unbeaten Texans and Patriots had to lose their first game, but whilst I acknowledged that Bill Belichick could win this game, I was not expecting the Patriots to manage a 27-0 win over the Texans.
  • The Cardinals went to Buffalo and lost, giving them a losing record and granting the Bills their first win of the season and resulting in the usual Rex Ryan bravado about facing the Patriots this week.
  • The Broncos went to 3-0 with an impressive win in Cincinnati where the Bengals defence stacked the box and dared Trevor Siemian to win the game with his arm, which he promptly did.
  • Even when I picked the Dolphins to beat the winless Browns in Miami and get their first win of the season, they needed overtime to do it and were nowhere near the ten point lead I needed for my pick to come through.
  • I expected the Viking to keep the game close against the Panthers, but instead ran out with a victory to remain unbeaten despite their injury troubles.
  • I didn’t see Washington beating a Giants team that were off to a great start, and yet they managed it whilst Odell Beckham grabbed headlines with another emotional outburst. This time the talented receiver lost a fight to a field goal net on the Giant’s side-line.
  • The Ravens went down to Jacksonville to face a desperate Jaguars team who were not desperate enough to avoid going 0-3, whilst the Ravens have the quietest unbeaten record in the league.
  • The Colts were one of only three games featuring a 2-0 or 0-2 record that I picked correctly, when they managed to get a win over the visiting Chargers who now have a perfect record of played three, lost three starters for the season to injury.
  • The Eagles put pay to the Steelers unbeaten record and kept their own, making the hype surrounding Carson Wentz even greater. I am so impressed with the Eagles coaching staff and the turnaround they have made so far, I’m really looking forward to seeing how this team develop over the rest of the season.
  • The Bears continued to lose, giving me my only other totally correct pick of week two where I got it right and the game went how I expected.
  • Finally, I was tempted into picking the Falcons because of an extra half point the Saints were giving up, but it turns out that the Falcons didn’t need these points as they ran out easy winners in a game of a lot of points.

Now, the wonderful thing about the NFL is that it is doing a sterling job of giving us talking points and excitement over the weekends, but boy is it making predicting what is going to happen difficult.

Still it is still early, and even though I will be writing my quarter poll summary in a couple of weeks, there are very few teams that should be truly despondent. However, whilst the Cleveland Browns were never likely to be looking for anything other than progress, and to their credit they are playing tough for the Hue Jackson in his first year, the Bears, Saints, and Jaguars are all in trouble. Only three teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-3 since 1990 when the playoff format was expanded to its current format. The Bears were expected to be rebuilding this year even if the injuries have made things worse than I was expecting, but the Jaguars were hoping to make the next step and push for the playoffs whilst the Saints have a Super Bowl winning quarterback who they have failed to surround with enough talent to push as far as they would expect.

The Jaguars are a particular disappointment as they head over to London to host the Colts this week, and already people are wondering if the London game is going to cost another head coach his job. Despite the warm feelings that everyone who has ever dealt with Gus Bradley seems to have, it is hard to see the Jaguars owner putting up with these results for much longer, and the Jaguars will need to turn things round quickly if Bradley is to keep his job past the end of the season.

And continuing the theme of disappointment, the big news of the last twenty-four hours is that JJ Watt has been placed on injured reserve as he having more problems with his back, and could possibly be gone for the season. I’ll write a little more about this over the weekend as I was already going through the coaching tape of Watt vs the Patriots, but hopefully he can make it all the way back as he is one of my favourite players to watch, but back injuries are hard ones to return from and people who’ve had such problems often say that they never felt the same.

The week five games look to offer plenty of excitement and intrigue, but already the attrition has really started to affect some teams, and it is an all too prescient reminder of how tough a game American Football is. I never want to see a player injured, but I will confess that part of me is curious to see what the Patriots would do if they were forced to play Julian Edelman as their quarterback.

Still, it is time to start looking at this week’s games, starting with tonight’s game that pits Dan’s Dolphins on the road against my beloved Bengals.

Our records are nothing to shout home about, particularly after our disastrous previous week, but I did manage to maintain my three point lead:

Gee:      Week 3   5-11                     Overall   21-27
Dan:       Week 3   5-11                     Overall   18-30

Dolphins @ Bengals (-6.5)

The Bengals lost their first home game of the season, in what has been a tricky open to the season, but if they can get back to 2-2 they can still hope to make a push for the playoffs. It appears that Tyler Eifert is not going to make it back for the game, but Vontaze Burfict comes off suspension and is likely to help the Bengals defence straight away. I think the Browns are going to give teams a tough game at the moment so I’m not reading too much into last week’s result for the Dolphins, but an overtime game before a short week road game is not the best prep, and I’m hopeful that the Bengals can win and hopefully find some rhythm on offence. For one game only I’m borrowing from Dan and picking blindly based on my fandom.

Gee’s Pick:          Bengals
Dan’s Pick:          Dolphins

Rams, Broncos, and Special Preseason Week 3 Guests the Miami Dolphins

28 Sunday Aug 2016

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We are twelve days away from the start of the 2016 season, and the preseason week three games where the starters will see the most game time have already started. I will take you through the remaining week two games I have watched, as well as the visit of the Atlanta Falcons to Dan’s Miami Dolphins taking in my quarterback curse and general thoughts.

There is always a ton of news at this time of year, each team still has ninety players on its roster until the Tuesday deadline for cuts down to seventy-five. There are injuries, worries about the team, and a lot of fan angst as the positivity of the offseason hits the stark reality of playing games in the NFL. Already the Buffalo Bills are struggling with injury to numerous players as Rex Ryan’s team seem to beset by difficulty as they approach the season.

Meanwhile, Tony Romo has a fractured vertebrae in his back, meaning that Cowboys fans will be getting an extend look at whether Dak Prescott can be a starter in the NFL as Romo is not expected back until mid-season. Prescott’s play so far would give some confidence, but it is always best to treat play in the preseason with a healthy amount of scepticism. You will hear people talk about vanilla plans in preseason, but that’s overstating things somewhat. However, coaches have teams work on what they want to work on, so blitz heavy teams will blitz as they will be getting ready for the season. What is not happening, is the detailed team specific game planning that goes into every regular season game, and so whilst flashing in preseason is definitely an encouraging sign, the test, and particularly for quarterbacks, is whether you can adjust and counter what your opposition put in place to specifically stop you. Any player that demonstrates a weakness in their game can expect to see a heavy dose of whatever counters or exposes it until said player can show that they have cleared it up.

So on to the games as I get myself into season shape with game watching, and hopefully step up the number of articles next week.

The LA Rams managed to get a second win hosting the Kansas City Chiefs despite going in down at half time again. In fact, things got off to a bad start for them as they gave up a touchdown on the opening drive of the game for a second game in a row. For those watching Hard Knocks, you will have seen Alec Ogletree’s frustration  as well as him fighting to get the first team defence lined up correctly. That said, the Rams had a good response with Case Keenum leading the Rams’ offence straight back up the field to score a touchdown, although the plaudits ought to go to Todd Gurley who ran the ball effectively and scored the equalising touchdown. The coaches had seen enough and pulled Gurley from the game before he could get hurt.

The Rams defence then stiffened to get the ball immediately on a three and out, giving the offence the ball. The Rams moved the ball well again, with Case Keenum passing to Pharoh Cooper for a go ahead touchdown and so Keenum was finished for the game.

The big question for Rams quarterback Jared Goff is when will he be ready, but whilst the coaching staff are seeing progress, they also are stating that you can see rookie mistakes, and given that on his first two plays Goff threw an incomplete pass, then was sacked and fumbled the ball, you can see what they mean. That said, he did finish the game completing eight of his twelve attempts for eighty-two yards and threw his first touchdown as a professional to running back Malcolm Brown.

We will have to see how this team fare on the road, and how much momentum the Rams can carry into the regular season, but if nothing else, their attendance has been huge so far and they will want to make the most of the interest by winning games if they are to make the transition to LA successful.

Following a week one win, the Broncos lost their second game of preseason as they welcomed the San Francisco 49ers to Denver.

It feels like there is only one question hanging over the Broncos this offseason, despite the loss of some players on defence, and all the usual roster skirmishes, the big question for this team is who is going to start at quarterback.

For the second week in a row, I sat watching a Broncos starting quarterback thinking that this might work out and they threw an interception. This week it was Trevor Siemian that I managed to retroactively curse, but it is a big step that he got the start and looks to be making a strong case to be the opening night starter. Certainly Mark Sanchez didn’t help his cause by losing two fumbles. In fact, it may even be possible that he is being pressurised by rookie project Paxton Lynch who threw two touchdowns and an interception, although he does still look like a rookie and held onto the ball a bit too long for my liking at times. There was even some talk on commentary about giving Lynch the start next week to see if has the goods, but I would suggest it is a little early for such a move, yet I do feel that Trevor Siemian could well be the starter come week one.

The Broncos starting defence looks good, and even if the team did lose this game, I do think the Broncos are going to have another strong based on another good year on defence, and a run game that looks better than last year with CJ Anderson looking in good shape already and strong players behind him that could make for a good rotation to support an inexperienced quarterback.

The Broncos played the Rams last night, and I look forward to seeing how they went over the next couple of days. As a result of this fixture I had an extra game that I could watch, and Dan asked me to take a look at the Dolphins, who conveniently hosted the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night.

I still have questions about the way the Miami Dolphins have approached their offseason, and in particular how they are building their offensive line given that of the three interior linemen that started the game, all of them are inexperienced and/or changing permission. However, new Dolphins head coach Adam Gase is a quality offensive coordinator who got the Dolphins job off the back of good work with Jay Cutler and Peyton Manning.

The Dolphins started the game playing no huddle offense, and did look to be making good use of Ryan Tannehill skills, moving him with roll outs, running the ball, and passing. However, he again fell to the, I think this going to be good Gee curse, and as soon as I thought how good he looked, Tannehill immediately threw an interception.

However, the Dolphins ran out pretty convincing winners in this game, thanks to an ability to move the ball and a defence that restricted the Falcons all game and didn’t allow a touchdown.

There are questions at running back with Jay Ajayi battling health problems, Arian Foster looking good but at age thirty and a recent history of injuries you probably can’t rely on him all season. I do however like Damien Williams who has caught my eye before, but who has never broken out, yet in this game he had a couple of nice runs and scored a touchdown.

My worry for the Dolphins is the depth, and whilst I like what I saw, the defence still seems to be thin past the starters, and I’m not sure about the secondary barring Reshad Jones who is a really good safety.

I did like the look of second year defensive end Julius Warmsley who got a sack and showed good penetration on a couple of other plays, but whether this will be enough to get him off the practice squad and onto the roster only time will tell. Fellow second year end Cleyon Leign also got a quarterback hit from a lovely spin move playing inside at tackle in the fourth quarter. However, even if the line play is better this season for the defence, the back seven is where the questions are and without access coaching tape in preseason, it is hard to know for sure how they will fare given how much you can see them play. Certainly, whilst unable to score touchdowns, Falcons backup Matt Schaub looked pretty good completing ten of eleven passes against the backup secondary.

Overall, I expect the Dolphins to be better than last season as they will have a more coherent plan on offence, after the muddle that was last year’s experience with two head coaches, but I think they will continue to be hampered by how the roster is constructed. I do wish them well if only to cheer Dan up next season, I still remember how much it hurts for your team to miss the playoffs for a number of year even if the Bengals have had a better run of it recently.

Time is running out for players to make the roster, and with the regular season just around the corner, it’s nearly time for the games that count, although you try telling a player who is fighting to get on a roster that the remaining preseason games are meaningless.

The season is nearly here, and football already is.

Week 6 Falcons at Saints Recap

17 Saturday Oct 2015

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Despite it making a mockery of my pick for the game and my comments on the inaugural Wrong Football podcast, I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s Thursday night game where a desperate New Orleans Saints team managed to tear up the script and get an upset win over the visiting Atlanta Falcons.

The Saints managed to get a fast start, get the lead, and hold onto it for the rest of the game. Whilst they were marginally outgained by the Falcons on offence, they managed to take advantage of the Falcons’ flaws at key points to earn the win.

I’ll start with the Saints offence, and what I wrote about them when I was picking this game because Drew Brees answered the questions I had by having an amazing game. The Saints offensive line was giving up pressure all game, but Brees was so good that he was able to get the ball out and keep them moving. More importantly, he was also able to repeatedly link up with tight end Ben Watson who caught ten balls for one hundred and twenty-seven yards and a touchdown, exploiting the Falcons defence’s inability to cover him. The running game still wasn’t that effective, but thanks to Brees finding a rhythm, particularly in the second half, they were able to move the ball. I really can’t say too much in praise of Brees in this game as much like Philip Rivers in the last Monday night game, Brees was so quick with his decision with where to throw the ball that he managed to avoid getting sacked despite there frequently being defenders in the back field. Let’s face it we’d all rather Brees was playing well, so whilst he will face more complex defences this season, let’s hope that this is just the start of better things for the Saints offence.

That said, for large parts of the first half the Falcons defence had the upper hand and after giving up the first drive, did force several three and outs from the Saints as they managed to get pressure on Brees, and they prevented the Saints from running the ball effective all game. However, the Saints were able to repeatedly find Ben Watson who kept taking advantage of the Falcons coverage to have a career day. Also, despite repeatedly getting behind the Saints o-line, they were only able to sack Drew Brees once in this game, amassing four QB hits across the game.

If the Falcons defence struggled with one matchup, the offence struggled with turnovers, which ruined what could have been an otherwise fine performance. They struggled a little early on as the Falcons’ offensive line issues from last year resurfaced this week, but a combination of using play action and moving Matt Ryan to counter the line’s pass blocking issues, and effective zone blocking in the run game, meant that they were able to move the ball effectively for the majority of the game. The issue was that they repeated fumbled the ball, both on snaps to the quarterback and in the running game, ending good drives and preventing them from getting back into the contest. In fact the Falcons were able to run at will, racking up one hundred and fifty yards on just twenty-one attempts, but because of playing from behind were unable to exploit this as much as they would have liked. This also lead them to resort to the pass more than they would have liked, putting pressure back on their offensive line later in the game to stand up in more straight up pass blocking, which they were unable to do giving up five sacks. Special mention should go to Devonta Freeman who had a one hundred yard rushing day on just thirteen attempts as well as eight receptions for fifty-six yards, finishing the game with two touchdowns.

I was rude about the Saints defence, but whilst they had some effective moments in this game, they were run all over by the Falcons, and it was a combination of game flow and their opponents that enable them to do enough to win. I will say that I was impressed both with Cameron Jordan who ended the game with three sacks and racked up a further four quarterback hits, as well as corner Delvin Breaux who caught my eye several times in coverage. Time will tell if Rob Ryan is actually beginning to build something, or if this was a situational performance helped by a Superdome crowd who were given something to cheer early, and an opponent who had to move away from their game plan whilst being careless with the ball.

Take nothing away from the Saints though, they managed to put together all the ingredients to get the upset win, they started with an intensity that the Falcons didn’t seem prepared for, got an early lead to bring their home fans into play, and were able to generate enough defence to hold the Falcons at bay. It was great to see Drew Brees looking like the quarterback we have enjoyed watching so much over the years, and whilst I have no idea if this is a turning point in their season, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

The Falcons will be cross with the way that they gave this game away, but it also demonstrates that not all of their faults from last season have been corrected. The offensive line has been much better this season, but they will struggle in games where they are forced to chase the opposition or in situations where the defence can pin their ears back and rush the passer. They are clearly still a team to be reckoned with this season, but coaches around the league will be looking at the tape of this game to see those exploitable flaws, and it is just possible the Falcons might come back to the rest as the season goes on.

Week 1 Amateur Adventures in Film

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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Welcome to a new series I’m planning to run this year called Amateur adventures in Film. Rather than waiting until Sunday morning and trying to rush through the Thursday night game, I am going to look back at a game or plays that took my fancy from the last week as we build up to the Sunday night action.

I chose the Eagles at Falcons game to look at as I wanted to take a proper look at the Eagles offence on tape, without missing the start due to their tempo and I was fascinated by Chip Kelly’s scheme.

The first thing I noticed looking at this game compared to last year is that between reading coaching books in the offseason and listening to Greg Cosell talk about film, I was paying a lot more attention to the safety look of the defences and the personnel on offence. So let us take a look at the main four groups in the game. I confess that I tend to skip the kicking games as they still are a bit of a mystery to me and it already takes me a couple of hours to go through a game like this.

I’ll start with the Eagles offence as they are what drew me to this game, and I did really love what I saw in this game. Apart from their tempo, the Eagles spend most of their time playing with at least three receivers and constantly running crossing routes, and route combinations to set picks for defenders, scheming receivers open. It was a lot of fun to watch and I was impressed with receiver Jordan Mathews who picked up one hundred and two yards on ten receptions. It was also interesting to see how Kelly’s scheme obviously used a combination of spacing and routes to get players open in the pass game, but this spacing was also fundamental in the run game. When the running the ball the Eagles didn’t just line up and go, but kept their spacing and used all kinds of linemen pulls to cause defence problems. I am looking forward to seeing if any other teams pull their centre as much as the Eagles, but I’m guessing not as I would imagine this places a premium on mobility at this position that is probably not that easy to find. The Eagles also used a lot less read option style action with the quarterback than they did in the offseason, which I would imagine that as teams are now scheming, they didn’t want to risk Bradford taking too many of the kind of hits that Terrell Suggs gave him in the preseason.

In contrast, the Falcons offence seemed to move the ball a lot better when they were in 21 or 12 personnel, as having that extra running back or tight end near the line of scrimmage helped them protect, relying on the fewer receivers they sent to either get themselves open, or the Falcons used similar pick concepts or crossing patterns to get their players open. The other route you saw repeatedly work for the Falcons was a short slants to receivers lined up close to the line of scrimmage, relying on timing and the precision with which Matt Ryan gets the ball out of his hands. It seems a more conservative option, but one that was working for them and when you have Julio Jones getting himself open, you don’t have to do as much work with the scheme to manufacture passing opportunities. In fact, Jones had a monster game, and pretty much won it for the Falcons when he managed to get an easy inside release on corner Byron Maxwell against a single high safety look from the Eagles, and caught a deep pass down the right sideline as the safety couldn’t get across in time. This gained the Falcons forty-four yards and although the drive stalled, put them in range for the field goal that regained the lead that the Falcons kept until the end. That said, the Eagles missed a forty-four yard field goal at the end that could have equally won them the game.

So if this is what I saw in the offences, what about the defences? The Falcons are talked about as moving to 4-3 under Dan Quinn, the scheme following him from the Seahawks. However, it was hard for me to see this as they spent most of the game in substitution sets accounting for the Eagles multiple receiver sets. It looked to me they were using a similar three deep zone as the Seahawks, which looks like a single high safety with the corners a zone where they trail their man and hand them off, but I will need to get more practice at looking at this over the season to be sure. It will be interesting to see how their pass rush improves over the season, but they didn’t get a sack in this game, and no one leapt off the tape for me in the pass rush.

If I was struggling to identify the defences of the Falcons, thanks to their more traditional offensive groupings, it was much easier to spot the Eagles 3-4 base defence and their switches into nickel/dime formations. Their front seven looked good, with Fletcher Cox really catching the eye from defensive end as he frequently penetrated into the back field, getting a sack and a couple of quarter back hits, but always causing disruption. However, as a team they did concede nearly four hundred yards of offence, so they will want to toughen up in the upcoming weeks, and will want tighter coverage from their corners.

Overall this was a really close game that could have been won by either side, which give the season the Falcons had last year, is a big improvement for them. If the Falcons have hope, I wouldn’t be too worried about the Eagles either, they really could have won this game and once the offence got going it looked really good. It will be interesting to see if the Giants borrow some of the Falcons’ personnel groupings as they play the Eagles without Dez Bryant, but we will just have to see what happens tonight.

NFL Week 3: Buccaneers @ Faclons – Deconstructing a Debacle

21 Sunday Sep 2014

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Where do you start with a game this one sided? I confess I only made it through three quarters of coaching tape, but by then this game was well and truly done.

My things to watch for the Buccanneers were Josh McCown at quarterback and their Pro Bowl linebacker Lavonte David, whilst for the Falcons it was how rookie Jake Matthews plays at left tackle and whether they could generate the a pass rush this year. After watching the broadcast of the game, I also decided I would take a look at the Falcons fullback Patrick DiMarco and the left side of the Bucs line with Logan Mankins and Anthony Collins.

This game got out of hand so quickly for the Bucs, my first note of the game was woeful defence as the Falcons drove the ball for an opening drive touchdown. They would give up twenty-one unanswered points in the first quarter alone, and fifty-six before finally getting on the score board themselves in the fourth quarter. They were beaten so soundly, but I shall do my best to go through what happened.

The reason I wanted to take a look at the left side of the Bucs’ line was that Logan Mankins is a six time Pro Bowl guard and Anthony Collins was a backup tackle who was so good for the Bengals last season that when their left guard went down, the Bengals own Pro Bowl tackle Andrew Whitworth moved inside and Collins played at left tackle. In this game they actually held up pretty well, although it did look to me like there might have been some communication issues with Mankins who arrived very late in preseason, but the only time I saw them flat out beat was on an overload blitz. However, the Bucs gave up three sacks in this game, including one where Jonathan Massaquoi came untouched from left end due to a protection break down and another when tackle Corey Peters came through Patrick Omameh at right guard. Add to this, thirty yards of penalties from two unnecessary roughness calls against Evan Dietrich-Smith and overall you can see the start of the problems on offence.

So where else did it go wrong? Well neither team held onto the ball that well, and whilst Bobby Rainey’s two fumbles stood out, the Bucs fumbled the ball five times, losing it four times. Still, the Falcons fumbled it four times themselves and lost three. What I’m not sure of is how these stats account for one play where the Falcons’ Levine Toilolo fumbled the ball after a catch, only for Devin Hester to force a fumble from Mark Barron and then recover it himself. This was the pattern of the game, whenever the Bucs did do something right, they shot themselves in the foot shortly after, plus Devin Hester doing good things. These combined when the Bucs punted the ball fifty-six yards to Hester, who with one move seemed to run past most of the coverage team and then break away to score his twentieth punt return touchdown, the most in NFL history.

In fact, Devin Hester had a great game. As well as causing his usual problems in the return game, he also caught a twenty-five yard pass and ran in a twenty yard touchdown. His so fast and shifty, and at thirty-two is still having a big impact on games.

The other Falcons players I was specifically focussing on were Jake Mathews and Patrick DiMarco. I thought that Jake Mathews held up well, and if not always dominating. I didn’t see him beaten badly either and could often see him steering his rusher past Matt Ryan, but I’d like to see him develop his run blocking. Fullback Patrick DiMarco caught my eye catching a couple of pass out of play-action passes, and watching him the whole game he really impressed me. He wasn’t exactly flattening people, but he was athletic enough to get out where he needed and open holes for the Falcons in the running game, and made some nice catches. In a league where the fullback is slowing dying out in favour of three receiver or two tight end sets, it was nice to see one being used so effectively.

Now unfortunately, we get back to the Buccaneers and my focus on Josh McCown didn’t last long as he was out of the game with over three minutes left in the second quarter. He went five for twelve in the passing game and was picked off in the first quarter when Kemal Ishmael read the play and jumped in front of the pass to Vincent Jackson. In fact, Mike Glennon looked better almost straight away when he came into the game and we’ll have to see if there is a decision to be made for the Bucs regarding quarterback going forward.

Watching Lavonte David play for a defence that gave up six touchdowns was never going to show him in the best light, but frankly I was more impressed with Dane Fletcher who at least flashed with a good pass defence going across the middle, half a sack and five tackles. David had more tackles with seven, but his play didn’t stand out. In fact the Buccaneers defence as a whole seemed to struggle to get off their blocks, their zone coverage was soft enough that Matt Ryan picked them apart, and they gave up some bad plays. Hester ran virtually untouched in a twenty yard counter play that saw all of the Bucs’ linebackers go with the play then get sealed so they couldn’t make the tackle, and Dashon Goldson should have stopped Antone Smith from running in the Falcons final touchdown, which is a shame as he made an excellent play earlier in the game to stop a fumble going out of bounds so the Bucs could recover it.

In fairness no aspect of their game shined, unsurprising in a blow out loss, and Lovie Smith will have a big job to pick them up and do something to make them better.

If you want to understand how badly this game went for the Buccaneers, look at the following series of four plays. At 8:31 in the third quarter Matt Ryan connects with Julio Jones who makes a great over the shoulder catch for a forty yard touchdown. After a touchback on the ensuing kick off, the Buccaneers proceed to snap the ball over Mike Glennon’s head and turn the ball over. On the next play, Steven Jackson somehow runs through three tackles to score a touchdown. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about this game, and would have saved me eight hundred and fifty odd words. Roll on tonight’s games and let’s hope that next week’s Thursday night game of the Giants at Washington is closer.