Why so scared?
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:56 am
After taking a close look at the Falcons, theyre not as scary as I thought.
Taking advantage of HUGE turnover differentials and penalty margins have been as much a reason for their success as anything their offense is doing.
Sure Roddy White is shredding it, the rest of the offense has been pretty pedestrian. Gonzo has had good/average TE numbers , nothing amazing and Julio has barely shown with his hand injury.
The best team they've beaten so far (record) has been the Chargers at 3-1. The Chargers turned it over 4 times in that game. San Deigo has 3 wins agains bad 1-3 teams? The Saints are better than the Chargers and theyre terrible. This does'nt impress me.
The win vs. Denver? 3 picks by Peyton Manning, week 2 of the season. Couple that with 10 penalties against the broncos for 96 yards. Granted the Broncos D is alot better than ours but, this supposed high powered offense of the Falcons barely showed up in that game. Denver beat themselves IN ATLANTA! Again, not overly impressive.
What about the 40-24 drubbing they put on the KC Chiefs? Common denominator? 3 turnovers by KC. I'm starting to see a pattern here. Of course anyone will tell you turnovers are the key to winning. I think our offense is better than KC and they were able to move the ball well in that game.
Now to last weeks game vs. the Panthers (1-3 team). They had no answer for Newton. Carolinas D may be worse than ours. Carolina had to give that game away in the end for Atlanta to win. Turnovers and coaching decisions COST the Panthers the game, not the Falcons dominant performance.
Quite frankly, I'm not so sure the Falcons offense is better than the Saints (who at 0-4 are still putting up nice numbers) or the Bengals . Lets not forget our DB coach has a pretty good book on these guys.
I cant say if Atlanta is causing these turnovers or if it's the opponents fault. It certainly was in Carolina. Good teams will not make mistakes and capitalize on others, I get that. But every week? 3-4 turnovers by your opponent? Thats not domination, it's dicipline and luck. This makes em a team to be respected , sure. Not dominant or scary.
We dont turn the ball over, although RGIII needs to do better with ball security (fumbles) I don't expect us to recover our own in this game like we have been. I've seen nothing that would indicate they can force our QB to throw multiple picks.
Gotta stay on top of the penalties this week, particularly the 15 yard variety. Atlanta simply doesn't commit alot of penalties. Very diciplined club.
We have to make our $#@ %&*! field goals. WE cannot leave a single point off the board this week. If Cundiff hits his shots last week, we arent even talking as much about how bad our D was because the score wasnt even close.
The coverage was better last week, YAC was waaay down from what it has been. Freeman made some excellent throws on those big plays. Matty Ice will too. It's a given in todays NFL. When we have corners without great speed, you need size and safeties that can close to compensate. Right now we dont have either and opponents are just going to throw it up for grabs, hope for a penalty or that their guy comes down with it. We just have to eliminate the YAC and hold em to field goals. Were not gonna stop anyone between the 20's.
At 4-0 Atlanta is a good team. I suspect slightly overrated though. Now , let's go prove it.
Taking advantage of HUGE turnover differentials and penalty margins have been as much a reason for their success as anything their offense is doing.
Sure Roddy White is shredding it, the rest of the offense has been pretty pedestrian. Gonzo has had good/average TE numbers , nothing amazing and Julio has barely shown with his hand injury.
The best team they've beaten so far (record) has been the Chargers at 3-1. The Chargers turned it over 4 times in that game. San Deigo has 3 wins agains bad 1-3 teams? The Saints are better than the Chargers and theyre terrible. This does'nt impress me.
The win vs. Denver? 3 picks by Peyton Manning, week 2 of the season. Couple that with 10 penalties against the broncos for 96 yards. Granted the Broncos D is alot better than ours but, this supposed high powered offense of the Falcons barely showed up in that game. Denver beat themselves IN ATLANTA! Again, not overly impressive.
What about the 40-24 drubbing they put on the KC Chiefs? Common denominator? 3 turnovers by KC. I'm starting to see a pattern here. Of course anyone will tell you turnovers are the key to winning. I think our offense is better than KC and they were able to move the ball well in that game.
Now to last weeks game vs. the Panthers (1-3 team). They had no answer for Newton. Carolinas D may be worse than ours. Carolina had to give that game away in the end for Atlanta to win. Turnovers and coaching decisions COST the Panthers the game, not the Falcons dominant performance.
Quite frankly, I'm not so sure the Falcons offense is better than the Saints (who at 0-4 are still putting up nice numbers) or the Bengals . Lets not forget our DB coach has a pretty good book on these guys.
I cant say if Atlanta is causing these turnovers or if it's the opponents fault. It certainly was in Carolina. Good teams will not make mistakes and capitalize on others, I get that. But every week? 3-4 turnovers by your opponent? Thats not domination, it's dicipline and luck. This makes em a team to be respected , sure. Not dominant or scary.
We dont turn the ball over, although RGIII needs to do better with ball security (fumbles) I don't expect us to recover our own in this game like we have been. I've seen nothing that would indicate they can force our QB to throw multiple picks.
Gotta stay on top of the penalties this week, particularly the 15 yard variety. Atlanta simply doesn't commit alot of penalties. Very diciplined club.
We have to make our $#@ %&*! field goals. WE cannot leave a single point off the board this week. If Cundiff hits his shots last week, we arent even talking as much about how bad our D was because the score wasnt even close.
The coverage was better last week, YAC was waaay down from what it has been. Freeman made some excellent throws on those big plays. Matty Ice will too. It's a given in todays NFL. When we have corners without great speed, you need size and safeties that can close to compensate. Right now we dont have either and opponents are just going to throw it up for grabs, hope for a penalty or that their guy comes down with it. We just have to eliminate the YAC and hold em to field goals. Were not gonna stop anyone between the 20's.
At 4-0 Atlanta is a good team. I suspect slightly overrated though. Now , let's go prove it.
