Well, it’s Monday and because it is football season, that means that the Falcons played another football game. For me it was a great day given the Jill actually put on an Atlanta Falcons t-shirt of her own volition with no begging from me. (Wow, did I just use the word Volition in a Football Post? This post might blow up!) Of course, Bear put on her pink Falcons t-shirt and was super excited about the game and Buddy did his best to ignore the game as often as possible.
But this post is not just about my family who is my number one priority, it’s about football yesterday and specifically, this is about my thoughts on how the Falcons did yesterday at Heinz Field. Overall, I wasn’t terribly upset with their performance as players. As a whole team, there were disappointments and there were high points.
Let’s first talk about the biggest surprises – Michael Turner averaged 2.2 yards per carry. There were two other parts to that surprise. The next part is that his longest carry was only 7 yards. The last part of that surprise is that Mike Mularkey seemed to be calling the same play every time which I will generically call “run up the middle”. So, I think the world of Michael Turner but if it’s not working then it’s not working. The Steelers clearly game planned for those runs, especially if you consider that we were almost equally effective with Matt Ryan just running up the middle on a QB sneak. In fact, he averaged 2.0 yards per carry. What’s the obvious solution? Call a different play with a different player … there is a reason Jerious Norwood is on the team and that is HE IS FAST and runs a 4.4 40 yd dash. We should have moved to a two back offense and traded carries to keep the Steelers on their feet. While I don’t know how hard it actually is to make that adjustment, I do know that Mularkey gets an F from me for not changing enough at the half.
The second biggest surprise to me was that our defense actually did pretty well. Three sacks for the team coming from three of my favorites – John Abraham, Kroy Biermann, and Curtis Lofton. That’s a pretty good performance in my opinion. The defensive line played pretty well and I expect big things from them against Arizona. Ken Whisenhunt even said that he looks for his offensive line to improve. I think he picked the wrong week to say that. His alma mater is coming to town and looking tough on D. Sacks on the Cardinals this past week came from a DT and a DE. Ours will come from all over. I expect Van Gorder to call more blitzes and for Spoon to get his first sack agains the Cards.
The third surprise to me was that Matt Ryan had no ice. I wont harp on this so just two things: 1) We didnt go deep enough and 2) Matt Ryan was staring at his receivers the whole time. Anyone could have interecepted some of his passes. I wasn’t very impressed but I know that he will improve. Matt is too reliant on Gonzalez and White. Once Matt realizes that Finneran and Douglass are outstanding, the Falcons will be dangerous again. Matt Ryan has explosive weapons and now it is time to explode!
Second to last thing…I checked my rule book and read this: “Hand(s) or arm(s) that encircle a defender are to be considered illegal and officials are to call a foul for holding.” Watch Ward’s hands on the last play of the game.
And finally … the last thing … If the Falcons treat this as a 1 games season, they will win on the 19th. If they treat it as game 1 of 16, we are doomed. Get the urgency back!
-Dana
