arsenal
Beastin'
Well that one was hard to watch... tough game all around, hard to find positives, plenty of negatives to choose from, but here goes...
Thumbs Up To:
1) Phillip Merling - Though he didn't start, he played a lot and played with a chip on his shoulder. Constantly getting good penetration and disrupting plays. I could have sworn he had a sack but its not showing up on the stat sheet. Either way he stood out on a defensive front that played well as a whole.
2) Run Defense - Our first priority im sure going into this game was stopping Michael Turner, and we did that. He finished with 65 yards on 22 attempts, with 28 yards of those yards on his final 4 carries to run out the clock after the game was well decided. Before that last drive he had 18 carries for 37 yards. Thats shutting down one of the best running games in the league. Our Dline was stout and our linebackers held the edges well.
3) Outside Pass Defense - WRs for Atlanta totaled only 83 yards receiving the entire game. We prevented the big gainers and kept everything in front of us with the Wideouts (except Smith early on an overthrow, but i'll chalk that up to first game jitters). We forced Atlanta to be a dink and dunk offense, and kept their WRs, including a DOMINANT probowl player in Roddy White, in check. (Who says we can't contain elite receivers?)
Now a Thumbs Down goes to:
1) Chad Pennington - Yes the oline, yes we can pretend the WRs weren't getting open, yes whatever other excuse some people want to make up, he played very poorly. When the first option wasn't there he all of a sudden looked like John Beck in the pocket. I dont know what happened to his pocket awareness but it was not there this game at all. Not to mention his unwillingness to attempt plays down the field. People want to applaud him for his lack of TOs most of the time, but its also because he takes 0% chances. Some people will applaud that, but with that you get a QB who can not put a team on his back and bring us back from a big deficit, he has to realize guys are not going to get WIDE open all the time and he has to try to fit the ball in tighter windows.
2) Jake Long - Worst game i've seen from Long in his career. Whiffing on blocks, being put on his ***, just bad all around. He was left on an island most of the game, but if he wants to be considered an elite LT in this league he has to be able to play without help. This game showed maybe hes still not ready for that.
3) Kick Return Blocking - WOW i mean with how bad our Safety Pass coverage was, and our playcalling, Fasano, and all the other nonsense, this still makes it over everything else. I have never seen so many defenders so far down the field so quickly as i saw this game. This is not a Ginn problem, or a Cobbs problem, or we need a better kick returner problem, this is a blocking problem, or a lack of blocking problem. I would love to see the overhead camera of these kick returns because i cant imagine ONE Falcon being blocked the entire game on kickoffs, it was embarrassing. Something has to be done because our guys were running out from 1 or 2 yards deep which is fine, its not like they were 6 or 7 yards in and should have taken a knee, these guys were in a position where they should have taken the ball out and they are getting hit before the 20 every time, and not just by one guy, by multiple guys. Inexcusable, something has to be done.
Rough game, but its only 1 week, lets fix our problems and dominate the colts!
Thumbs Up To:
1) Phillip Merling - Though he didn't start, he played a lot and played with a chip on his shoulder. Constantly getting good penetration and disrupting plays. I could have sworn he had a sack but its not showing up on the stat sheet. Either way he stood out on a defensive front that played well as a whole.
2) Run Defense - Our first priority im sure going into this game was stopping Michael Turner, and we did that. He finished with 65 yards on 22 attempts, with 28 yards of those yards on his final 4 carries to run out the clock after the game was well decided. Before that last drive he had 18 carries for 37 yards. Thats shutting down one of the best running games in the league. Our Dline was stout and our linebackers held the edges well.
3) Outside Pass Defense - WRs for Atlanta totaled only 83 yards receiving the entire game. We prevented the big gainers and kept everything in front of us with the Wideouts (except Smith early on an overthrow, but i'll chalk that up to first game jitters). We forced Atlanta to be a dink and dunk offense, and kept their WRs, including a DOMINANT probowl player in Roddy White, in check. (Who says we can't contain elite receivers?)
Now a Thumbs Down goes to:
1) Chad Pennington - Yes the oline, yes we can pretend the WRs weren't getting open, yes whatever other excuse some people want to make up, he played very poorly. When the first option wasn't there he all of a sudden looked like John Beck in the pocket. I dont know what happened to his pocket awareness but it was not there this game at all. Not to mention his unwillingness to attempt plays down the field. People want to applaud him for his lack of TOs most of the time, but its also because he takes 0% chances. Some people will applaud that, but with that you get a QB who can not put a team on his back and bring us back from a big deficit, he has to realize guys are not going to get WIDE open all the time and he has to try to fit the ball in tighter windows.
2) Jake Long - Worst game i've seen from Long in his career. Whiffing on blocks, being put on his ***, just bad all around. He was left on an island most of the game, but if he wants to be considered an elite LT in this league he has to be able to play without help. This game showed maybe hes still not ready for that.
3) Kick Return Blocking - WOW i mean with how bad our Safety Pass coverage was, and our playcalling, Fasano, and all the other nonsense, this still makes it over everything else. I have never seen so many defenders so far down the field so quickly as i saw this game. This is not a Ginn problem, or a Cobbs problem, or we need a better kick returner problem, this is a blocking problem, or a lack of blocking problem. I would love to see the overhead camera of these kick returns because i cant imagine ONE Falcon being blocked the entire game on kickoffs, it was embarrassing. Something has to be done because our guys were running out from 1 or 2 yards deep which is fine, its not like they were 6 or 7 yards in and should have taken a knee, these guys were in a position where they should have taken the ball out and they are getting hit before the 20 every time, and not just by one guy, by multiple guys. Inexcusable, something has to be done.
Rough game, but its only 1 week, lets fix our problems and dominate the colts!
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