Archive for the ‘Atlanta Falcons’ Category

Michael Turner and Atlanta expected to part ways

Posted by Devang Desai under Atlanta Falcons, Michael Turner on Feb 10, 2013

Divisional Playoffs - Seattle Seahawks v Atlanta Falcons

Bad news for Falcons fans with Michael Turner jerseys.

National Football Post’s Dan Pompei has the info:

The Falcons look to be in the running back market this offseason, according to those who know. Chances are the team will cut ties with 30-year old Michael Turner and look for a younger runner. Turner provides toughness, a solid locker room presence and power on downhill runs, but scouts say his ability to bounce and cut isn’t what it was.

The news isn’t all that shocking considering Turner’s decline in recent years and his $6.9 million price tag next season. The Falcons don’t see Jacquizz Rodgers as an every down back, leading many to believe Atlanta will select their running back of the future in April’s draft. Giovani Bernard, Eddie Lacy and Montee Ball are a few of the names that will be bandied about in the next few weeks.

No Comments

The Falcons tried to lose again, and this time they succeeded

Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Atlanta Falcons, Reaction, San Fransisco 49ers on Jan 20, 2013

It's been a slice, Tony.

Let’s begin by going back — way, way back — to a far away, now foreign time when the Atlanta Falcons were more than just leading their NFC Championship game against San Fransisco. They were dominating in any and every way imaginable.

To review:

  • A 20-yard touchdown pass to Julio Jones was the opening play of the second quarter. That made it 17-0 for Atlanta, the second straight week they surged out to at least a two-touchdown lead.
  • That Jones score was his second of the day, and already his sixth catch at that point. His other touchdown was a 46 yarder, which came only seven plays into the game.
  • Another fun fact involving the number seven: Jones’ first touchdown came only seven yards short of the longest pass play surrendered all year by the 49ers’ secondary, a category in which they finished tied for first with Buffalo.
  • Jones had 120 receiving yards and two touchdowns by the 14:54 mark of the second quarter while averaging 20 yards per grab. He was the first wide receiver to amass 100 receiving yards during one quarter of a post-season game since Carolina’s Steve Smith in 2005.
  • What’s even more impressive — and now, crushing — is that in the same time frame Matt Ryan had already completed four passes for 20 yards or more. On the season, he was averaged three…per game.
  • Also, after the first quarter Ryan had 162 passing yards, while Colin Kaepernick had one. Yes, just one yard. Not a joke.
  • Taking that further and beyond the first quarter, Atlanta finished the first half with 297 total yards on offense. During the regular season, San Francisco gave up an average of 294.4 yards per game. Also not a joke.

Yet none of it mattered. For the second straight week, the Falcons did everything in their power to lose a game in the second half. This time, it worked.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

John Abraham is active

Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Atlanta Falcons, Inactives on Jan 20, 2013

Yawn, right? Right.

Welcome to the obligatory, contractually obligated post in which I tell you that the most important injury during Championship Sunday has reached its inevitable pre-game conclusion, one that we saw coming on Monday. John Abraham is officially active.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

Playoff Primer: 49ers @ Falcons

Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Analysis, Atlanta Falcons, San Fransisco 49ers on Jan 17, 2013

The more I think about this game, the more I think that I think there will be a poor ending for Atlanta, and it will become very clear, very quickly.

The Falcons were kind enough to play a quarter of their regular-season schedule this year against highly mobile quarterbacks, and generally those meetings ended badly. Earlier this week I looked back on the carnage that was the Atlanta defense during those games, and although there was a glaring exception (holding Robert Griffin III to just seven rushing yards), the read-option offense used by Carolina led to repeatedly watching Cam Newton go for delightful Sunday jogs into wide open green grass. Over those two games, Newton had 202 rushing yards and two touchdowns, with one of those scores coming on a career long 72-yard run.

Then even if we ignore the success of Newton and to a lesser extent Michael Vick this year against a Falcons front seven that struggled to maintain gap discipline, there’s the matter of John Abraham’s ankle injury, the significance of which can’t be repeated enough during the buildup to this game. A week ago it was the 49ers with a potentially crippling injury in their front four, as Justin Smith was playing through a partially torn triceps (yeah, that still hasn’t healed). Abraham was a limited participant in practice yesterday, and he’ll surely receive minimal work throughout the week before inevitably being slapped with the ol’ questionable/game-time decision tag, and playing a reduced role Sunday.

For the Falcons, that’s downright petrifying, because much of containing — or at least limiting — the damage done by a mobile quarterback in a read-option scheme is done by having a defensive end who can counter with the proper reads, and then react using his quick-footed acceleration, and raw speed. A healthy Abraham can do that, but Abraham won’t really be Abraham at all Sunday. And in truth, Kaepernick has made fools out of some elite edge rushers recently, with Clay Matthews looking like a drunken sailor a week ago when the 49ers QB set the single-game quarterback rushing record.

Now that I’ve ensured no Falcons fan is reading the rest of this post (REMAIN CALM), let’s look at some surface-y numbers, and then do some more ranting and deeper numerical opining.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

The Tape Never Lies: Breaking down Harry Douglas’ 22-yard reception

Posted by Alen Dumonjic under Atlanta Falcons, Matt Ryan, The Tape Never Lies on Jan 16, 2013

He finally did it. He won a playoff game. A round of applause should be given to Matt Ryan for his gutsy performance on Sunday. It wasn’t without mistakes, as he threw two interceptions, but he fought back and put his team in a position to win with two big throws in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter.

When Ryan walked onto the field prior to taking the first snap of his final drive, Brian Billick was nostalgic. He kept referencing the mighty comeback Ryan led against the Chicago Bears in 2008, which was a very good and somewhat similar one to this. On Ryan’s final throw that day to set up the game-winning field goal, he hooked up with wide receiver Michael Jenkins, as Billick later recalled, around the 30-yard line on a corner route that was ran on the backside of the formation. Then kicker Jason Elam struck the ball through the uprights for a 22-to-20 victory.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

Can the Falcons contain Colin Kaepernick?

Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Atlanta Falcons, Ponderings on Jan 15, 2013

In a word, no, especially not if John Abraham isn’t John Abraham at all this weekend, and is instead the limited shell of himself we saw Sunday when he re-aggravated his ankle injury and only appeared in 15 plays. But since a post that’s one word long isn’t a post at all, I thought it would be fun to look back at recent case studies, and what this edition of the Atlanta Falcons defense has given us when it’s been faced with a quarterback who excels at propelling his body down a football field quickly with the use of his feet.

Colin Kaepernick is quite good at that, we’re told.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

Jacquizz Rodgers has made the Falcons’ running offense respectable again

Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Analysis, Atlanta Falcons on Jan 14, 2013

There’s euphoria in Atlanta after the Falcons finally won a playoff game during the Mike Smith/Matt Ryan era, and they’re now no longer the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked. Nevermind that they deserved to lose yesterday, and nevermind that a vertical, aggressive team melted into a conservative wimp out, with the strategy in the fourth quarter after the lead was cut to six being to slam into the Seahawks’ defensive line twice, and then just assume Matt Ryan could find an opening on third and long against the league’s best corners. Logic lost.

But forget about that, and just let it whither away now. None of it matters as we continue unpacking the divisional weekend, while looking ahead to what should be two equally fantastic championship games this Sunday. FOOTBALL!

Despite their near catastrophe, the surprising emergence of the running game was encouraging for Atlanta, as Michael Turner and Jacquizz Rodgers combined for 162 rushing yards after the Falcons had averaged only 87.3 yards per week..

Turner finished with 98 yards on 14 carries, an average of seven yards per carry. To truly grasp the enormity of Turner’s rumbling, we only need to look back at his most recent performances during his year of sucking. Over the last four games of the regular season, Turner logged weeks with just 15 and 18 yards, a stretch in which he had only 125 total yards. It will surprise you to know that if a running back can only accumulate the equivalent of a really good single game for most backs over four weeks, his season was probably pretty horrendous. And look, overall the plodding Turner finished with only 800 rushing yards, a significant departure from his 1,340 yards last year. Most impressively, his per carry average yesterday was 3.4 yards higher than his overall season average.

It was as if his body was replaced with one that has the required parts to move briskly, and break tackles. And yet, if the Falcons intend to beat the 49ers, Turner isn’t the most important running back on their roster.

Hell, he’s not even the lead back.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »