Gameday Goods – Page 9 – FalconAlley Football

Welcome To The Claybo Sack Show

November 12, 2017

Dallas 7 at Atlanta 27

By Allison Smith
So, the game starts as usual. Off-setting penalties, then an exciting interception by the little heard from this season Desmond Trufant, but that is overturned due to a defensive penalty. So early, you already know how the game is going to go. But wait, the headline makes it sound like a better than average Falcon game. And it lived up to the hype.

Sean Weatherspoon is back and starting again. Trufant seemed already on his game like the Tru of 2016. Rookie Takk McKinley has several tackles for a loss in the first series, so Takk is coming in to his own as well now. We all know the defense has been doing their job this season, missing some tackles, but playing so much in the game, tiring out by the end.

Then, the storyline of the day, that you don’t know is the storyline this early. Adrian Clayborn, who has definitely returned healthy this season, has a sack, for a big loss and to cause a long 3^rd down. On the 3^rd down play, Claybo hits Dak Prescott as he releases the ball, that goes into the ground. The Cowboys punt and the Falcons begin their opening drive on their own 15.

After 2 hapless Devonta Freeman runs, the referee steps in noticing that Free is wobbly, but not mentioning anything to the team – as is Free’s normal. We now know that Freeman already has a concussion on the season, and he did not play again on the day. On the next play, the Cowboys defender, hugging Mohammad Sanu, tips the pass which is intercepted by another Cowboy, giving them the ball on the 21-yard line. I think this is when I tossed down my 3^rd drink of the day.

The Cowboys take over and the first pass was tipped by Deion Jones and could have been intercepted by Ricardo Allen, as he was reading Prescott’s eyes very well. A couple of plays later, Prescott, running for his life from Takk, while the receivers were covered, runs in for the touchdown. The good news is, now, we know that is the only score for the Cowboys.

The first play of the 2^nd offensive drive for the Falcons is a pass to Julio Jones. Catching, in typical Ju form, double covered and still hauling in the pass. Then, Matt Ryan begins the 2016 campaign of spreading the ball around. Mohamed Sanu, Austin Hooper, Tevin Coleman running. Maybe Freeman coming off the field inspired the offense to step up. This drive stalled and required a Matt Bryant 50-yard field goal, so guess his injury from the previous week is as good as healed. At the end of the first quarter, the Cowboys lead 7-3.

The defense was really making it difficult for the Dallas O all day. On a long 3^rd down, Prescott begins to run again and is met by, Claybo, yet again behind the line of scrimmage, for the 2^nd sack of the day. The Cowboys set up to punt, but instead attempt a pass, which was called back due to offensive pass interference and end up punting anyway. Back at the 42, Chris Jones punts the ball, that again Andre Roberts lets go over his head, where a Cowboy is already standing to down the ball and the offense gets to start yet another drive from their own 2.

An immediate pass to Julio at the 12 for a first down shows that Offensive Coordinator Steve Sarkisian has finally found the good play book that has been hidden away. Again, spreading the ball out to Coleman, Sanu, and Levine Toilolo. After a time out, clearly a confused offense, Demarcus Lawrence easily shoves by Ryan Schraeder to sack Matt Ryan forcing a 4^th down punt.

The Cowboys start at midfield due to a good punt return, but the defense stands up, forces loss of yards. Then, not wanting to be outdone, Dontari Poe comes over from the right side and lays Prescott out.

Taylor Gabriel starts the next drive on a misdirection handoff and a good Toilolo block, Turbo gains 15 yards. Then Jake Matthews has a penalty that negates the clobbering Ryan took because Schweitzer allowed two defenders easily by him. Coleman finally has a good run that gets additional yards based on being tackled by his helmet. Sanu sets up the defender, sets the angle for Ryan, who double clutches to see when Sanu is ready and makes a big catch leading into the 2-minute warning. Now, at the 15 with Terron Ward in the backfield, Ward runs up the middle for a couple of yards. Guess we should be happy Ward was even active this week with the injury to Freeman. Gabriel is hugged and stopped from getting to the end zone pass. With the pass interference penalty, the ball is moved to the 2.

Now, the fun begins. Dontari Poe is in at full back….now THAT is a FULL back. Also, Ben Garland is in on the line finally. Julio and Gabriel are both on the sideline, in case you think this is going to be a big pass play. This time, Poe makes a big enough hole and Coleman pushes in for the touchdown. Meanwhile, Garland has also moved his guys into the end zone as well. If anyone wants my improved line up suggestions.

With a minute and a half to go, the Cowboys come out trying with big play attempts. Trufant nearly gets an interception. The next play, the entire defensive line nearly gets a sack, but the elusive Prescott manages to escape and make it to the sideline for a first down. Flushed out again, Vic Beasley chases Prescott down for a 2-yard gain. With Zeke Elliot out, apparently Prescott is the only runner and runs again for a first down. Jason Whitten is finally targeted for a 6-yard reception and is pushed out by De’Vondre Campbell. While still at midfield, Claybo sacks Prescott again, not even forcing a fumble, but stripping the ball out of Dak’s arms before allowing him to go to the ground. Grady Jarrett’s arm was on Prescott’s back too, so there was not going to be any escape.

With only a few seconds going into the half and being near midfield, Ryan lobs it up a couple of times to no avail. Going into half time with the 10/7 lead.

111217 Tevin run — Tevin Coleman Making Up for the Freeman Injury – Photo Credit: Atlanta Falcons

We start the second half by lighting it up. A huge run by Coleman and 26-yard reception by Jones on the sideline quickly get the Falcons into Cowboys territory. Then a big catch by Hooper is negated by a block in the back by Toilolo. Gabriel, having his most targets of the season, makes an incredible catch down the middle after escaping coverage and sets the O up at the 8 with a first down. Ryan, while being tackled, gets a pass to Julio who is being covered by 3 defenders. Then, Justin Hardy makes a great move to escape the coverage, runs along the back of the end zone and gives Ryan the perfect touchdown target.

The Cowboys come out working the run pretty well for a couple of first downs. Clayborn and Jarrett were closing, but Prescott is getting rid of the ball much quicker now. Down in the red zone, Prescott drops back and has no clue that Clayborn has now left his feet and is about to land on him, for Claybo’s 4^th sack of the day…so far….and a loss of 7 yards. Campbell causes a loss of 2 on the next play. On 3^rd down, they cannot get back to the line of scrimmage. The 38-yard field goal attempt dings the upright and falls out to the right.

111217 Turbo — Turbo Showing His Speed Photo Credit: Atlanta Falcons

After taking over and a few short plays, Gabriel, with inside leverage, catches a 34-yarder across the middle, turns on his Turbo speed and goes. Coleman gets a first down along the left sideline. Down at the 15 with a first down, the 3^rd quarter ends. Hooper gets to the 1-foot line. Poe is back in at fullback, then on play action, Hooper gets the 1-yard touchdown reception.

After a 2 yard loss caused by Deion Jones, an errant pass, it’s 3^rd down….Claybo and Dak get together again. This forces a punt from deep in Dallas territory, giving the Falcons the ball back near midfield. Both Coleman and Ward blasting out big runs have the Falcons quickly in the red zone again. Unfortunately, all the Falcons could manage was another successful field goal and the game is set at 27/7.

Really late in the game, Whitten final gets another big pass to move the Cowboys to the 35-yard line. The next play is another errant pass based on a quick throw because of Clayborn swarming close. In the annoying prevent defense, the Cowboys continue to drive down the field. Clayborn almost has another sack, but falls/gets tripped. Robert Alford and Trufant had great coverage of Dez Bryant all day. With 3^rd and 6 at the 20, Prescott is scrambling with Beasley and Clayborn on his heels. With just over 4 minutes to go, the Cowboys have to go for it on 4^th down. Not to be forgotten for his early season game winning sack, Brooks Reed sacks Prescott, deep in the backfield, closely flanked by Beasley and Jarrett. While, on the same play, there was offensive holding, which must have been the only thing keeping Clayborn for being back there too.

The next Falcon drive goes for nothing with runs up the middle and the Cowboy defense standing up, trying to get the ball back for their offense. Little did they know what that would entail.

The 2^nd play in the Cowboys final drive, Clayborn strip sacks Prescott. Completely in the backfield, way behind Prescott, Clayborn knocks the ball out, Takk and Jarrett both see the loose ball and head for it, where Takk recovers the fumble, giving the Falcons offense the ball back. Claybo is then attacked by Reed, Rocky, Debo, all jumping on him in celebration. He smiles, walks over to the sideline like, “Another day another dollar.”

Dallas had utilized all of their time outs, Atlanta ran out the clock and the Falcons are officially back on track. We hope.

Injury Report: Devonta Freeman, concussion, no updates yet. Not yet ruled out against Seattle, but I would suggest unlikely.

Iron Falcon: Obviously, Adrian Clayborn defensively. Claybo passes the great Chuck Smith and legend Claude Humphrey who both tallied 5 sacks in a single game. Clayborn’s 6 sacks not only set a Falcon record, but clearly took the Cowboys out of their passing game and without the running of Zeke Elliott, Prescott was left to run or pass really quick himself.

#RiseUp

FalconAlley Owt

Falcons In A Fog

Atlanta 7 at New England 23

October 22, 2017

By: Allison Smith

And I don’t just mean the weather. It seems that after the first New England score, the fireworks went up, and the fog came down. From that point on, it was clear that the fog set in on the Falcons as well, taking over 90 minutes to score points from the previous game to just over 5 minutes left in this one.

The game started well enough. The Falcons won the coin toss, deferred to the second half, and put their fast and physical defense on the field. The Patriots had a 5-minute, 9 play drive that resulted in a forced punt short of midfield. At this point, Deion Jones and Keanu Neal both were already amassing tackles and making their presence known. Then, the Falcons offense came out….and….went 3 and out. Again. Then Matt Bosher comes out to punt. Short. Again. Not to be a Negative Nelly, but this is likely when Falcon fans should have turned off the game and gone to bed. We all know, they were going to refer to the Super Bowl 200+ times, so at best, we would be tortured to the end of the game, win or lose.

102217 DeVondre Campbell Sack — De’Vondre Campbell’s Sack of Tom Brady – Atlanta Falcons

On the second Patriot possession, the first play, Tom Brady drops back and is immediately sacked by De’Vondre Campbell. So, you start to think this may go well. On 2^nd and 17, Brady goes deep to Rob Gronkowski, who is called for offensive pass interference. Suddenly, a couple plays later, the Patriots are punting again.

While everything is still looking positive, the Falcons take the field again. Ryan fakes to Tevin Coleman, bootlegs to Julio Jones, who has a stretch run, gaining 16 yards. Devonta Freeman and Coleman are sharing the load already. On a 4^th and 7 near midfield, Ryan drops back and looks, then takes off running to the right and gains the first down. After a short Freeman run, have a play action pass to Mohammed Sanu for 19 yards over the middle. A few plays later after a pass to Andre Roberts is knocked incomplete, Matt Bryant comes on to kick a 37-yard field goal….and Cassius Marsh comes between the left guard and tackle and blocks the attempt. This is for sure your sign. Good news, Ben Garland is in for special teams and ended the play after the Patriots recovered the blocked kick.

Again, first play of the Patriots drive is met with a sack. This one, after a nice spin move by Vic Beasley, Jr., giving him his 3^rd sack of the season. Desmond Trufant stuffs the run, and the first quarter ends in a 0/0 tie.

On 3^rd and 11, the offense draws Brian Poole and a speeding Grady Jarrett into the backfield, now on 3^rd and 16, Brady finds Chris Hogan for 20 yards downfield. And this is how the rest of the game would go. Atlanta NOT converting on third downs, while New England had big gains on third downs. Brady has a pass intercepted by Robert Alford in the end zone, it is nullified by a roughing the passer penalty (similar to last week, not a late hit, but head to head hit) by Adrian Clayborn. On the sideline, Head Coach Dan Quinn asked what they called, and it seemed Claybo was confused on when you can still hit the quarterback, not realizing out of the pocket, he was still seen as a quarterback and could not be touched. Now at the Atlanta 16, two plays later, the Patriots score the first touchdown of the game.

The Falcon offense comes back out aggressive. Ryan fakes it to Freeman and throws a bomb to Julio, but his feet are tangled with the defender and it’s second down. A pass behind the line to Taylor Gabriel, then hit a defender in the helmet, and Bosher is back on for a 49-yarder, where Justin Hardy hits the punt returner immediately.

The Patriots continue their drive, and again the Clemson tandem of Jarrett and Beasley combine for stop. On the 2^nd down, Beasley applies the pressure and causes a 1-yard pass play that Jarrett ends with a solo tackle. Then Neal, watching Brady’s eyes, has a perfect pass knockdown in the end zone, causing a New England field goal.

With under 5 minutes until the half, the Falcons start their comeback drive. Freeman has a nice 11-yard crossing the field gain, gives a little juke and has a great cutback, and then his speed kicks in. The offense goes no huddle, 13 yards to Sanu, a 6-yard run by Freeman is called back with offsetting penalties, then the single target to Coleman is incomplete, and Ryan is sacked. With 3^rd and 20, Julio Jones catches a 14-yard pass for his 8007^th receiving yard (2^nd fastest to 8000 yards). Sadly, the Falcons needed 20 yards, but with 4^th and 6 to go, again, at midfield, the offense stays on the field. A Ryan overthrow of Sanu gives the Patriots great field position with almost 2 minutes to go. Seven plays later, the Patriots have their second touchdown of the game and take a 17/0 lead into the half. The Falcons did have 3 offensive plays, but not enough to get far enough down the field for even a Bryant field goal attempt.

The Falcons received the ball in the 3rd quarter, marched pretty well down the field until being stopped at the 17 (just inside the red zone) and then had Bryant hit the goal post on the 37-yard field goal attempt.

Once again, Brady and team march down the field, passing to Hogan, running behind Dion Lewis, and with a 1st and goal, the defense stands up, allowing the Patriots down to the 1, where Beasley and Kemal Ishmael combine to push Mike Gillislee back to the 3, forcing another field goal.

With a heavy dose of Freeman (who in his 3^rd game that I have notice running really angry), and some help from Jones, the Falcons move down the field. On 2^nd and goal, Sanu makes an awesome catch with double coverage and lands just outside of the end zone, 10 inches to be exact. Then, instead of Freeman or Coleman up the middle, or even Dontari Poe passing the ball, or a Sanu 12 Gauge, Ryan throws low to Jones allowing Malcolm Butler to make a good play on the ball. Then on a jet sweep to Gabriel, he loses 5 yards. This playing in completely questionable, but also, the execution was poor, with the blockers for Gabriel being easily taken down.

With an entire quarter to play, you can already feel the stake to the heart. The Pats drive down to the 20, where Poole makes the stop causing 4^th down and the final field goal of the day. With over 9 minutes remaining, the Falcons use over half of that time, and over 90 minutes since their last score, to finally find Julio Jones in the end zone. Naturally, Ju makes a miraculous catch, snatching the ball out of the air and away from defenders.

102217 Julio Touchdown — Julio Jones Snatching The Ball Out of the Air – Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta has an onside kick, recovered by the Patriots, who graciously only drove to the 17 where they took a knee from the 2-minute warning to the end.

Once again, there has been no offensive rhythm. If Freeman has a few good runs, they pull him out and put in Coleman. While I think they are both awesome running backs, and have crazy numbers, running in tandem, the team needs to pick a starter. Let Freeman, the highest paid RB in the league, earn his money. Let him tell you when he is ready for a break. Use Julio Jones….MORE. Make 3^rd downs shorter. The first half were 3^rd and 11, 8, and 2. Second half had 3^rd and 16, 1, 8, and 9. Successfully on 2 of 9. Then, of course the famous 4^th and 6 and 7s.

Freeman and Coleman combined for 88 yards. Julio was a yard short of 100. Sanu, welcomed back from his hamstring injury, was on fire with 65 yards, while others had 1 or 2 catches only. Once again, the defense was on the field too long, but does allow them to run up stats. Poe and Jarrett were both on the field for 77 snaps, Beasley for 47, Brooks Reed 45. Campbell led the team in tackles with 8 total and the forced fumble on the sack. Ishmael, who came in when Duke Riley went out injured, quickly amassed 9 total tackles, with Jones and Neal just behind with 11 and 10 combined. The Clemson boys had 5 a piece, and of course, Beasley’s sack.

Overall, this game was a complete suck. Even without the Super Bowl revenge, which clearly the team was not buying into, you would have thought they would have put on a better show. Now, we watch, and wait. See what the 3 game road trip holds. They head up to the 3 – 4 Jets, who just got beat by Miami earlier in the day. Then, to Carolina…which at least will be a home game for me, and many, many Falcon fans will make the 85 North trek. Hopefully, the fog will be lifted by next Sunday.

Injury Update: Deion Jones was dinged up, but returned to the game. Duke Riley is having knee surgery and expected to be out at least 4 weeks.

Due to the Riley injury, Sean Weatherspoon is back, bringing a veteran presence and some spunk back to the locker room. Let’s home this helps.

Iron Falcon: If one can continue to be awarded on such a bad loss. De’Vondre Campbell. He tried to set the tone early with a big sack and pressuring Brady all day. Julio Jones, for always being unselfish, getting to over 8000 receiving yards, nearly 100 yards on the day, and his first touchdown of the season, and not even caring because it was in a losing effort.

#RiseUp

FalconAlley Owt

Photos Courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons

Falcons Not Ready for Prime Time

Atlanta 7 at New England 23

October 22, 2017

By: Allison Smith

Apparently, the Atlanta Falcons were not ready for Prime Time. The long awaited Super Bowl rematch occurred on Sunday Night Football. Except, even with all the questions, story lines, and hype, it truly was not a rematch. The New England Patriots came in with 2 losses and the 32^nd ranked defense. The Falcons came in…off back to back winnable losses and played their worst game of the season.

The Patriots started with the ball, had an 11-play drive, encompassing 5 penalties between the 2 teams. Very sloppy start on both sides. The Falcons defense forces the punt and seem to have a good plan on the night. Then, the offense goes 3 and out. Once again, before the defense can even sit down, they are back on the field after a Matt Bosher 35-yard punt.

That’s right, not only did Bosher have another bad punt this week, Matt Bryant had one field goal blocked and another hit the goal post. That should have really been your clue this game was over early.

The Patriots really did not do anything spectacular, except stay on the field. Which we have found is incredibly affective. You don’t give Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Devonta Freeman a chance to explode. You tire out the defense. So, it doesn’t take allot to outscore the Falcons. The defense was able to force 3 field goals.

On the good side, Ju finally got his first touchdown of the season. Which I am sure means more to statisticians than to Julio, it was so late, too late in the game to help. Julio also reached 8000 yards, the 2nd fastest receiver to do so. Defensive positives include a big sack by De’Vondre Campbell for a 7-yard loss on NE’s second drive, a Vic Beasley, Jr. sack, and a Robert Alford interception, which, was of course returned on a defensive penalty.

The story of this week is the question of what has happened to our Falcons?!? The entire NFL seems to be in a vortex of confusion this year. Except for Cleveland and San Francisco (both still winless), everyone else is up and down any given week. If a team started off undefeated, they’ve had 2 losses, if they started off in the hole, they are on a win streak.

So, the Falcons are not out of anything yet, even sitting in third place of the NFC South. Luckily, they have not played anyone in their division…yet. In 2 weeks, they start with the Panthers, who are suffering their own woes. Apparently, both teams’ set of fans are calling for the heads of their respective Offensive Coordinators. Mike Shula, who has been with the Panthers as long as Cam Newton, while Steve Sarkisian is in his first season with the Falcons.

The real confusion seems, we heard that Ryan greeted Sark on Day 1 with a hand shake and the current playbook. Seems that Sark lost that, and Dan Quinn doesn’t have his to share. With all of the offensive weapons at his disposal, Ryan should be able to have more success than he is having so far. Ryan admitted he is not playing his best, yet, and there are some throws he would like to have back. This week, one such includes the incomplete low pass to Jones in the end zone, that allowed the defender to knock it away. In the simplest followship of the playbook, even I can remember that everyone got at least one pass a week. Austin Hooper had 1 catch on his single target, and the former leading receiver, Tevin Coleman had 1 target.

Ryan and Quinn both commented on Monday, that they felt confident in the play calling throughout the game, including two 4^th down attempts near midfield, and the 4^th and inches jet sweep to Taylor Gabriel at the goal line. Only 1 of those was successful. One has to question why you would go for a 4^th and 7 and 4^th and 6 at midfield, and why run a jet sweep to Turbo instead of rushing the best running back in the league up the middle in a short yardage situation. Once again, my personal call for Ben Garland, this time as a full back opening the way for Free. Freeman gained 47 yards after contact and forced 4 missed tackles on a mere 12 carries. How do you not give him the ball at the goal line?

Apparently the issues with the offense is due to execution and inconsistency. Ryan’s errant throws, tipped passes, missed blocks, dropped passes. Without focusing on the run game, they cannot open up the passing game. Once again, Coleman and Freeman did not have 100 yards rushing combined.

So far, in six games, Ryan has thrown for 300 yards, in one game. Jones has had 100 yards, in one game. Follow me here…..Freeman has rushed for over 100 yards….in one game. There is clearly no offensive rhythm. First and second downs are marginal at best, but converting on third down has become nearly impossible, as it is almost always 3^rd and long.

Missed tackles, ill-timed penalties, lack of turnovers, i.e., inconsistency is haunting the defense as well.

I may not know what the answer is, but I think that many of us do not think anyone at The Branch does either. Everyone seems to think they are having great practices, working the process, just need to fix these couple of issues. Except these issues, are different every week. The O did not turn the ball over, and the D had less missed tackles, which is execution. But, are they really coming to the field as prepared as they should be? Are these play calls the best for the members we have?

If so, how are the Atlanta Falcons, with only additions to the Super Bowl team, this chaotic and bad?

#RiseUp

FalconAlley Owt

Falcons, Their Own Worst Enemy

Miami 20 at Atlanta 17

October 15, 2017

Photos & Article by: Allison Smith

The game started off a little sluggish. The Falcons received the opening kickoff, but once again were not able to score a touchdown, held to a 50-yard field goal. By the time it was 17/0, I felt better and confident and assumed the second half would be a repeat of the first half instead of a repeat of previous games. The Falcons did not score a point in the second half, and actually had limited offensive snaps. Offensive Coordinator, Steve Sarkisian, was in the box for the first time this week, supposedly able to see the field and plays better and therefore make quicker adjustments.

The opening drive did have a few good plays, one of which was by Julio Jones. He was not credited with the catch as he was blanketed with a defender. Note though, that Julio, while completely hugged, did catch the ball on the sideline and likely would have been credited with that 12 yard catch. Unfortunately, a few plays later, at 3 and 1, Matt Ryan tossed several yards back to Tevin Coleman, who ran up, but still lost a yard. This forced the first Matt Bryant field goal of the day. Of course it was successful, even at 50 yards. Bryant was listed earlier in the week as sitting out some practices with back issues, we did not see those Sunday.

Deion Jones was on fire Sunday, nearly collecting 3 interceptions. One was almost, one was an interception, and a third was an interception that was negated due to a penalty. Whatever “get the ball” speech was given last week took for Debo at least. And other defenders were definitely reaching for strips allot on the day. Keanu Neal was back to the power hitting he is known for.

After Debo’s near interception and a big stop by Neal, the Falcons moved the ball quickly between Taylor Gabriel and Jones, who refuses to be tackled. Then, Marvin Hall, who was on the practice roster Saturday morning. Active roster Saturday afternoon. End zone Sunday. Just before the end of the first quarter, Ryan hit Hall with a 40 yard pass for the first touchdown of the game.

We start to see the game turn around now. Jay Cutler has 3 errant passes, caused by pressure from the Falcons D line and a good Brian Poole break up. The Dolphins punt, thinking they are trapping the Falcons deep, but expert returner Andre Roberts puts a linebacker block on the gunner ensuring the ball drops into the end zone and the Falcons O starts on the 20. Then instantly, an Andy Levitre has a false start and they start on the 15. And, here we go. The beginning of the end. Julio now tips the ball, but not for an interception. Coleman and Devonta Freeman both had unsuccessful runs. Well, stopped deep in their own territory, the ever dependable Matt Bosher comes on to punt. And kicks it out of bounds near midfield.

On the Dolphins next drive, the defense stepped up. Poole knocked the air out of Cutler, Robert Alford his the runner so hard, his own helmet came off. Miami then, disrespectfully goes for it on 4^th and 3 at the 39. And Dontari Poe, the big man in the middle knocks the pass back to Cutler.

Energized by the big stop, the offense comes out hitting on all cylinders now. Freeman goes for a big 44 yard gain, as he gets in the open field, the jets turn up and as he feels the defenders, he double wraps the ball. Free is so smart and aware and loves to eat. A couple of plays later Coleman stretches for the end zone, crosses, fumbles, recovers and the Falcons are now up 17 to 0. I think everyone (in black and red) in the Benz Nest now feels better about the game and safe and ready for a quick half time break.

With just over 2 minutes until halftime, much drama ensues. The Dolphins have already been a little chippy all game. Which continues, including Takk McKinley and Poole. I personally would pick another Falcon to fight before Takk, but to each his own. Some shoving and talking. De’Vondre Campbell gets a personal foul for a “late hit” on Cutler, Desmond Trufant almost gets a pick himself. After the 2 minute warning, Grady Jarrett gets a big tackle. Debo knocks one down, along with the crowd, the impending defensive look causes a false start. Then suddenly, the Deion Jones interception on the day!

With limited time remaining, the offense drives quickly, with the benefits of the stars, Freeman and J Jones making big plays, then with 2 seconds remaining, they try a 59 yard Bryant field goal. The ball falls short, a Dolphin under the goal posts runs the ball out and takes a pretty vicious hit from Bosher. With that miss, the half ends and the scoring for the Falcons ends.

The second half started well enough. The Dolphins received the ball, Cutler isn’t getting his feet set on pass attempts due to the Falcons rush. Jarrett almost gets a sack on Cutler, then he and fellow Clemson teammate Vic Beasley, Jr. combine for a tackle. Had to be in the middle of that. The D keeps standing up, causing 4^th downs, then on a 4^thand 1, allow a 3 yard gain. Neal continues his hitting streak, the defense starts tipping balls of their own, Beasley almost making a pick of his own. While almost doesn’t count, but at least the effort is there, just not the full execution. Then, possibly my favorite play of the game. The D has a false start, Cutler recognizes the free play, as he drops back to lob up a big pass, until he notices TAKK coming strong. Cutler immediately downs the ball.

Unfortunately, that bit of fun was not enough and the Dolphins continued their drive and scored. The Falcons O, goes 3 and out. Another unusual short, Bosher punt up to the 49. And it is all downhill from here for sure. Jones has another interception, runs all over the field for limited yards, but was trying at least. Two flags are seen. One is the expected block in the back, with so much change of direction. The other, a roughing the passer call, which was before the interception, therefore nullified the interception, giving Miami the ball back deep in the Falcons territory leading to another touchdown.

Now, I know this is a crap call because I check my twitter feed and they say this call is on Grady Jarrett. Just because he is so big and fast, does not make him dirty. Jarrett clarified the call on Dukes and Bell on 92.9 The Game this week. He chatted with the referee making the call, it was not a late hit, the ref felt like Jarrett hit Cutler too high. Sadly, besides this call being hogwash, it was a game changer. The Falcons having the ball vs. the Dolphins keeping the ball with a short field.

As the 4^th quarter begins, the Falcons drive up to midfield, then implode. Jake Matthews gets a holding call. Freeman gets no yards. Ryan is sacked. THEN the capping blow. Bosher doesn’t even have a chance for a bad punt because Josh Harris has a low snap, Bosher runs for a yard or two and Miami has the ball at the 50.

The defense has had a minute off the field, but come back on, Jarrett causes a 2^nd bad throw. It’s 4^th and 2 at the 44, and the Dolphins gain 9 yards. Campbell, who has been impressive and active all day, knocks a Cutler pass back at him forcing a field goal to tie the game.

The offense goes 3 and out again, but thankfully Bosher hits his usual (55 yard) huge punt finally. Poole starts to step up to the Poole we know and snaps up a fumble and heads down the field, with whistles blowing to signal a downed play. The defense is really going after the ball late in the game. Campbell knocks down another pass, forcing another field goal, giving Miami the 3 point lead, with over 2 minutes to go in the game. MORE than enough time for Matty Ice to bring out another miracle.

The Falcons quickly march down the field as Miami was giving up the run and under passes, but nothing over the top. Miami was playing for the tie. With 47 seconds to go, I turned to a neighbor and said, “Just put Money (Matt Bryant) out there and tie this up and let us have a few minutes break. Coach did not listen to me, the drive continued, until, you guessed it, an interception. This was not a tipped ball, if that makes it any easier to swallow. Austin Hooper should have caught the ball, however, this game is not on him. First, he was being tackled and the ball knocked out by another Tiger, rookie Cordrea Tankersly. Reshad Jones caught the ball for the final real play of the game. Miami, who had been fighting and cheap shotting all day, now storm the field, run around like they won the super bowl, received an unsportsmanlike penalty, which backed them up for the final snap and kneel down of the game.

Ryan finished the game 24 of 35 for 248 yards a single touchdown and a single interception, his 6^th of the season. The Falcons have moved too far away from the running game, with Freeman and Coleman combining for 82 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown (by Coleman) in the first half. In the second half, they had six rushes for 18 yards combined. The offense had 54 plays on the day. The Dolphins controlled the tempo of game most of the day. Coleman, the leading receiver before Sunday was targeted once on 37 passes.

Ricardo Allen led the defense with 7 solo tackles. Debo had 11 combined and an interception, followed by Neal with 8, and Campbell’s 4. Campbell is excited to go against Rob Gronkowski next week. He definitely has the size to handle Gronk.

The Falcons had 6 penalties for 73 yards, again, at the worst possible times.

Overall, I do not think this is a Super Bowl hangover, or another choke job. If you’ve been around long enough, you know this is how the Falcons play sometimes. Doesn’t make it any better, just an observation. The defense still looked gassed early in the 3^rd quarter, offense is still not clicking or using all of their weapons.

While, this is very frustrating, I will always support my team and pick myself back up for Sunday night’s “Super Bowl Rematch.” Let’s go ahead and figure out our over/under on the number of times the Super Bowl is mentioned. Remember, we may have given up the biggest lead ever, but we also took the great New England Patriots with Tom Brady to OVERTIME.

Dan Quinn may have very well been playing possum these last two weeks, just to get the biggest revenge of them all. We all know that is unlikely, but wouldn’t that be a worth it couple of losses?

I am expecting a big win this week and the season to go up from there.

Iron Falcon Award: Two 2nd year defenders this week. Deion Jones should have been credited with 3 interceptions and was active all day. De’Vondre Campbell for knocking down numerous passes and being very disruptive in the backfield.

#RiseUp

FalconAlley Owt

Falcons Déjà Vu….the Bad Way

Miami 20 at Atlanta 17

October 15, 2017

By Allison Smith

First, sigh, shake your head, then relax, and try not to panic. If you have been a Falcon fan since before the 2012 season, you know this is typical Atlanta Falcons football. Take the full 60 minutes and win, or break your heart. Being a fan since the early 1980’s, I got use to this. But then we got spoiled with the Mike Smith winning years, and last year with the Super Bowl run. All is not lost. We have the team to do this year, we just need to wipe out the mistakes.

Clearly we all know, the untimely penalties are killing us. There were 6 for 73 yards this week. A couple on offense to back us up, and of course the “roughing the passer” penalty on Grady Jarrett (clearly that is hogwash) that negated a Deion Jones interception late in the game. In stadium, we never got to see the replay, but I think we all know that Grady would not hit someone late. If Jay Cutler was just standing there, he’s gonna get hit. Jarrett is a big guy, he can’t stop on a dime.

One note that likely everyone did not see, there was a defensive encroachment, so Cutler knew he had a free play, however, as he dropped back and scanned the field, preparing to throw, he saw a quickly closing Takk McKinley and downed the ball. Cutler must have seen Takk fighting linemen earlier and decided not to take that on himself.

Also, turnovers, not helping so much. At least this week, Debo had a couple of picks and if you watched, the defense was definitely aggressively going for the ball. On many of the gang tackles, because that is often what it took to make a tackle again this week, the defenders were actively reaching for the ball. The Falcons offense ended with only 1 interception this week, but at the worst possible time. Near the end of the game, driving for the win, a low pass to Austin Hooper was knocked out and intercepted by Georgia boy, Reshad Jones. Hooper possibly could have fought harder for the ball, but Clemson boy, rookie Cordrea Tankersly made a good play to knock the ball out. I am not less annoyed, but it not being yet another tipped pass for an interception is a slight positive.

I said, with 47 seconds left, and the ball on the 29, to let Matt Bryant do his thing and take the tie and see what overtime holds. With the recent turnovers and red zone woes, I still think that would have been a good, logical idea. Clearly, the Dolphins were playing for the tie, as they were not letting anything over the top.

Dontari Poe and Grady Jarrett were being double teamed again this week, but, along with others, getting major pressure on Cutler. Many passes, he was not able to set his feet and you could tell with is passes. Jarrett had 4 tackles, 1 combined with Clemson teammate Vic Beasley, Jr., while Poe only had 1 tackle, but also a key knockdown as well. Who knew Poe could jump like that?!?

On a happy note, highlight reel, Marvin Hall was moved to the active roster on Saturday and had a 40-yard touchdown reception on Sunday. Sadly, he was only on the field a few more snaps
and did not have another reception. Maybe, Hall would have been a good target on the day?

When you really knew the game was going downhill……early in the second quarter, the Falcons receive a punt, on 1^st and 10 Andy Levitre has a false start, backing the offense up. They go 3 and out, and I said, “At least we have Bosher, he will….oh crap.” Before I could finish my sentence, he hits a 37-yard punt that goes out of bounds at the Miami 44. Later, Bosher had another short punt, 26 yards to the Miami 49. We all know this is very unusual. To add insult to injury, Josh Harris has the first horrible snap I can even remember, causing Bosher to try to run the ball…all of this happening at midfield.

In the end, the Falcons had 54 plays on the day and the Dolphins really controlled the tempo of the game, especially the run game, both sides. Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman combined for 18 carries and a total of 100 yards, exactly. Freeman had one of 44 yards and Coleman a long of 20, so take those big runs away, and our rushing game was 36 yards. THAT is not our kind of running game.

Again, within the fan base at least, there is question as to the use of Julio Jones. While we realize he is often double teamed, Ju can catch nearly anything anyway. On the opening drive, Julio was interfered with, i.e. tackled as he was attempting to catch a 12-yard pass on the sideline. The PI was called and enforced, and if you noticed, Julio still caught the ball and would have come down with the pass anyway. Julio caught 6 of the 7 times he was targeted, so he is healthy and reliable as ever.

With Mohamed Sanu still out with his injury, we finally got to see some good targets and catches for Justin Hardy and Taylor Gabriel, both of who stepped up and did a good job, combining for 73 yards. I thought early on, this was going to be the Turbo Show. Sadly, this still did not open up the much needed running game however. And the Falcons scored no point in the second half.

I’m no coach and never played, but the defense comes out after half time looking gassed to start. I thought we were so fast and physical and deep. I don’t know if running in and out is causing more trouble than letting guys play more consecutive plays. But, I do know, we have too much talent on this team for missed tackles, tipped balls, and 17 points against a wayward Miami team. Cutler had an all-star game compared to the entire first 4 games of his 2017 season.

I am always Falcon Faithful, but that doesn’t mean I am not frustrated right now. Mark down my prediction for Sunday Night Football…..34/0. I haven’t made up my mind if it goes to the Falcons or the evil Patriots….but I feel a blow-out coming one way or the other. Forget the Super Bowl rematch, too much has happened and changed for both teams since that ill-fated night in February.

#RiseUp

FalconAlley Owt