[Carter]

I saw a lot of good things... far more good things than bad. We had a much better game than I believed we would playing MNF on the road (something we've never been good at), let alone it being the Saints with the year they are having.

TATF is mind-numbing, but it was a great game and I think we learned a lot about this team. There can certainly be some good discussion here on this game.

First off, Matt Ryan. He's getting drubbed in TATF, but I honestly don't think he played a bad game. I thought he had a little more arm than what he showed last night... totally airing out his two long throws. Luckily Roddy caught one for a TD, but the last was obviously a poor Hail Mary heave which was intercepted by Darren Sharper. That doesn't kill me... Hail Mary throws are tough to fit in a good window and we had other opportunities earlier in the game to score.

I thought Ryan got harassed into making some throws that I thought he should have thrown away or perhaps thrown a little better. But that's hindsight and that's why I can't hate on the guy much... we still had a very good game and no one has escaped turning the ball over against the Saints multiple times this year.

Now for Turner... I believed he had to get going for us to have a shot in this game. He did and we did. I also said in here that I thought the Saints defense might be a little overrated... especially their run defense. I think their run defense got a little exposed last night. (They're missing Sedrick Ellis and that makes a difference... but honestly he's not good enough at this point to make that huge of an impact. I think he will be a monster in the coming years though.) Turner had a great game. A great game when we really needed a great game from him. Hopefully he keeps it going and our o-line can plow more holes for him.

Which makes for a good move into talking about our o-line. Basically... wtf? I'm confused by these guys. Baker got pushed around all night by Wil Smith. I don't even think Smith is that good, but maybe he's just got the right skills and ability going up against Baker. I don't know. I was very surprised by how much Ryan was under pressure though... and by how much Turner had to bounce outside to get his yards. I thought our o-line had solidified a bit more... but they are a very young line, so inconsistency is to be expected I suppose. I think they're still a strong unit, but I was not very pleased with their effort against the Saints in pass protection and their run blocking was also questionable at times.

Finally, the defense... I thought this would be the biggest test for our defense. In many ways it was and I thought they responded well for the most part. I'm disappointed that we got next to zero pressure on Brees, but pleased that somehow our secondary managed to have a fairly strong game considering the ridiculous passing attack the Saints have. Pleased that we came up with 4 turnovers, but disappointed we couldn't capitalize on those opportunities. Brent Grimes' interception was REDONKULOUS. The TD pass on Houston's coverage would have been a TD on anyone... he had great tight coverage. If he was any closer it would have been PI ten different ways.

We definitely need to get a number one guy at CB though. I think that's our biggest need on defense. We also reeeeeally need to do something about our pass rush, because it's pretty ugly right now.

[=abrahamburger=]

Good read. Baker was getting his lunch eaten last night and it was obvious. However, Clabo was doing his job all night and often he is an unsung workhorse for this team. Dahl gets a lot of press because he goes until the whistle (being in Prisco's #1 nastiest player gets him recognition as well).

I know the stat will never exist, but an INT is always charged to the QB. Whether it is a Hail Mary, tipped ball, missed catch, or bad throw: He gets the INT. This is only one of many reasons why stats can be misleading.

They were getting a lot of pressure on Ryan. However, I was squinting to look downfield at Jenkins and White. White was hustling to get free and Gonzalez is just, well, Gonzalez: A stud. I tried following Jenkins on a couple of plays and, I hate to say this, he stopped on his routes on more than one occasion. I've always been under the impression that if the QB is under pressure after you've run your route, you run towards the QB to avoid the sack and get a small gain. When I see Jenkins trotting because he knows he isn't getting the ball, I am disappointed.

I noticed Elam didn't get a reflection by you. Possibly because it was obvious his missed FG's hurt?

[slamee101]

Carter, on 03 November 2009 - 06:21 PM, said:

I saw a lot of good things... far more good things than bad. We had a much better game than I believed we would playing MNF on the road (something we've never been good at), let alone it being the Saints with the year they are having.

TATF is mind-numbing, but it was a great game and I think we learned a lot about this team. There can certainly be some good discussion here on this game.

First off, Matt Ryan. He's getting drubbed in TATF, but I honestly don't think he played a bad game. I thought he had a little more arm than what he showed last night... totally airing out his two long throws. Luckily Roddy caught one for a TD, but the last was obviously a poor Hail Mary heave which was intercepted by Darren Sharper. That doesn't kill me... Hail Mary throws are tough to fit in a good window and we had other opportunities earlier in the game to score.

I thought Ryan got harassed into making some throws that I thought he should have thrown away or perhaps thrown a little better. But that's hindsight and that's why I can't hate on the guy much... we still had a very good game and no one has escaped turning the ball over against the Saints multiple times this year.

Now for Turner... I believed he had to get going for us to have a shot in this game. He did and we did. I also said in here that I thought the Saints defense might be a little overrated... especially their run defense. I think their run defense got a little exposed last night. (They're missing Sedrick Ellis and that makes a difference... but honestly he's not good enough at this point to make that huge of an impact. I think he will be a monster in the coming years though.) Turner had a great game. A great game when we really needed a great game from him. Hopefully he keeps it going and our o-line can plow more holes for him.

Which makes for a good move into talking about our o-line. Basically... wtf? I'm confused by these guys. Baker got pushed around all night by Wil Smith. I don't even think Smith is that good, but maybe he's just got the right skills and ability going up against Baker. I don't know. I was very surprised by how much Ryan was under pressure though... and by how much Turner had to bounce outside to get his yards. I thought our o-line had solidified a bit more... but they are a very young line, so inconsistency is to be expected I suppose. I think they're still a strong unit, but I was not very pleased with their effort against the Saints in pass protection and their run blocking was also questionable at times.

Finally, the defense... I thought this would be the biggest test for our defense. In many ways it was and I thought they responded well for the most part. I'm disappointed that we got next to zero pressure on Brees, but pleased that somehow our secondary managed to have a fairly strong game considering the ridiculous passing attack the Saints have. Pleased that we came up with 4 turnovers, but disappointed we couldn't capitalize on those opportunities. Brent Grimes' interception was REDONKULOUS. The TD pass on Houston's coverage would have been a TD on anyone... he had great tight coverage. If he was any closer it would have been PI ten different ways.

We definitely need to get a number one guy at CB though. I think that's our biggest need on defense. We also reeeeeally need to do something about our pass rush, because it's pretty ugly right now.

I agree with most of this.

I think overall the Oline played well but Baker definitely struggled with Smith. Smith has had solid years but I was surprised to see Baker have some issues for the second week in a row. I think he'll get better as the season goes on though. We have to remember he missed a lot of time last year.

I think the TD you're talking about was on Hill...and I think it was just a tough play. Overall I thought we had good coverage in a lot of spots...Brees just made some great throws.

I thought the D was aggressive with the blitz packages but not TOO aggressive. I think that we may need to start mixing it up on 3rd downs though so we can get off the field more frequently.

Kudos to Mularkey and Turner. I think the major reason Turner got off is b/c Mularkey mixed up some of the looks that we were running out of and keep New Orleans guessing. That and Turner just running hard.

The Turner run late in the game and the Grimes INT were ridiculous.

I think Matt is fine. That play by Vilma was a great play and had he not deflected it that would have been 6.

I feel better about this team moving forward than I have for a number of years.

[Carter]

I didn't talk about Elam's misses because it slipped my mind when I wrote this up. It obviously hurt, but we did have other opportunities to score and we either stalled or turned it over. I don't know why he missed. No telling how the game would have turned out had he made them.

And I wasn't talking about Hill, I was just mistaken about it being a TD pass. It was the pass that led to the Reggie Bush walk in TD. It was just a perfect pass by Brees and a great catch by the receiver. Houston couldn't have possibly played it better.

Generally I thought our coverage was ok, but when we needed to come up with a stop on 3rd down it seemed like the Saints just couldn't be stopped. We had a few 3 and outs against them in the 3rd quarter, which was great to see, but we didn't put up points to make those 3 and outs matter. I don't know how much it would have helped to have a #1 corner in those situations though... Brees is very very effective in spreading the ball around.

I was disappointed with a lot of the blitzing we did because it was predictable and the Saints picked up on it pretty well. We rarely put pressure on Brees, even with the blitzing... sometimes because he'd just get rid of the ball too quick.

I do think Ryan is fine. The Saints have a much better secondary and Sharper is a huge part of that. Everywhere he's been the secondary has been pretty solid.

[DeathFromAbove]

I was there, we fought the whole time, other than the pick six Ryan threw I was fairly happy with our performance. New Orleans has so many people to catch the ball it's almost inevitable someone will get open. So our DBs did...alright.

[Carter]

DeathFromAbove, on 03 November 2009 - 08:25 PM, said:

I was there, we fought the whole time, other than the pick six Ryan threw I was fairly happy with our performance. New Orleans has so many people to catch the ball it's almost inevitable someone will get open. So our DBs did...alright.

Oh don't get me wrong, I think we played a very good game against the Saint. I'm kinda nit-picking at areas of improvement, because as we know football is a game of attrition and constant improvement is necessary.

Coy Wire's effort at the end of the game was nothing short of inspiring. That right there really impressed me about the team... we just were NOT about to give up on the game, not for one second. We're gonna fight and improve and finish this season strong. I absolutely love the culture and character change of our team with the new regime... Falcons teams of years past would have mailed it in and that's something that any Falcons fan of any length kinda expects, so it's great to see such a fighting team.

[DeathFromAbove]

Let me tell on myself, I was thinking "why the heck are we calling timeouts, just prolonging the agony!" But d--- if we didn't have a genuine chance for a miracle at the end.

[kjc34]

i was impressed with the game an we fought hard and had a chance to win in the end, although pressure got to ryan AGAIN and he didnt have time for the hail mary to set up ( tough play to run anyway)
not to rag on jenkins but wtf he dropped a potential first down for first and goal before elam missed the gimme kick and gruden and jawarski were on him to step up his game as he HAS too!! and yes baker had troubles with will ( who looked ten years younger in that game imo)
i was impressed with the defense with several 3 and outs in the second half ( coached em up at halftime? i bet smith was chewing some a@@ after givng up almost 300 yards in the first half) i believe coy caused a fumble and stripped the ball!! nicely done
and thanks to you guys for pf so we can actually talk about the game!!!

[falconsfan567]

I'm never happy with a loss but I couldn't be prouder of our boys. With the way that 1st half ended it would have been easy to throw in the tow and in years past we would have quit and that game would have turned into a 45-14 game. But our guys showed a ton of heart. Defense was unbelieveable in the 2nd half. To hold the Saints to only 7 points was great. Ryan didn't play as bad as his numbers showed. We got away from the running game too much in my opinion. We should have kept feeding Turner the ball. After we had cut it to 28-24 and had gotten the ball back we should have kepted running and after 2 great runs we went to the air for some unknown reason and Vilma made a great play tipping the ball and causing the interception. I don't mind going to the air as much as I do going for the kill right there on 2nd and 6 or 5 or whatever it was. To throw a 10 yard out route to Tony Gonzalez was a horrible play call. If you are going to do that play made it go to Roddy because he can get into and out of his cuts faster than Gonzalez. As far as the o-line goes Baker was getting killed by Baker but Matt didn't help the situation either. Many times when he decided to run he ran right up the middle and into an easy sack instead of running to the open space on the outside. I saw that on 3 or 4 plays. Jenkins has had drop problems again this year (unlike last year) but after that early drop he stepped up and made some really great catches. I don't know what the deal is with Elam this year. He must be hurt or something because that's 2 horrible games for him this year and he only missed 2 field goals all of last year. But like I said I couldn't be prouder of our boys. If we play with that same level of intensity and energy for the rest of the season we should win out and finish at 13-3. That wouldn't surprise me one bit. And no I'm not worried about having a letdown against the Redskins. Smitty and Ryan do a great job of keeping the team grounded and focused.

[falconsfan567]

DeathFromAbove, on 03 November 2009 - 11:19 PM, said:

Let me tell on myself, I was thinking "why the heck are we calling timeouts, just prolonging the agony!" But d--- if we didn't have a genuine chance for a miracle at the end.

While we're telling on ourselves I'll admit I thought the game was over at halftime and came this close to turning it off. I nearly did. I'm glad I didn't. But you guys understand where I'm coming from right? In years past that game would have been over at halftime and we would have lost 45-14.

[DeathFromAbove]

In the past it would have turned into a blowout - one difference is that the staff we have now MAKES ADJUSTMENTS at halftime - which you would think was a given but didn't seem to be the case w/ Reeves or Mora.

[Durrty]

Ahhh...I love this forum...I'm through with TATF...it's entirely too much nonsense for me to even skim through.

On to the game though, I couldn't be any more proud of this team man. Those guys fought hard the entire game, yes, we did make some mistakes, but I think these can easily be corrected. Our problems lie with pass protection and the pass rush. We have the coaching staff to tweek and make the necessary adjustments to put our players in position to make plays and it's showing that our players are getting better with each week. Ryan's INTs were a result of a blown PI call, a tipped pass, and a hail mary heave...none of those were from bad decision making. This is what a lot of the so-called "fans" didn't realize before they made those ridiculous threads in TAFT. Turner had a great game, but my concern is if he can continue playing at the same level for the remainder of the season. White had a great game as well, but in order for our offense to get rolling, we need all of the pieces to work. I'm upset with Jenkins...he needs to step up his level of play. The defense did well despite the injuries and inexperience. DeCoud's sack-fumble and Grimes INT were the best plays of the game for me. If that didn't give an inclination of how this defense is progressing then I don't know what will...I had my doubts about Grimes, but dude is balling!

[Carter]

I had some reservations about DeCoud, but he really has been making plays. Hopefully Moore pans out... I think he will. We seem to have 2 good safeties right now and if/when Coleman leaves Atlanta, hopefully Moore can step in and be effective.

Grimes plays with a lot of heart, I will give him that... it's part of his nature, why he's made the roster year after year with us. He's a fighter. I still believe that one of our biggest needs is a true #1 CB though. I think Houston would have to really compete just to get on the field with a lot of other teams in the league. Not that he hasn't earned his spot with the Falcons, he's the top talent we have at corner and that's not saying a whole lot as far as corners go in the NFL. CB has become a bigger need to me than OLB... unless our coaches feel that Owens can be that guy. Which I doubt... cuz #1 corners are usually #1 caliber from the start and only get better.

But yes, I will agree that Ryan is doing fine. While it's troubling to see his struggles, I think it's much more an effect of how high he has set the bar already. We expect him to be perfect and he just isn't... but that's ok. He still leads from the front and keeps our offense going with a winning mentality.

Really just can't stress enough how impressed I am with the effort and fight in this team. It's so refreshing to have that after all the years of giving up and giving in. We lost the game, but we gave them all they could handle and still had a chance to the very end. Couldn't say that much, if at all, until this new regime took over. The future is bright indeed. :)

[falconsfan567]

DeathFromAbove, on 05 November 2009 - 09:35 AM, said:

In the past it would have turned into a blowout - one difference is that the staff we have now MAKES ADJUSTMENTS at halftime - which you would think was a given but didn't seem to be the case w/ Reeves or Mora.

The only game I remember us being down by a lot and coming back to not lose was the game in Pittsburgh in 2002 that ended in a tie. We were down by 21 points I think it was and came back to force a tie.

Carter, on 06 November 2009 - 12:11 PM, said:

I had some reservations about DeCoud, but he really has been making plays. Hopefully Moore pans out... I think he will. We seem to have 2 good safeties right now and if/when Coleman leaves Atlanta, hopefully Moore can step in and be effective.

Grimes plays with a lot of heart, I will give him that... it's part of his nature, why he's made the roster year after year with us. He's a fighter. I still believe that one of our biggest needs is a true #1 CB though. I think Houston would have to really compete just to get on the field with a lot of other teams in the league. Not that he hasn't earned his spot with the Falcons, he's the top talent we have at corner and that's not saying a whole lot as far as corners go in the NFL. CB has become a bigger need to me than OLB... unless our coaches feel that Owens can be that guy. Which I doubt... cuz #1 corners are usually #1 caliber from the start and only get better.

But yes, I will agree that Ryan is doing fine. While it's troubling to see his struggles, I think it's much more an effect of how high he has set the bar already. We expect him to be perfect and he just isn't... but that's ok. He still leads from the front and keeps our offense going with a winning mentality.

Really just can't stress enough how impressed I am with the effort and fight in this team. It's so refreshing to have that after all the years of giving up and giving in. We lost the game, but we gave them all they could handle and still had a chance to the very end. Couldn't say that much, if at all, until this new regime took over. The future is bright indeed. :)

Right. Houston is a #2 corner when he has his A game working. Most of the time he's a #3 corner. Just shows how big of a problem that is for us.