We as a team by far have been to vanilla and predictable all season. I have been hoping that they have just been holding back on the full playbook roll-out in order to give teams something different each week that hasn’t been seen on film, but one or 2 new plays each week aint gonna cut it( a flea flicker? how original!!) Grayson may have a legit point about Turner not running like he did in preseason and last season due to fear of fumbling the ball, it is harder to hit the hole going fast if your holding the ball like a fullback with both hands on it, and your not looking for the cutback or counter, he’s just going forward, hitting the pile and hoping he comes thru! That is not how turner runs the ball, he would getr the handoff going forward fast and hit the hole if it was there as designed or cutback to the B gap, since he normally is running thru the A gap- ALMOST EVERY TIME HE RUNS IT!! IDK, but this could be a valid point.
And yes, I have been arguing for some type of screen passes to slow down the opposing teams pass rush since Sunday night!! We need these type of plays to also give the defense another type of attack to think about, and yes we need to mix up our formations, we only have about 5 or 6 it seems that we run about 2 to 3 different plays out of each of these formations, what is that 10-18 different plays? Thats not a lot for a defense to prepare for, we’re making it easy for defenses to predict what we are about to do. Just imagine this- we’re not doing to bad now on offense whike being predictable, what could we achieve if the defenses didn’t know what was coming?!!
 Yes we have great weapons, but if the defenses know that out of each formation WHERE our weapons are going to be running too out of that formation then they can eliminate the threat of those weapons drastically on EVERY play!!
 Another possible scenario we could run, Change up the receiver sets, put roddy at the slot and weems on the outside opposite of jenkins. simple but defenses would be like" hey, what is this, what are they doing?" I loved the weems in the backfield, running a wheel/go route on the last TD Sunday, thats the type of different plays we need to be running more of. Not a ton more just 12-15 plays a game with a completely different formation with these type of wrinkles rolled into them. HERE IS WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT, JUST BY CHANGING YOUR FORMATIONS THE OFFENSE CAN BE THE ONE CREATING THE MATCHUPS IT WANTS!! By running the same formations then the defense gets to create the matchups they want, cuz they have gameplanned and decided on who is covering who out of that formation, but if we just switch 2 players or move a TE to fullback, etc.. then we decide on who has to cover our guys from their defense, NOT THEM!! This is what Peyton and the Colts do every week!!!!
Lets just hope that mularkey can find some imagination to pump into our offense before monday nights game!!

LETS GO FALCONS!!
L-DAWG

I agree re: the predictability of the offense, more variation than in the Cowboys-game is surely needed.

But on the other hand, I think they are actually trying to set up more variation, it just isn’t working out as planned. And yes, I’m talking about Turner.

See, just like Ed Edwina said, Turner is not that far off of this last years numbers save for those few big plays that are missing this year. He might be off mentally (‘cause he is carrying the ball with less confidence than last year, and he had these two lost fumbles before the bye week which maybe had influence on his momentum and everything), but in terms of opposite psychology, he just wasn’t there as the big threat he used to be. Which leads to defenses playing more soft zone, eyeballing Ryan, Gonzo and White and safely hoping that Turner won’t resurrect.

In fact, what’s weird about that, is that he actually had this 3 TD game against SF, and the SF run defense was kinda cool before that. AP didn’t score against them, Turner did three times. And yet there was no visible effect on the defensive side of both Chicago and Dallas. (And yet the Falcons couldn’t capitalize on that.)

I think it is a combination of both the O-line looking not in tip top shape (and opponents noticing that) and Turner’s visible change in carrying-style. I had the feeling both Bears and Cowboys could easily predict that Turner won’t do them much harm, concentrate on Ryan, Gonzo and White and start picking them up. Even more weird: Ryan’s Interceptions started piling up after the SF-game (which, admittedly, could be attributed to a lot of things: Over-confidence, better/closer tape-analysis by the opponents, etc.)

In the big picture, I say yes to more diversity in the playcalling, but even more so, the plays that are actually called (and I think they should work fine with this offense) should actually have the effect they’re intended to have. The running game needs to be a threat opposing defenses should worry about. It needn’t be Turner alone, you can mix Snelling into it just as well, he’s a great guy. Once they start worrying about it, you can do flea flickers, crazy play action or weird switch-ups.

Long (term) story short: Turner needs his big 60 yd TD to actually have the long-term effect on this offense that he was last year.

On the short-term side, I agree that versatility will be key against the Saints: You will need to have Snelling/Weems first-downs in order to move effectively against this team that’s bursting with confidence. Saints will rush Ryan to death, if the O-line doesn’t hold up, and he will find Sharper in those moments, if they don’t protect him.

On the defensive side, I’m actually a huge DeCoud fan and I think this guy could be the big surprise Brees won’t see coming (not in terms of sacks, don’t think the Saints O-line will allow any, but in terms of interceptions). I hope the Falcons can capitalize on an early turnover and keep the Saints chasing them. Brees is throwing worse when trailing. Saints are 6-0 because they were trailing only once this season, this last game against Miami. If the Falcons bench doesn’t repeat the mistakes Miami did, they should have a shot at winning it. (And yes, I think that game was lost by by the Miami bench for calling that timeout before halftime.)

In the long-run I’m not too worried about the Falcons. This is now the toughest part of their season, I expected they will be at 2-5 going out of the Superdome game and still saw them as a playoff contender. Even if they go out at 4-3, this is one heck of a record in this first half of the season. The loss against Dallas was imo expected, but I’m not sure how it would’ve played out with Austin having more than one game to look at. So in a way, I’m happier than I expected to be. Always a nice feeling. :)

I dont mean I want us to throw flea flickers or double reverses more- hardly! I want us to do what we do best, run the ball, but mix in screens, move our receivers around se decide what CB’s or LB’s on the opposing defense is going to cover, and go to a backfield of snelling and turner in a split back formation, not an I formation, that way defenses don’t know which one is going to get the handoff. Another way- in a 2 TE set, move one of the TE’s back to the full back position or split back, that way he can pick up a blitzer, if they don’t blitz, run a wheel/go route or just a checkdown. So along with our conventional formations, I think we need to add some variety to our formations, allowing us to dictate to the defenses, and not be dictated too. This is how you take advantage of ALL the weapons we have on offense, and in a way that disguises what your doing, makes the offense more flexible, protects Ryan better, and confuses the defenses and pisses them off!! LOL
Whadaya Think??

should read “move our receivers around SO WE decide what CB’s or…”

We really haven’t seen too much in terms of slants over the middle or even short out routes, or Gonzo between the backers, or dumps in the flats to Snelling. Everyone pretty much knows the ball is going to Turner on first down. Worse, it’s a downhill running play every time, not a misdirection that might fool some defenders and make them overcommit.

I don’t think Burner is burnt out, I think we’re doing a terrible job of opening our playbook. You have a lot less plays to call for 2nd and 9 than you do for 2nd and 5. The play action is MOST dangerous on 2nd and 5. At that point, either the run or pass is effective. We’re just not getting into good down and distances early, and when we do, we seem to find a way to get penalized, and it stalls our drives.

We have an absolute ton of weapons on the field. We need to make teams see we’re comfortable using every last one of them. There is no reason the Big 2TE set with only Roddy out-wide should be a primary passing option. It should only come out on a 3rd and 2 when teams are saying by god they’re running it.

Let’s run the Maryland I-formation. I promise you defensive coordinators would have no clue what to do. That hasn’t been run in years. I don’t even think Maryland uses it anymore.

what do you think?

A suggestion for naming this piece of the blog – BIRD BRAINED

Len Pasquarelli of ESPN wrote an interesting column on the overusage of running backs. (All stats/quotes/paraphrases I mention come from his article) Talk about the Curse of 370, evidently Eric Dickerson AVERAGED 370+ carries a year for several seasons. The problem with Turner is that he went from 50 carries a year to 370+ in one year. For all you non-math junkies out there, that’s over 7 times as many carries. 7 times as many! Even in the article, Dickerson said that holes you’d normally hit close up before you can get there because you lose a step, whether you admit it, notice it, or otherwise. Sometimes the body can’t handle the shock value of being worked so hard. It’d be interesting to see Turner’s college numbers to see how much of a workhorse he’s been before last year.

Even the Giants are facing a similar problem. Brandon Jacobs (the same age as Turner) is struggling as well, averaging only 3.9 YPC. Turner is averaging 3.4 YPC.

In comparison, Ahmad Bradshow is averaging 5.7 YPC. Bradshaw has 40 fewer carries than Jacobs, but is only 9 yards behind him!

Jason Snelling isn’t mentioned in the article, but to my knowledge, he’s averaging 6 YPC or so. Even in my young age (just turned 21 ten days ago) I can see a worrisome trend growing. The standard “workhorse” is disappearing. Not only in football, but in baseball as well. 100 pitches and you’re out is today’s standards. Pasquarelli’s article mentioned Nolan Ryan as a workhorse. I’m too young to really know him but I’ve seen his numbers. He has like 1500 strikeouts more than second place (Randy Johnson, I believe) but in an age where everyone is afraid to push their players too far…My question is….is it warranted? Or has it become such an issue that it’s beginning to cause a mental block in the players?

Also, I’m down for “Bird Brained”

There is some stat somewhere that was made for Finn. I don’t know if it’s a franchise or an NFL record or even if it’s a record at all, but it’s something like “3rd down catches that went for 1st downs” Finn had an absurd amount of those one year (or maybe his whole career) and he’s really clutch about that.

or did the anyone notice that turner actually got some nice gains on some draws in the dallas game. and thats when he looked like his old self when he didnt have a nose tackle penetrating in the backfield. I think the problem might be McClure i hate to say it, but Ratliff just dominated him all game long.