“The Falcons could be the eastern version of the New Orleans Saints. "

It’s not like New Orleans is on the West Coast. It’s probably what, 250-500 miles west of Atlanta? (I obviously know it’s south too, I’m just trying to say it’s not that far west).

I didn’t even get to finish the article before that annoyed me.

Besides all the sunshine directed at Matt Ryan, I hate this article. Or at least, I hate the thinking from Clayton, Mularkey, and Smith…

It was reported accurately that Gonzalez, a potential Hall of Famer who’s made a reputation with his hands and ability to get open, would be doing more blocking than catching in Atlanta. At first, that didn’t make a lot of sense.

Make that a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and no – it doesn’t make sense to pound him at the line of scrimmage. That’s what Ben Hartsock is for. Tony G should be out catching passes and opening up the field for the WR’s.

In 2008, the Falcons averaged 35 rushing attempts per game. If they establish themselves at the line of scrimmage, it’s not out of the question they could average 37 attempts per game. As a rookie, Ryan was asked to throw an average of only 27 passes a game. He completed an average of 16.5 passes. The plan this year is to be more efficient. If Ryan throws only 27 passes, he can try to complete 20 passes a game.

1) There is almost no way the team is going to average 35 rushing attempts per game again this year. They were padding the total attempts because they were ahead at the end of several games (we don’t get to play Detroit, KC, or Oakland this season). For instance, 24 runs and 40 passes in the playoff game – because we were behind. At Oakland, it was 57 runs and 22 passes – because we were way ahead.
2) Ryan was fantastic as a rookie, completing 61.1% of his passes. Even if we are expecting to see some improvement from him, there is no freaking way he’s going to complete 20 out-of 27 (that’s 74.1%!!).

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t unleash more of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s passing skills until his fifth season. They still prefer to run the football more than throw it, and the strategy has produced two Super Bowl titles for the Steelers.

Steelers in ‘08: 460 runs, 506 passes. (numbers from Pro Football Reference)
’07: 511 runs, 442 passes.
’06: 469 runs, 523 passes.
’05: 549 runs, 379 passes.
I’d say they took the training wheels off in his 3rd year. His 4th year (‘07) he had 3,154 Yards – 32 TD’s – plus his only trip to the Pro Bowl. I’d say it’s worked out OK centering the offense around Big Ben.

This year, a more seasoned Ryan can try to turn those three-point drives into seven-point journeys. “Tony Gonzalez will really help us with how we use him in the red zone,” offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said.

This is true – Ryan did have trouble in the Red Zone last year (at least compared to his performance everywhere else on the field).

Mularkey knows he can’t use Turner as much as he did last season, but that’s where Norwood comes into play. Turner had 376 carries for 1,699 yards, while Norwood had only 95 rushing attempts, even though he averaged 5.1 yards per carry.

Yes, I’ve been screaming more Norwood for two years now. But that doesn’t mean you have to attempt fewer passes. Just give Norwood a bigger share of the carries (maybe 35-65 split with Turner instead of the 20% he got last year).

It will be interesting to see if Ryan tries to manage games the way Manning does. The Colts have perfected the nine- or 10-possession game. While most games feature 12 to 13 possessions, Manning tries to win by executing long, time-consuming drives, which give his defense a chance to rest and be fresh. If the Colts score on five of their nine possessions, they are going to score around 27 points a game.

Yes, Manning might do his “chicken dance” at the line and use up some time, bud I’d say the reason they have “time-consuming drives” is because they are successful. Meaning, they are getting first downs, and keeping the clock running. Last year Indy was 24th in Time of Possession, but 2nd in Yards per Drive. Indy actually has fewer drives per game because a bunch of teams try to run the ball & the clock to play keep-away from Manning, but most of the time they still can’t keep up because their offense is so efficient.

Yes, the team is still going to be run first. But then you would run to set up the pass, not run to set up more runs… I was hoping for something like 275-290 runs for Turner, 135-150 runs for Norwood, and ~500 passes for Ryan. I mean, why would you want 4.4 yards (Rushing Yards per Attempt) when you could have 7.4 yards (Net Yards per Pass Attempt)? I know part of that was because of the threat the running game, leading to easier opportunities in the passing game – but still, 434 passes and 560 runs last year (44%-56%) seems high. I thought with Ryan’s performance last year, we’d be moving towards 50-50, at least (the average team last year was 54% pass and 46% run). You run because you’re winning, not winning because you established the run…

Sorry for the rant, but this kind of thinking drives me crazy.