Falcons Progress Report

by Marques D Chaney on Nov 9, 2011 9:46 PM EST

Through 8 long and interesting weeks we have seen an offensive shut out in Chicago, a one handed pick by our DT Corey Peters, Matt Ryan's ankle at a 90 degree angle and Julio Jones running a 80 yard dash fresh off of a hamstring injury. One word to summarize our season as of now would have to be inconsistent. Even with all the inconsistent play, the Falcons, as of late , have been on a roll and are currently on a 3 game winning streak. After the jump I will break down every position and their grade threw 8 games.

QB: B-

I think Matt Ryan deserves this because hes lacked consistency this year so far. Hes struggled with accuracy lately but I think its because he doesn't fully trust his offensive line as of yet.

Ryan is 168-276 60.9 comp. % 1,958 yards 12 TDs 9 INTs has been sacked 19 times with 3 fumbles

Ryan has already matched the amount of interceptions thrown and the amount of fumbles lost from last year.

RB: A-

I think the running games production is mainly based off of the offensive lines play so its tough to grade this postion accurately.

Michael Turner still has had a very productive season so far racking up 692 yards on 157 carries with just 1 fumble.Hes on pace to rushed for over 1380 yards and 300 carries.

Quizz and Snelling have come along well. I like how Quizz runs the ball and Snelling is a solid pass blocker and has nice hands.

WR/TE: B

I think this receiving core struggles to get open at times which results in a lot of check downs and a lot of sacks.

White and Gonzalez are combined for 82 catches and 917 yards. White is on pace for another 1,000 yards year with about 85 catches.

Julio Jones has 28 catches for 489 yards and hes missed 2 games. So far Jones has been worth every draft pick and showed us exactly why in the game against IND.

The rest of the corp has been invisible. The next 2 after Jones is Harry Douglas and Jason Snelling combing for 29 catches for 288 yards.

O-Line: C+

Besides the inexperience and the injuries, the Offensive line has played better throughout the last couple of weeks.

They get such a low grade simply because all of the sacks.

Will Svitek has stepping in for Baker and played well. Besides almost ruining our season by stepping on Ryans foot he has outplayed Baker and I wouldn't be surprised if he started even when Baker is fully healthy.

D-Line: B+

Its hard to grade a defensive line because your first instinct is to look at stats and when you dont see a big number next to sacks you completely ignore the real production.

Theres no question that Edwards, Babineaux, Peters, and Abraham have applied plenty pressure this year but the real problem with this line is actually tackling the QB.

LB: A

Lofton, Spoon? Those 2 names alone is enough said to describe how great our linebacker core is.

Curtis Lofton is 2nd in the NFL in tackles and it seems like he will remain in the top 5 for the remainder of the season.

Sean Weatherspoon is showing exactly why we drafted him last year and is clearly on his way to be one of the best outside linebackers this league has.

DB: C+

Once again it is tough grading this position because a lot of it depends on the pressure your D Line is producing.

Regardless, I think our CBs are solid. Grimes and Robinson havent allowed to many big plays and have done a good job containing players like Desean Jackson, Greg Jennings, Steve Smith and Calvin Johnson.

Falcons are 3rd in the NFC in INTs with 11

Special Teams: A-

The longest Punt and Kickoff return was 36 yards and we havent allowed a TD on either.

Matt Bosher started the season off shaky but now playing better now avg. 38.5 yards.

Matt Bryant hasnt missed a field goal in 30 years.

Weems is just solid, nothing to specail. His longest return so far is 37 yards on both punt and kickoff return.

Coaching: D

I think the offensive playing calling is predictable at times and our defensive scheme just isnt getting the job done.

Overall we have a solid coaching staff, I just think its time we start using all our weapons to their potential instead of holding them back. (example : JacQuizz Rodgers)

got all these stats from nfl.com

Poll

Whats our grade on the Atlanta Falcons this year?

A

1 votes

B

26 votes

C

9 votes

D

0 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.

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Comments

Good analysis

I only have three points of disagreement:

1. I think you’re being too generous with special teams, though. Bosher was outright embarrassing up until very recently. Weems also had a bunch of bad moments early on, letting balls bounce for awful field position when he had the opportunity to field them. Bryant boosts the whole crew by a solid letter grade and things have been better all around on ST lately, but I’d have trouble going over a solid B after that gruesome start.

2. DBs might deserve a little more credit. Dunta Robinson isn’t striking fear into anyone’s hearts but the secondary isn’t the glaring weakness that it was a few seasons ago. They’ve dropped a disturbing number of easy picks, and they seemed to get caught out of position a lot earlier in the season, but most of that seems resolved at this point. B-

3. I’d give the coaches a C+/B- too. We’ve looked confused and predictable more than a couple of times this season, but we’re hovering above .500 for the fourth year in a row and looking strong going into the NO game. I feel like I never know if we’re winning because of the coaching or in spite of it. Sometimes I really honestly believe that Mike Smith’s magical Process is all going to work out and give birth to a Super Bowl dynasty, and then other times I feel like our luck is going to run out any minute and we’ll be exposed as football charlatans. So yeah, C+/B-

by ArthurDank on Nov 9, 2011 11:53 PM EST reply actions

Arthur,

Agree with the coaching, especially MM, who should be taken out and shot sometimes, B- on the coaching overall.

Evil Falcon

by falconplanet on Nov 10, 2011 12:33 PM EST up reply actions

Agree about Ryan.

He has not been Matty Ice recently. I think he needs to take a breath and put a little more faith in his offensive line – they’ve played much better recently. It has to make him nervous having two new starters on the line (Hawley and Svitek) and even though there’s an occasional lapse on stunts and blitzes, for the most part these guys have been above average. Time for Ice to hold up his end of the bargain.

by orion12 on Nov 9, 2011 11:58 PM EST reply actions

Good Post

Marques, though I think i’d give the D a B. Agree with just about everything else.

Evil Falcon

by falconplanet on Nov 10, 2011 12:32 PM EST reply actions

thank you

by Marques D Chaney on Nov 10, 2011 2:53 PM EST up reply actions

Defensive scheme has looked awesome for the past month

and regardless of the last month.. 21 points allowed is awesome… gotta rethink that and give the D credit

I told you on your last post or so that points allowed was a huge stat…. forget yardage allowed.. game comes down to points scored..

Our great D gave up a ton of points for the bears, fell asleep against the seahawks… but besides that… among other things, held the packers to 25, and I’d say they get a B+/A-

One day....

by Kashberry on Nov 10, 2011 8:16 PM EST reply actions

well...

if you average out the grades i gave for the defense positions they come out to be around a B/B+. I agree points are huge but for the longest we couldn’t get off the field on 3rd downs and thats huge in the NFL.

by Marques D Chaney on Nov 11, 2011 3:23 PM EST up reply actions

The grades for each individual unit should not be so much better than the grades for the coaches. It shows a lack of objectivity and makes it seem like you’re agenda was to express your disapproval for the coaching staff, rather than just giving an honest-to-goodness analysis. I’m sure you are being honest, but I’d still venture to guess that these grades are skewed by your disdain for our coaches.

I think you hit the nail on the head in your analysis of Matt Ryan, though. I’m a huge Matty Ice supporter, but I’ve also noticed that he doesn’t look comfortable in the pocket at times, which is uncharacteristic for him, and is really a testament for how poorly our offensive line has played. I see him improving, though. He’s watching the film and seeing that his uneasiness in the pocket has been unwarranted in the last three games or so, and I expect him to step it up for what is easily the most important game of the year so far.

All in all, it’s hard to pass out grades for half a season of play. We’ve faced the toughest stretch of our schedule and we still have to see if the recent improvements will last. This game will tell us a lot about the Falcons.

This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.

by gilley on Nov 11, 2011 12:20 AM EST reply actions 1 recs

i just felt that the coaching could of been improved much more. To me i think the only thing holding us back is Matt Ryan and our coaching. Honestly if Julio Jones never gets injured against GB who knows where our team would be right now. His injury forced us to go back to what we do best.

by Marques D Chaney on Nov 11, 2011 3:20 PM EST up reply actions