Falcons Goal Line Live Drills An Indicator Of Things To Come

The Falcons got a little bit of a surprise on Tuesday in the form of a live goal line drill, 11 on 11, mano y mano and all that good stuff.

Why is this relevant? Besides being a fun way to send your tired players into overdrive, it points to an area where the Falcons would certainly like to excel. This is a team with some well-publicized struggles in short yardage situations, where the combination of questionable play-calling, really poor line play and a slowly accelerating power back led to some grave disappointments. That doesn't even mention short third downs for opposing offenses, which were hideous.

This will obviously be an area of focus in 2012. Getting things started by tossing the two units into an unexpected drill like this gives you some sense, however faint, of how the respective units can perform in a critical goal line situation.

The good news in this little exercise? The offense won two of three of the possessions and managed to score. Hopefully that bodes well for this offense's success in the regular season, though I'd warn against investing too much in a training camp exercise.

How do you think the Falcons will fare in goal line situations in 2012?