Falcons vs. Lions Snap Counts For Week 8

Most of this week will be dominated by discussion of the team's fortunes, the fate of the coaching staff and front office and tales of woe and angst. The Falcons still played a game on Sunday, though, and we still want to try to learn a few lessons from that game.

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of pleasant lessons to impart. Let's get to it.

Offense

Jon Asamoah: 60 (100%)
Jake Matthews: 60 
Ryan Schraeder: 60
James Stone: 60
Justin Blalock: 60
Matt Ryan: 60
Roddy White: 51
Levine Toilolo: 46
Julio Jones: 46
Steven Jackson: 30
Harry Douglas: 28
Patrick DiMarco: 22
Jacquizz Rodgers: 15
Gabe Carimi: 15
Devin Hester: 11
Bear Pascoe: 11
Eric Weems: 10
Antone Smith: 8
Devonta Freeman: 7

Carimi was benched in favor of Ryan Schraeder, but did manage to get on the field as an additional blocker. Antone Smith had more snaps than usual in the first half until his injury, while Freeman certainly had less. Bear Pascoe finally bit off some of Levine Toilolo's snaps and wound up with a touchdown catch on the day. All five starting linemen played every snap for the first time in a long, long while.

Defense

Paul Worrilow: 75 (100%)
Kemal Ishmael: 75
Desmond Trufant: 75
Dwight Lowery: 75
Robert Alford: 68
Malliciah Goodman: 60
Josh Wilson: 59
Kroy Biermann: 49
Corey Peters: 42
Joplo Bartu: 39
Jonathan Massaquoi: 37
Tyson Jackson: 35
Paul Soliai: 32
Osi Umenyiora: 28
Dezmen Southward: 20
Cliff Matthews: 16
Ra'Shede Hageman: 15
Robert McClain: 13
Stansly Maponga: 9
Prince Shembo: 3

This unit's problems are written large in the snap counts. On a quality defense, Paul Worrilow and Kemal Ishmael simply would not play 100% of the snaps, no matter how much I like them. Worrilow had arguably his worst game of the year against the Lions, while Ishmael is still struggling with communication issues back there. Jonathan Massaquoi got under 50% of the snaps again, Prince Shembo was active but played just three snaps and despite his increasing effectiveness, Hageman's snap counts fluctuate wildly from week to week. This is about lacking talent in some spots and not making the right playing-time choices with others, and while the defense is clearly making some limited strides, it's never going to approach quality as long as this continues.

One positive note: Seeing Goodman getting real playing time. He's never going to be great, but he may be the best starting LDE the Falcons have.

Special Teams

Robert McClain: 17
Sean Baker: 16
Eric Weems: 15
Nate Stupar: 14
Dezmen Southward: 12
Matt Bosher: 11
Patrick DiMarco: 11
Jonathan Massaquoi: 11
Josh Wilson: 11
Jacquizz Rodgers: 10
Devin Hester: 8
Antone Smith: 7
Robert Alford: 7
Gabe Carimi: 7
Josh Harris: 7
Harland Gunn: 7
Tyson Jackson: 7
Paul Worrilow: 6
Kroy Biermann: 6
Kemal Ishmael: 6
Stansly Maponga: 6
Levine Toilolo: 5
Corey Peters: 5
Joplo Bartu: 5
Cliff Matthews: 5

No surprises here whatsoever.

Your thoughts regarding these snap counts?