FanPost

Positives and Negatives

Positives:

1. The flow of the offense looks better than what it did last season. If anyone recalls, last season, we'd have only about a good drive or two per game and that was it. This season, so far, even when we aren't scoring, the ball is still moving.

2. For the first time in I don't know how many years, this team has HEART. Something we couldn't even say during DQ's tenure. Even from 2015-2017

3. This special teams coach is earning his paycheck

4. Drake London looks like a stud

5. Seems like the O-line plays better with Dalman than they did Wilkinson and McGary looks like the most improved player on this team so far. If Dalman continues to develop, we may have our next Todd McClure

6. In 2021, the Falcons forced around 20 TO's all season. After two games, they have already forced 4.

7. In our first two games last year, we went against a playoff hopeful at home and the defending Super Bowl Champs on the road. We lost those games by a combined 49 points. In our first two games this year, we went up against a playoff hopeful at home and the defending Super Bowl champs on the road. We lost those games by a combined 5 points. Not the same team from last year that's going to get blown out by every above average team we play.

Negatives:

1. AJ Terrell

2. Dean Pees was still content with playing soft zone the whole first half until he made adjustments in the third quarter

3. The most glaring one: Kyle Pitts is being grossly misused and AS doesn't seem to care. Give him a play caller that knows how to use him and he'd be arguably the best TE in the NFL. If Pitts gets more touches, the Falcons are 2-0 right now and the narrative around AS is COMPLETELY different right now. The best coaches know how to get their best players the ball. Plain and simple. Kyle Pitts is a generational talent and the way he is being ruined in this offense is grounds for being fired by itself if this continues.

4. The front seven got absolutely gashed yesterday, so we still have a lot of work to do on that end

5. Smith's flaws are pretty similar to the ones DQ displayed. Although I can say that he is miles better at clock management than DQ's. Questionable personal decisions, misusing players, stubbornness, and the inability to have this team prepared on game days to play all four quarters. Can he learn from this? Of course. Will he? Given his attitude and overall behavior, I have my doubts.

6. Mariota needs to find himself a spot on the bench and it's time to hand the reigns over to Ridder. This draft has high end talent on the d-line and at QB and with us having a top 5 pick this year, we need to have a good idea on what we want to do.

Well, these are things I've noticed so far after two games this year. Definitely seen some progress, but this team still has a TON of work to do. I should not be looking back at games like this and conclude that our coaching staff, who's supposed to be flipping the narrative around this team, cost us both games. However, as I've said before, Smith has shown signs that his ceiling is higher than Quinn's but adjustments clearly have to be made for that ceiling to be met. He had no problem feeding his best player the ball over in Tennessee, but now that he's here, he's not going to go out of his way to do it? You can't draft these 6'4 weapons and try to be a run first offense. Run first offenses are a thing of the past and they simply don't win Super Bowls in today's NFL. Luckily for the Falcons, their next two opponents don't really have their shit together either. Seattle is in the midst of a rebuild. Meanwhile, the browns are coming off of in unimpressive win against a Panthers team as bad as we are and an epic Falcons-esque collapse at home against 40 year old Joe Flacco. 0-2 can easily be 2-2 if this coaching staff makes the right adjustments and key players like AJ began to step up and play to their potential.

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