Thread: A Falcon fan's breakdown of Sunday's game

I like this one better this guy is obviously a viking fan in disguise

First of all, let's look at match-ups that should be interesting.

Atlanta's O-Line vs. Minnesota's D-Line
One of the reasons I specifically like this game for seeing just how good our younger players are is this match-up right here. I'd put money on us going 3 on 2 with all 3 of our interior linemen[Blalock, McClure, and Forney] blocking Minnesota's pair of mammoth DTs, with our tackles singling Minnesota's weaker position at DE, especially because[I believe] Erasmus James is injured and Ray Edwards is starting at RDE. I like our odds in this match-up, and as long as they don't decide to get aggressive and blitz alot, it will allow us to spread the field better with more WRs instead of using TEs and backs to help block blitzing defenders.
Overall Winner: Atlanta
Atlanta's O line is still one of the major weaknesses. While Minnesotas' D line is one of their strengths. The Vikings front four will manhandle the line of the Falcons. There is no wayAtl wins this matchup.

Advantage :Minnesota
Jerious Norwood and Warrick Dunn vs. Minnesota's D-Line
Don't try running to the inside. End of story. Sounds to me like it's going to be Jerious' night on Sunday, because Dunn is really more of an inside, slashing-type runner where as Jerious is the more shifty, try to get outside and outspeed everybody guy. We're going to be able to do that.
Overall Winner: Push

minnesota allowed 61 yards per game on the ground last season. Atl was the number one rushing attack, but take away #7, and they were 15th. Dunn is not 100% and Norwood or Dunn for that matter, are not consistant enough to pound the middle. If Norwood gets outside, he can do something, but Minnesota will keep him boxed in.

Advantage: Minnesota
Jerious Norwood and Warrick Dunn vs. Minnesota's Linebacking Corps
Okay, I've been saying this for a while now. Minnesota's LB corps is not very good in certain situations. Their middle linebacker, E.J. Henderson, is a really great run stuffer, but only against power runners. He gets beaten badly against speedsters. Their right outside linebacker, Chad Greenway, is just the opposite. He gets bowled over by power backs, but he's fast enough to stuff speed RBs. Their LOLB[Ben Leber] just plain sucks against the run overall. He's too slow to beat speed runners to the outside, and not good enough a tackler to stuff the inside run like Henderson. As long as Atlanta runs to the right side, away from Greenway, they'll win this matchup pretty well. Inside run will be stuffed BIG TIME, runs to the left are pretty good, but we're going to make our money on the right side of the field. If we run at Leber, we're set. Hopefully Petrino knows that.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

Like I said, they will box in the backs and funnel them to the run stuffing LB's. And you have to take into account Sharper comming up on run support.

Advantage: Minnesota

Atlanta's WRs, TEs, and Backs vs. Minnesota's Secondary
This is where we are going to struggle all night. For having one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL last season, they sure do have a lot of talent in that secondary. Antoine Winfield won't get beat deep at all. Cedric Griffin is very good opposite Winfield. Marcus McCauley eliminates Jenkins' height advantage. That's three of our receivers basically getting shut down. Who's left? Laurent Robinson and Alge Crumpler. Actually, now that I think about it, we might end up causing match up problems with these two, because while they have their big three CBs, we have 5 very capable receivers, not even including Jerious and Warrick out of the backfield. Oh, wait. I almost forgot. They have FREAKING DARREN SHARPER playing Strong Safety. There goes Crump. Dwight Smith is pretty good at FS, so we pretty much have no deep ball. Unfortunately, this could be our biggest problem Sunday on Offense.
Overall Winner: Minnesota

You are right. The secondary will lock down the average WRs of Atl. Putting much pressure on Joey, who by the way has thrown 8 Tds and 14 Ints against in his career.

Advantage: Minnesota

Minnesota's O-Line vs. Atlanta's D-Line
The most interesting matchup here is Bryant McKinnie vs. John Abraham. If we decide to swap John and Jamaal, then John will beat their RT easily unless he's doubled, and Jamaal vs. Bryant will be a very interesting match up. I'd love to see either one[OR BOTH!] of them get a sack off of McKinnie, especially Jamaal, because he's the future. Rod Coleman and Grady Jackson are going to present a problem for their RG, but their C and LG are very good, and of course their LG is the best LG in the NFL, Steve Hutchinson. I'm looking forward to seeing how Grady does against an All-Pro in Hutch, and nothing would make me happier than seeing big Grady get a TFL or two against Hutch. Overall, this will be interesting, but the right side of that line is going to be exploited all night long.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

Minesota has a good O line. Mckineize and Hutch are beasts. And Matt Birk is a solid center. Atl's D line is good as well, but Minesota will run toward Abe and take away his speed. That will put much pressure on the LB's , who are not known for being great run stoppers, to make the plays consistantly. Minnesota will run, run, run to take pressure off of Jackson.

Advantage: Minnesota
Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson vs. Atlanta's D-Line
Guys, meet Grady Jackson. As long as he isn't completely dominated by Steve Hutchinson, he's going to be a factor, whether it means causing MIN's RB to cutback unexpectedly, tackling one of them behind the LOS, or just clogging up their hole so another of our players on D can make the tackle. If they run to the outside, Jamaal and John are both pretty much sure tackles at this point in my opinion. We will have trouble if they run at Rod Coleman with Hutchinson as a pulling guard. Big trouble.
Overall Winner: Push

Grady is a maybe 2 down per series player. he will wear out quickly and especially in the fourth.

Advantage: minesota

Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson vs. Atlanta's Linebacking Corps
I'm more worried about Chester than Adrian. Chester will run Demorrio Williams over at least once, no doubt about that. Mike Boley and Keith Brooking are both incredible at playing the run, but Demorrio will likely need help from Lawyer Milloy. Good news about that is that the only way either of their RBs can get to DeMo is if they go around Abe or Gravy, and by the time they do that, Law will already be at the scene. Look for this match-up to be more lopsided than most think in Atlanta's favor.
Overall Winner: Atlanta
This is crazy. Brooking is NOT A RUN STUFFER. He makes plays, but they are 5-10 yards downfield. D-will is comming off of injury, so he is questionable and Boley is solid, but he is not a beast. The only advantage Atl has is that Taylor is average and Peterson is a rookie.

Advantage: Push

Minnesota's WRs, TEs, and Backs vs. Atlanta's Secondary
This isn't even fair when you factor in Adrian Peterson as a Reggie Bush-type player. Hall shuts down Williamson, and then Houston gets an easier start to the season with Bobby Wade. Lewis Sanders can handle their slot WR, and Law can definitely take out their TE[they lost Wiggins, right?], but then can Jimmy Williams stick with AD, step for step? That's the biggest problem I see.
Overall Winner: Minnesota

This one I disagree FOR Atlanta. Jackson is erratic and the DB's can bait him into throws and make plays. This could be a good confidence building game for the youngsters in the secondary. and a way for Hall to play as a (overrated) "lock-down corner".

Advantage: Atlanta

Special Teams
Atlanta's kickoff coverage looks incredible since we made that one mistake vs. NYJ. Adam Jennings handling returning duties is what excites me most, especially because Minnesota has very poor special teams, all around. This isn't even close, in my opinion, at least.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

The special teams could go either way. But Longwell and Moore give Minnesota the slight edge

Advantage: minnesota

"thevikingfan" wrote:

I like this one better this guy is obviously a viking fan in disguise

First of all, let's look at match-ups that should be interesting.

Atlanta's O-Line vs. Minnesota's D-Line
One of the reasons I specifically like this game for seeing just how good our younger players are is this match-up right here. I'd put money on us going 3 on 2 with all 3 of our interior linemen[Blalock, McClure, and Forney] blocking Minnesota's pair of mammoth DTs, with our tackles singling Minnesota's weaker position at DE, especially because[I believe] Erasmus James is injured and Ray Edwards is starting at RDE. I like our odds in this match-up, and as long as they don't decide to get aggressive and blitz alot, it will allow us to spread the field better with more WRs instead of using TEs and backs to help block blitzing defenders.
Overall Winner: Atlanta
Atlanta's O line is still one of the major weaknesses. While Minnesotas' D line is one of their strengths. The Vikings front four will manhandle the line of the Falcons. There is no wayAtl wins this matchup.

Advantage :Minnesota
Jerious Norwood and Warrick Dunn vs. Minnesota's D-Line
Don't try running to the inside. End of story. Sounds to me like it's going to be Jerious' night on Sunday, because Dunn is really more of an inside, slashing-type runner where as Jerious is the more shifty, try to get outside and outspeed everybody guy. We're going to be able to do that.
Overall Winner: Push

minnesota allowed 61 yards per game on the ground last season. Atl was the number one rushing attack, but take away #7, and they were 15th. Dunn is not 100% and Norwood or Dunn for that matter, are not consistant enough to pound the middle. If Norwood gets outside, he can do something, but Minnesota will keep him boxed in.

Advantage: Minnesota
Jerious Norwood and Warrick Dunn vs. Minnesota's Linebacking Corps
Okay, I've been saying this for a while now. Minnesota's LB corps is not very good in certain situations. Their middle linebacker, E.J. Henderson, is a really great run stuffer, but only against power runners. He gets beaten badly against speedsters. Their right outside linebacker, Chad Greenway, is just the opposite. He gets bowled over by power backs, but he's fast enough to stuff speed RBs. Their LOLB[Ben Leber] just plain sucks against the run overall. He's too slow to beat speed runners to the outside, and not good enough a tackler to stuff the inside run like Henderson. As long as Atlanta runs to the right side, away from Greenway, they'll win this matchup pretty well. Inside run will be stuffed BIG TIME, runs to the left are pretty good, but we're going to make our money on the right side of the field. If we run at Leber, we're set. Hopefully Petrino knows that.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

Like I said, they will box in the backs and funnel them to the run stuffing LB's. And you have to take into account Sharper comming up on run support.

Advantage: Minnesota

Atlanta's WRs, TEs, and Backs vs. Minnesota's Secondary
This is where we are going to struggle all night. For having one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL last season, they sure do have a lot of talent in that secondary. Antoine Winfield won't get beat deep at all. Cedric Griffin is very good opposite Winfield. Marcus McCauley eliminates Jenkins' height advantage. That's three of our receivers basically getting shut down. Who's left? Laurent Robinson and Alge Crumpler. Actually, now that I think about it, we might end up causing match up problems with these two, because while they have their big three CBs, we have 5 very capable receivers, not even including Jerious and Warrick out of the backfield. Oh, wait. I almost forgot. They have FREAKING DARREN SHARPER playing Strong Safety. There goes Crump. Dwight Smith is pretty good at FS, so we pretty much have no deep ball. Unfortunately, this could be our biggest problem Sunday on Offense.
Overall Winner: Minnesota

You are right. The secondary will lock down the average WRs of Atl. Putting much pressure on Joey, who by the way has thrown 8 Tds and 14 Ints against in his career.

Advantage: Minnesota

Minnesota's O-Line vs. Atlanta's D-Line
The most interesting matchup here is Bryant McKinnie vs. John Abraham. If we decide to swap John and Jamaal, then John will beat their RT easily unless he's doubled, and Jamaal vs. Bryant will be a very interesting match up. I'd love to see either one[OR BOTH!] of them get a sack off of McKinnie, especially Jamaal, because he's the future. Rod Coleman and Grady Jackson are going to present a problem for their RG, but their C and LG are very good, and of course their LG is the best LG in the NFL, Steve Hutchinson. I'm looking forward to seeing how Grady does against an All-Pro in Hutch, and nothing would make me happier than seeing big Grady get a TFL or two against Hutch. Overall, this will be interesting, but the right side of that line is going to be exploited all night long.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

Minesota has a good O line. Mckineize and Hutch are beasts. And Matt Birk is a solid center. Atl's D line is good as well, but Minesota will run toward Abe and take away his speed. That will put much pressure on the LB's , who are not known for being great run stoppers, to make the plays consistantly. Minnesota will run, run, run to take pressure off of Jackson.

Advantage: Minnesota
Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson vs. Atlanta's D-Line
Guys, meet Grady Jackson. As long as he isn't completely dominated by Steve Hutchinson, he's going to be a factor, whether it means causing MIN's RB to cutback unexpectedly, tackling one of them behind the LOS, or just clogging up their hole so another of our players on D can make the tackle. If they run to the outside, Jamaal and John are both pretty much sure tackles at this point in my opinion. We will have trouble if they run at Rod Coleman with Hutchinson as a pulling guard. Big trouble.
Overall Winner: Push

Grady is a maybe 2 down per series player. he will wear out quickly and especially in the fourth.

Advantage: minesota

Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson vs. Atlanta's Linebacking Corps
I'm more worried about Chester than Adrian. Chester will run Demorrio Williams over at least once, no doubt about that. Mike Boley and Keith Brooking are both incredible at playing the run, but Demorrio will likely need help from Lawyer Milloy. Good news about that is that the only way either of their RBs can get to DeMo is if they go around Abe or Gravy, and by the time they do that, Law will already be at the scene. Look for this match-up to be more lopsided than most think in Atlanta's favor.
Overall Winner: Atlanta
This is crazy. Brooking is NOT A RUN STUFFER. He makes plays, but they are 5-10 yards downfield. D-will is comming off of injury, so he is questionable and Boley is solid, but he is not a beast. The only advantage Atl has is that Taylor is average and Peterson is a rookie.

Advantage: Push

Minnesota's WRs, TEs, and Backs vs. Atlanta's Secondary
This isn't even fair when you factor in Adrian Peterson as a Reggie Bush-type player. Hall shuts down Williamson, and then Houston gets an easier start to the season with Bobby Wade. Lewis Sanders can handle their slot WR, and Law can definitely take out their TE[they lost Wiggins, right?], but then can Jimmy Williams stick with AD, step for step? That's the biggest problem I see.
Overall Winner: Minnesota

This one I disagree FOR Atlanta. Jackson is erratic and the DB's can bait him into throws and make plays. This could be a good confidence building game for the youngsters in the secondary. and a way for Hall to play as a (overrated) "lock-down corner".

Advantage: Atlanta

Special Teams
Atlanta's kickoff coverage looks incredible since we made that one mistake vs. NYJ. Adam Jennings handling returning duties is what excites me most, especially because Minnesota has very poor special teams, all around. This isn't even close, in my opinion, at least.
Overall Winner: Atlanta

The special teams could go either way. But Longwell and Moore give Minnesota the slight edge

Advantage: minnesota

Wonder if I was watching a different kicker kicking all the line drives and short kicks.

i think next year would be a good time ti draft a kicker.Granted that longwell still has 2 year on
his contract(i belive) we could take this time to draft someone with a stong leg.n the worst case scenario we keep him on the active roster and the cost of a backup o-lineman or something and we can be better on kickoffs (distance wise) the coverage is an entirely different topic.....

"Iron" wrote:

Wonder if I was watching a different kicker kicking all the line drives and short kicks.

I wonder if this guy even watches football
???

"thevikingfan" wrote:

i think next year would be a good time ti draft a kicker.

Might be wishing we still had a 6th round pick around that time.

"Billy" wrote:

"thevikingfan" wrote:

i think next year would be a good time ti draft a kicker.

Might be wishing we still had a 6th round pick around that time.

The 6th round pick we traded was in the 2009 draft. This draft coming up may not be a bad idea though.

Although, who knows... maybe Longwell will play until he is 49, then miss a FG that would have won the NFC championship game. I'm not bitter.

"C" wrote:

"Billy" wrote:

"thevikingfan" wrote:

i think next year would be a good time ti draft a kicker.

Might be wishing we still had a 6th round pick around that time.

The 6th round pick we traded was in the 2009 draft. This draft coming up may not be a bad idea though.

Although, who knows... maybe Longwell will play until he is 49, then miss a FG that would have won the NFC championship game. I'm not bitter.

well i didnt say replace longwell because i think he is a good kicker.21-25 last year i believe he just doesnt have the leg.We need a guy for kickoff who might eventually become the kicker

I love the Falcons fan on the link that has all the Falcons "dogfight" quotes.
Makes you wonder if it was all an offseason team building event.

Sept. 13, 2004: "Every game is a dogfight," then-coach Jim Mora said. "My dad used to say that all the time. It's a dogfight. Unless you're on the field, on the sidelines with the headset on, with the helmet on, it's hard to understand how intense and how emotional a football game is on Sundays in the National Football League. It's a flat-out dogfight. And you've seen dogfights ... it's back and forth and then you get them pinned a little bit and you come back."

Oct. 16, 2005: "The game was a typical Falcons-Saints game," Mora said. "They're dogfights that come down to the end, there've been playoff games that have been like this, there have been regular-season games that were like this and this is just another one in the series of dogfights between the Falcons and the Saints."

Nov. 17, 2005: "When talking to Falcons players this week, the one word that resonated from all their mouths was 'dogfight'," a team reporter said, referring to an upcoming game against Tampa Bay. Several players then used the term during interviews, but Vick used the term "war" instead.

Dec. 12, 2005: "We just know that these New Orleans games, if we let them stick around too long, it's going to be a dogfight," defensive tackle Antwan Lake said.

Sept. 9, 2006: "From Chris Crocker to Michael Vick, throwing a stiff shoulder into the Panthers early and throughout the game will send an undeniable message that they're in for a dogfight, and that the Falcons aren't to be taken lightly," according to a game preview.

Nov. 19, 2006: "It's a dogfight," Mora said. "You know what? We are 5-5 and next week we're playing for the division lead. It's going to be a dogfight from here on out. Right now, parity in this league is huge. Any team can win on any given Sunday."

That guy is like the stupid ass in a group that tries to act smart.
I don't understand how somebody can go in depth like him but still make such idiotic statements.

"LuckyVike" wrote:

...I don't understand how somebody can go in depth like him but still make such idiotic statements.

No doubt, you have it mastered in less than a sentence.