Know Your Enemy – Atlanta
Posted: January 10th, 2018 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 101 Comments »The Falcons will be coming to town on Saturday. Let’s talk about the Dirty Birds.
OFFENSE
Last year Atlanta had the best offense in the league. That didn’t carry over to this season. There was a coaching change, but also I think you can see that the level they played at in 2016 was special, not sustainable. Matt Ryan played at an MVP level and finished with a QB rating of 117.1, which is more than 20 points above his career average. He went from 38 TDs and 7 INTs, freakishly good numbers, to 20 TDs and 12 INTs, average figures.
The Falcons were 5th in rushing a year ago. This year they were 13th.
They fell from first in points to 15th.
In the last month of the season, Atlanta averaged 20 points a game. They scored 26 in the Wild Card game, but had 10 points set up by Rams turnovers. The offense has its moments, but isn’t the juggernaut that it was a year ago.
I think the Falcons are at their best when they feed the ball to RBs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. Freeman is a violent, fearless runner who will punish defenders, as well as himself. He and Coleman run downhill and they run hard, which always gives them a chance for big plays. They’re mostly methodical, but will break loose a few times a game. Atlanta does a good job of running inside and also attacking the edges.
The passing game is built on the run game. There are a lot of play-action fakes. Ryan does a good job with them. If you sell out to stop the run, the Falcons will burn you. They don’t have the fastest receivers, but they are big and physical. They can block and they are tough to tackle. Julio Jones is one of the best WRs in the league. The TEs can block and catch. While not dynamic, they are excellent fits in this offense.
Yards after the catch is a critical part of this offense. The Eagles must pursue and they must tackle well.
https://twitter.com/danorlovsky7/status/950775317328691202
The OL is led by Pro Bowl C Alex Mack. While none of the O-linemen are dominant, they function well as a group. They struggled mightily with Aaron Donald on Saturday, but did just enough to win the game. Ryan was only sacked 24 times this year. Between the scheme, Ryan’s experience and the OL’s play, getting to the QB won’t be easy.
DEFENSE
Dan Quinn brought the scheme from Seattle when he took over as head coach. That means a lot of Cover 3 and a lot of 8-man fronts. And speed.
The DL is led by Grady Jarrett. He’s become one of the better DTs in the league. He had 10 TFLs and 4 sacks this year. He’s quick and powerful. Edge rushers like Adrian Clayborn, Takk McKinley and Vic Beasley can all beat blockers and get to the QB. There are times when the Falcons will put that foursome on the field to get their best set of pass rushers together.
The star of the defense is MLB Deion Jones. He’s become a stud. He led the team in tackles, TFLs (11) and INTs (3). Other than that, he had a quiet year. DeVondre Campbell isn’t as well known, but has developed into a good player as well.
The secondary is good. CB Robert Alford led the team with 20 PDs. Desmond Trufant is the best cover corner. Brian Poole was outstanding against the Rams and made key open field tackles throughout the game. Keanu Neal is the SS and he’s a stud. He hits like a ton of bricks.
Atlanta only had 8 INTs this year, which isn’t good. They can cover, but apparently can’t catch the ball. Let’s hope that doesn’t change on Sunday. The Falcons were vulnerable to the run for most of the year, but in the final month no team ran for more than 87 yards. And that included two showdowns with the Saints and their dynamic runners. The Falcons also didn’t allow more than 23 points in that stretch. The defense was very good down the stretch.
While they aren’t the most creative group, the Falcons will mix in some creative looks from time to time.
Falcons have gotten so good at playing m2m.
Disguised 2-man. Weakness of defense short/intermediate middle.
Trufant does a brilliant job of working around bunch to knock ball down on third down. pic.twitter.com/DJ4oJWesl1
— Ted Nguyen (@RaidersAnalysis) January 9, 2018
Atlanta won’t blitz a ton, but they will mix them in enough to keep the offense off balance and to make sure the blockers have to keep their eyes open.
SPECIAL TEAMS
PK Matt Bryant has been hated in Philly since he was with the Bucs and hit a 62-yard FG to beat the Eagles in 2006. I still can’t believe he hit that kick. Just crazy. He is 100 years old, but still nails long distance FGs. He is a weapon.
P Matt Bosher averaged 44.9 per punt, good for 18th in the league. The team was also 18th in net punting so they do a solid job, but nothing great.
Veteran Andre Roberts is the returner. He had a 61-yard KOR and a 27-yard PR this year. He’s solid.
OVERALL
The Falcons are not a team to be feared, but they sure as hell better be respected. They aren’t playing great football this season. Last year was special. They’ve come back down to Earth, but this group is talented, tough and knows how to win.
I think the real key is limiting their running game. Matt Ryan is still capable of having a big game and beating you through the air, but I would take my chances with him. Turn him into a drop-back passer. Make the line pass block. Don’t let them get into a good rhythm and sustain drives. Atlanta was the best 3rd down offense in the league this year.
They went 5-3 on the road this year. They have a lot of playoff experience after last year’s Super Bowl run. I think they are a confident team after last week’s strong performance and win in the Wild Card game.
At the same time, they are vulnerable.
The Rams were 16-115 on the ground. They threw 45 passes. For some reason, the Rams gave up on their run game. The Falcons clearly outplayed LA and had the turnover advantage, but midway through the 4th quarter, Atlanta was only up 19-13. One of the problems they have this year is scoring points and putting separation between them and the opponent.
You can beat some teams doing that, but it will cost you in other games.
The Falcons are flawed, but Saturday is going to be a tough game. The Falcons are not going to panic the first time something goes wrong. They won’t be intimidated by the noise. They aren’t going to beat themselves.
The Eagles will have to do that.
_
I’ll take our Angry Birds over those dirty birds.
It feels like several games this year have had a playoff tone or at least playoff implications. Hopefully that experience will carry over. Don’t overthink things or try to do too much. There should be no reason that this stage is too big for these guys. LEGGO BIRDS!!!
One thing I like about this match up is that we have always fared well vs Matt Ryan Falcons, and the Falcons in general. I think Matt finally got he W vs is a couple back…but only that 1. Let’s keep it that way!
Ryan is 1-3 in Philadelphia in his career. His only victory was over the 4-12 Eagles in Andy Reid’s final year.
They Xey!
If we beat Falcons, will we be the underdogs by even more margin in the NFCCG?
Depends on how impressive the winner of the Minnesota/NO game looks in winning that game, but probably.
If we win and Nick puts up good numbers, the media will be back on our jock.
Yup, it is all based on recent performance. If we win they’ll be back on board although Brees or Keenum will still likely be judged better. Does no one remember what Keenum did before this season? Nothing!
Well, to be fair, he was also playing in the Jeff Fisher offense which could make Joe Montana look pedestrian.
You’re not kidding. Joe in his prime would probably struggle under Fisher.
dont sweat it
Yes. We’ll be home dogs again. That isn’t a bad thing
I think so, for sure.
Yep.
Someone stated that they put Andy Levitre on IR before the Rams game; he’s an above average starter.
Just looked up the IR info, and he’s not on it- anyone know if he is or is not on IR?
Nevermind, he is
https://www.footballdb.com/transactions/injured-reserve.html?sortfld=team&sortdir=asc
Eagles posting signs to remind the fam their underdogs. I was thinking this team would be 1 and done before the playoffs started, but getting the falcons and th is against the world mentality has me thinking we have a real shot this week. I expect this team to ply agreesive emotional football, which was lacking the last few weeks of th regular season.
This D is well capable of debacling Matt Ryan and their O. That and Foles just not being _awful_ is one road to victory.
Another is that things fall together for the O and they play like an average football team, and the Defense plays well.
It’s hard for me to imagine us winning if the D sucks, though.
I generally See a similar road to victory in most of our match-ups in our post-Wentz reality. The part that gives me pause in this particular match up is that the way our defense does that is by dominating the LOS. Rams absolutely put a lot of pressure on Matt Ryan but he was spectacular under pressure, like over 100 qb rating under pressure.
Hopefully Schwartz has a better plan for what to do with that pressure besides praying pressure will make Matt Ryan make mistakes.
Depends on where the pressure is coming from. If it’s from blitzes, yeah, Ryan will likely torch us. If it’s Cox and Jernigan collapsing the pocket on play after play against the Falcons’ mediocre guards, not so much. Brockers getting hurt last week had a huge impact on the game as after that the Falcons only had to worry about Donald (and he still wrecked several plays even on his own).
This is a game our $100mil stud DT needs to dominate.
I saw what you saw. The Falcons were unable to handle the rush of LA early on. The Broxkers injury certainly played a huge role in that game. Donald is the man, but I think our overal DL talent is better than what LA puts on the field. They still needed lost of LA mistakes to score points.
Donald and Brockers are a dominant inside duo, but I’m not overly impressed with the Rams’ edge rushers outside of Quinn, who has fallen off since his DPOY season. They’re playing Connor Barwin for God’s sake.
They sure did benefit from mistakes. A different game without those. Lots of FGs in the game.
Winning this game depends on our defense. We can win a low scoring game or even one with average scores like 23-26. But I cannot see us winning a high scoring shootout or one where we stupidly turn the ball over multiple times leading to 14+ Falcons points.
We have the edge on defense and STs and that will have to be where we win it. Plus we need to be ridiculously loud as fans. Its on us, too. Falcons had it easy in LA where there are no Rams fans. Philly needs to represent at the Linc.
It’s weird that I fear our O against that Falcons D and am not so much worried that our defense should be able to limit them to 20 or less.
Angry passionate hard hitting, make every tackle, hard blocking and running Eagles game would be sweet to watch !!
Think we can pull it off Nigel B aint scared to tackle anyone .. Clement is always psyched to run hard!
And German will be there.
Go Birds.
kind of off topic but I saw Darrell Bevell got axed.
About the super bowl debacle, this is what I think:
The decision to throw wasn’t necessarily an awful one, they had 3 downs and only 1 timeout, so throwing on at least one play made sense. The thing that kills me is why throw a goal line slant with one of the shortest quarterbacks in the league? If you’re going to throw at the goal line give Wilson a roll out with a run pass option, maybe Wilson can get there with his legs if he doesn’t see a pass that he likes and the worst case scenario is he throws it away and you live to run Lynch 2 more times.
The decision to throw on 2nd down also kind of makes sense, because if you run and are stopped on 2nd down, then you are almost a lock to throw on 3rd down because you wouldn’t have enough time to run two running plays.
By throwing on 2nd down you keep both the run and the pass as options for 3rd and 4th down.
I do however think Bevell is a fucking moron for insisting that he would call that play over again if given the chance. It’s stupid professionally and it’s just stupid stupid. At least say something like maybe we could have called something different there, even if it was a pass.
The Falcons let the Seahawks off the hook with their moronic decisions in the final 5 minutes of the SB last year. The Seahawks’ decision to throw that dumb slant pass over the middle stood as the worst play call in Super Bowl history for only two years.
Falcon let the Pats off the hook you mean. And yeah, they ruined that incredible catch by Julio Jones on the sideline that put them in fg range by not just running it up the middle 3 times after that and kick the fg to go up by 10 and put the game away.
No, he’s saying before last year’s self destruction by the Falcons, the Seahawks pass at the goal line with Lynch in their backfield was the worst way to lose a Super Bowl game. His point is what happened to the Falcons in the last 5 minutes of regulation was even worse.
Yep, thanks. I could’ve been clearer about that.
so Pete Carroll isn’t a genius anymore?
You only think I put the iocaine powder in your cup when I really put it in mine or did I?
It was a terrible decision. Period.
This was exactly what Belichick was hoping would happen when he called a timeout to leave just the right amount of time on the clock for this thought process. And Carroll had the exact thoughts you have above.
Best chance to win that game was to smash Lynch in there. They didn’t need three plays. If that fails, fine, call timeout and come up with your next best play. Belichick has coaxed opposing coaches into overthinking before, and he did then as well. It was still lucky that he got the INT, but he got Carroll out of running Lynch for at least one play, and gave his team a better chance.
Great post, Tommy
Hopefully, the good, tough and determined Eagles show up.
As soon as I hear a lot of 8-man fronts, I’m looking for the Eagles to throw a lot of quick-hit passes, screens, and slants across the middle (just over the heads of those 8 men!). St. Nick can’t hold onto the ball and scan the field – we need snap, beat, beat, beat, pass!
They should show the hit of Robinson on Desean as a motivation. Still angry about that one and the cheering it got
That was nasty.
Am I allowed to say “nasty” in the context of football?
you just triggered me!
Iran is nasty. China is nasty. Please educate yourself on the proper use of language.
https://youtu.be/dzOD9g4Z5N8
Worth a listen despite ESP
That is a bold claim friend.
John Kincade makes some interesting points.
I’m sure he does but the presence of ESP is a very big hurdle to overcome.
No guns to your head. Totally optional.
Jay Ajayi vs Falcons week 6…..
https://youtu.be/ZTb7P5pGzTs
We know ATL and Ryan fade in big moments. This crowd and home team players know how big this is. I feel like we match up well and have beaten up on teams that make mistakes all year.
Seumalo was a one man wrecking crew for Kansas City
The Russel Wilsons played perfect against us, no mistakes
Dallas had Sean Lee 🙂
I can’t help but feel we are gonna smash ATL much like last years game.
PREACH!
It is reasonable to expect this team to struggle scoring more than 20 points in this game. But Atlantas offense has not been a high scoring affair either this year – and our D is at home. I think this is a coin flip, but with a lot of variance to it. If one team gets a huge score on special teams or with a huge TD on broken coverage or something like that, it could very well decide the outcome. And Atlantas ST-unit looked lethal last week. I think we have to get a few things, calls or mistakes going out way. Could easily happen though.
Umm … Tommy …
The Atlanta Falcons are not an “enemy.”
They are rivals and opponents of the Eagles.
North Korea and Isis are our “enemies.”
An intelligent use of the language is always useful and welcome …
An understanding of context would also be welcome…
I’d also question how the poorest country on earth and a bunch of disorganized yokels who were roundly neutralized 18 months ago count as “enemies”.
That was subtle, but I saw what you did there 🙂
Wow. Did you forget the sarcasm font?
This needs to go in a football comment hall of fame.
Thank you so much !!! I am so honored !! Wow.
And thanks also to all you other commenters on my post. Such intelligence and insight. Very edifying. And if anyone ever tells you that you have your head stuck up your ass, don’t pay any attention to them … even if it’s true … and it is.
I think in this context, in the way you shaped your argument you are using edifying wrong. But cheers to trying a new word in your vocabulary. Also, go fuck yourself you backwards clown.
Pass the bong.
Is this a representation of what they’re teaching kids in college these days? Because if it is… you’re just flushing tons of cash down the toilet.
wtf is this
I’m not sure you can remove military terms from the game of football.
http://www.historynet.com/fighting-words-military-terms-that-apply-to-sports.htm
Frank Gifford, a Hall of Fame halfback turned broadcaster, once said, “Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors.” That is a somewhat extreme view, but there is no doubt that a football game, like a battle, involves fierce competition. Indeed, some coaches say, “We are going to war.” The analogy is borne out by the adoption of numerous military terms to football and other sports.
In football, a blitz, like the German blitzkrieg (lightning war), is a concentration of force at high speed to break the opposition’s line. More specifically, it is a defensive strategy. During a play one or more linebackers or defensive backs are sent across the line of scrimmage to tackle the opposing team’s quarterback or disrupt his pass. The military term dates from World War II; in football it came into use in the early 1960s.
The noun bomb in football signifies a long passing play, when the passer throws the ball to the receiver deep in the field. This usage dates from about 1939. The analogy is not clear but presumably refers to bombs dropped from aircraft, which fall a considerable distance. In contrast to the arcing bomb, a bullet is a fast, straight pass.
To blow away, meaning to shoot dead or kill by gunfire, originated in Southern dialect and became common military slang during the Vietnam War. It was soon transferred to football and other sports to signify a thorough defeat. A 1988 sports headline had it as a double entendre: Miami Hurricanes Blow Away Michigan at Finish.
The noun formation has long been used in the military for how troops are lined up to face the enemy. In football it signifies the predetermined alignment of players on the defense or offense at the beginning of each play.
The area immediately around the line of scrimmage where the offensive and defensive linemen do battle is known as the trenches. An imaginary narrow band that extends across the field parallel to the goal lines is called the neutral zone. When the ball is in position to be put in play at the beginning of a down, no player except the center may penetrate the neutral zone. Both expressions clearly allude to portions of battlefields, and the latter also appears in ice hockey. A military term used in tennis is no man’s land, a midcourt area between the base line and the service line from which it is hard to make a good return. It is too far from the net for an effective volley and too far from the base line for an effective ground stroke.
During the recent Iraqi conflict, Red Zone referred to parts of Baghdad outside the perimeter of the Green Zone, the heavily guarded area in central Baghdad where U.S., coalition, and Iraqi authorities live and work. Later, Red Zone came to be used loosely for unsecured areas outside the official military posts, or indeed, any part of Iraq not in the Green Zone. In football the expression red zone is applied to the last 20 yards before the end zone, a similarly dangerous area.
In military usage the term suicide is applied to any exceptionally hazardous position or mission. During World War II the suicide squad consisted of machine gunners under heavy fire. In football the term came to be used for a group of players who run down the field during kicks and punts to break through the wedge set up by the opposing team. As in the military, they are exceptionally prone to injury. This group is also called a bomb squad or a kamikaze squad.
During World War II a submarine tactic to obtain a better attacking position was called an end around. The sub estimated the path and speed of its target and then submerged until the target was out of visual range. It would then surface and speed to a point in front of the target, submerge again, and wait till the target approached before attacking. In football an end around is a reverse in which a wide receiver or tight end turns back through the offensive backfield for a handoff from the quarterback. He then continues running around the opposite side of the line, surprising the defense, which normally expects a downfield pass.
George Carlin is an apt authority:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhN1ExFCXNA
Brings back awesome memories of seeing him live at college.
I saw him twice live. Brilliant on stage, much more than simply a comedian. I consider him a genius, and I rarely use that term.
The term sack (as in sack a city) fits too. Gunslinger. Cannon for an arm. Riffle it in there. Fire it in there. Slash. Down in the trenches. Hold the line. Spider 2 Y Bannana.
I just realized I haven’t seen the word ISIS online in a long time. I have a browser extension that changes it to ‘Evil Losers’. But I guess it doesn’t work when, without an intelligent use of the language, Isis is used instead.
OK, but the Cowboys are still arch villains.
I have no satirical response that does this comment justice. This is spectacular. If only it was intentionally so…
Intentionally so what?
An intelligent grasp of fan argot is particularly useful on this site. And welcome. PC needs 2 B annihilated.
Welcome.
You arguably had the biggest entry since Germany beat Brazil 7-1. Well done.
“Know your enemy” is a common English expression which, while derived from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, is now frequently used in conversation to express the idea that one should be familiar with one’s adversary’s thinking and approach in non-military instances of conflict such as courtroom cases or sports matches as well.
I agree that intelligent uses of the language are always useful and welcome. So is an understanding of colloquial English expressions and a lack of pedantry and sanctimony in internet comments.
Damn. Golf clap.
Well played. Pedantry is such an underutilized word.
Go ahead. Mike drop. You earned it.
I want to applaud you, xeynon, and the rest of igglesblitz for such appropriate responses. I actually am speechless because the rest of you guys said better things I could come up with. no sarcasm font needed for this post.
idiot
Lighten up, Francis.
I still have Eagles by double digits.
U are not alone. There are those out there who have come to the rational conclusion that one man doesn’t make an entire football team. His absence caused us to go from #1 seed favorite to home under dog throughout?! First time that’s ever happened. Than he could be argued to be the MOST Valuable
Well if this QB is so great that his absence has caused the historic event of us being the underdogs # 1 seed than Wentz should easily get MVP.
Who else in the league threw a TD with a torn ACL.
The weird thing is, I am not sure. I really didn’t think the Eagles would be that good this year, and I still don’t really see them having that great of a roster (except DL). So it kind of seems that Wentz really was what lifted the team from mediocre to a winner.
But maybe it’s not true… there is a part of me that doesn’t see why we can’t crush this team. We have some horses up front on D, and you can win a Superbowl that way.
Weird year of football all together. I feel like the whole team deserves more credit than they have gotten. Win or lose they earned the top seed, with and without Wentz
The whole team is getting credit. However, they did NOT earn the top seed “with or without Wentz”. Beating Oakland, barely, at home in a brutally ugly offensive showing does not over shadow the brilliant performance that Wentz displayed during the season. To think that if Wentz went down in the preseason and the Eagles still finished ranked #1 — is beyond silly(to be kind)….
Foles won that Rams game. We didn’t have Wentz for the final qtr and went 2-0 in games that mattered without him. He got us to 11-3 and should be MVP if u ask me.
He was brilliant and amazing but he was not the whole team. We are not Greenbay. That’s all I’m getting at. I don’t care how ugly the wins were.
NE has won a bunch of ugly SBs. They still seem to count the same.
Get off the fence will you! I’m on the fence, so there isn’t a lot of room. This is clearly one of those games that if the Eagles win, I’ll say “of course they did”. If they lose, I’ll say “of course they did”. I am however, off the fence. Eagles win, 20-17.
Haven’t you heard? One guy told me the other day that Foles was absolutely not the reason we went from favorite to underdog…
“It was a bunch of other reasons, really! It’s entirely coincidental that for the first time in NFL history the #1 seed is the underdog in the divisional round, and it was definitely not just because Foles is replacing the star QB! It was actually because the #6 seed just won a wildcard game which apparently had never happened before in the NFL playoffs!!!”
Ahem. Sorry.
Also, yes, Wentz deserves MVP.
Cam Newton played a baby at the end of the game…to “buy” time..when momentum was clearly in his favor…isn’t that the same thing as torn ACL?
how
Bold… 🙂
This isn’t war, it’s a game.
I missed it, but apparently the Texans have decided on a new GM and he is not named Joe Douglas. So, they were not patient enough to wait. Good.
I don’t know if I would want Joe as a full time GM. He might be great at personnel, but does he know what he’s doing when it comes to trades and contracts? I think he and Howie are learning from each other, but I’d want him to have some more experience under a guy like Howie than just a year.
Joe Banner!!
That was an odd GM opportunity. A one-year thing before Smith comes back and you’re out of a job again. It’s more of a resume-builder job, unless Smith is not coming back, and someone like Douglas can build their resume where he is.
You almost wonder if Douglas asked the Eagles to block the request, so he doesn’t have to burn bridges himself.
I think the thinking is Smith won’t be back.
It seems the Eagles might not lose anybody due to the surprising low numbers of openings.
There is only 4 openings left and it seems Schwartz might get one of them and it the two NE coordinators will get the 2
Speaking of coaches being considered for HC openings. Isnt it interesting how much smarter Pat Shurmer became with players who would/could execute.
I think the NE coordinators always seem like they are leaving then don’t. Whether they don’t get the offer or decline but seems like their leaving is oversold every year.
It seems that way because you read an article? Nobody writing those articles has a clue as to what’s going to happen…
Flip to the Seahawks not going to happen? The would be a nice surprise.
My hope is the Eagles keep all important coaches/personal. Minor coaches, like rb coach, wr coach etc – are dime a dozen. People(specific to this team) that are important to keep. I want Schwartz and Douglas to stay on in the worse. Continuity is important. Owner should be throwing his wallet at them. I don’t think team can afford to lose them. IF 1 was leaving – I’m not sure who I’d hate to see go more(between Schwartz and Douglas). Which one is more important to this team?