Two weeks....the Falcons.

[nanomoz]

Ya, I think the 'Hawks will blast the Falcons. It'll be close for two-and-a-half quarters, but the Falcons will tap out.

 

[Largent80]

Our defense is SO much better than what they have played against. They are going to make a few plays but we win this handily.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope they beat Denver.

This.

That would be awesome if they did. If they catch them sleepin, they very well could.

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

I hope they beat Denver.

not sure why you would hope an NFC team with any chance of costing us home field in the playoffs would notch a win under their belt when their loss doesn't give another NFC team a win.

I'd like them to be full of themselves and not salty after a loss.

The win in Denver doesn't do a whole lot for them in tie breaker scenarios. So let them get a win and fatten up on satisfaction.

 

[LeftHandSmoke]

I hope the Broncos soften them up and then the Hawks pulverize them!

 

[themunn]

I hope they beat Denver.

not sure why you would hope an NFC team with any chance of costing us home field in the playoffs would notch a win under their belt when their loss doesn't give another NFC team a win.

I hope they DEMOLISH Denver and get an absolute smackdown from us the following week leaving no illusion that the Denver D is a pretender to the throne

 

[blazen2392]

I hope they beat Denver.

not sure why you would hope an NFC team with any chance of costing us home field in the playoffs would notch a win under their belt when their loss doesn't give another NFC team a win.

He's probably saying that because teams are a little harder to beat coming off a loss

 

[Cad]

Looks like the Falcons will head directly to Seattle after Denver rather than go home to Atlanta. They're going to set up shop at UW next week. Interesting tactic.

 

[Mike D in 332]

Let me state the obvious.
Teams that have"high powered" offense throw the ball downfield and put up big numbers.
Offenses that beat the Seahawks are patient, run the ball despite 3-4 ypc avg, and throw short passes that prevent turnovers. (See Ram's).
The Falcons have the talent to follow the winning plan but will they have the patience. Either way that's only one side of the ball. Seahawks have two weeks to prepare. No excuses, if we play our game then we should be able to win a home game against any team in the league.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

Think people are underselling Desmond Trufant a bit here, he's phenomenal. Then again, we have so many good targets maybe one good DB isn't enough.

Pass defense = PRESSURE + coverage, and as you said, they only have one Trufant.

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[hawkfan68]

well we are going to find out if our defense is back to 2013 form or not. They still haven't been tested this year so I don't know why people are automatically taking our D in this matchup.

Our D also got torched by Ben and Company in Seattle. We are built to stop high-powered offenses, but seriously, I can't remember the last time we have. Our D is definitely going to have its work cut out for them. We might possibly see a shoot out. Its going to be a really fun game to watch

While you are generally correct, that we've not faced really potent passing attacks this year there are reasons to expect a return to form. And yes, we did get torched by Pittsburgh and Arizona at home. That was last year. We're talking about this year. Returning to form this year.

Here would be my case:

1. Sherman is still dominating on his side. That hasn't changed. Still among the league leaders in any kind of weird metric one could compare.

2. Shead is above average to even dominant on the other side. Gets tested often.

3. Lane in the slot. I'd argue he's the best 3rd corner in this league and can start for any team including ours.

4. Chancellor is clearly returned to his 2013/14 form.

5. Pass rush is greatly improved. We are getting sacks. But more than that, we're getting more pressures and we're getting them from about 5 players instead of just 2 last year.


Points two through five were liabilities last year. And we saw the evidence of that (porous on one side, Thomas had to always cheat to the right, TE's abused us repeatedly last year, QBs had abnormally high efficiency ratings).

We haven't had any TE abuse this year. Pretty much every aspect alongside Sherman has improved. I will grant, that Thomas has had now a couple games where he's visibly misplayed some opportunities he doesn't. Will that persist? I kind of doubt that. And if he's 'off', then he's not been off in such a way as to allow chunk yardage in the middle of the field.

Competition level aside, it looks like we've improved greatly in the areas we were weak at last year. Both on paper, and by result.

Very good points but iirc the Rams te, I believe his name is kendricks, had a good game against the Seahawks defense. Seems to be he abused them as much as he could in a 9-3 win.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

Julio is nasty but the Falcons have played some very poor defenses. I'm sorry but Carolina's defense is not as good as people say it is. That secondary is pure ass.

This defense eats finesse passing teams up for dinner. It's the teams built like the Rams that give us the most problems

Great post. Agree with all your points.

Falcons are a great matchup for us. I'd much rather play the finesse passing teams than the smash mouth running/defensive teams.

If Pete would quit dumming it down, by trying to out-smashmouth the Rams, I doubt they would be an issue. I think pride in our D gets in his way.

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[HawKnPeppa]

X-Factor: Quinn will engineer a game plan against a defense he once coached.

Those minor tidbits plus Kyle Shanahan is already a good playcaller on his own will make things tough for the Hawk D.

Every year new teams pop up that create problems....I think Falcons are that new team this year.

We've been running basically the same exact defense for years. Its not complicated.

Quinn has the same access to "engineering a game plan against the defense" that every other coach has.

Quinn had access to practices, games, strategy/gameplans/meetings, and knows most of our D players' strengths, weeknesses and tendencies in depth, so no, it's not the same info other coaches have.

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[fuego]

I think tonight's game against Dever changes the perception a little bit about the Falcons' D. We held the Broncos to 6 points and Carolina to 10 points until we put in our 'prevent' D which prevented nothing and let them get back in the game. Denver fans were basically saying the same things as most in this thread. It didn't quite turn out that way. But gonna be a good game for sure.

 

[Polk738]

There's only one guy on the Falcons I see giving the Seahawks a big headache and its not Julio Jones, this guy Tevin Coleman was a huge problem for the Broncos today and I'll bet my next paycheck they will try and do the same thing here at the Clink.

The Broncos were so focused on stopping Julio Jones that they completely forgot about Coleman who is an awesome pass catching back that burned them for 130 yards. The only good thing is now the Seahawks are very aware of the type of weapon he is and now have time to prepare. Pass catching backs have really given this team fits in the past, remember the last super bowl? Why play the LOB's game when you can go underneath to a guy like Coleman? The Jets did it last week as well using Powell on a few successful plays but not enough to bring them back into the game-it'll be interesting to see how they try and stop him, Marsh maybe?

 

[HawKnPeppa]

This game will be good.

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[chris98251]

There's only one guy on the Falcons I see giving the Seahawks a big headache and its not Julio Jones, this guy Tevin Coleman was a huge problem for the Broncos today and I'll bet my next paycheck they will try and do the same thing here at the Clink.

The Broncos were so focused on stopping Julio Jones that they completely forgot about Coleman who is an awesome pass catching back that burned them for 130 yards. The only good thing is now the Seahawks are very aware of the type of weapon he is and now have time to prepare. Pass catching backs have really given this team fits in the past, remember the last super bowl? Why play the LOB's game when you can go underneath to a guy like Coleman? The Jets did it last week as well using Powell on a few successful plays but not enough to bring them back into the game-it'll be interesting to see how they try and stop him, Marsh maybe?

Pass rush and blitz, if he has to pass protect he can't be in the pattern.

 

[ball4life34]

Think people are underselling Desmond Trufant a bit here, he's phenomenal. Then again, we have so many good targets maybe one good DB isn't enough.

Trufant had a bad year last year and has been so/so this year. Atlanta is 28th against the pass.

I know we overhype local players here but meh.

Didn't they have Julio last couple times we've played them, don't remember him doing much of anything in either of those games?

Trufant is not bad, but he's no lock down or even close to it. He's fast, but not a ball hawk. I don't think it'll be easy by any means, Ryan is solid, Julio's a beast, but I agree with others, defense wins close ball games. I think we'll score just enough in the end to eek out a nail biter. Just glad Tony Gonzales is no longer in the league.

Trufant was a pro bowler last year and was the least targeted CB in the NFL...think he only gave up only 1 TD the whole year. This year's he pretty much shut down Amari Cooper, Kelvin Benjamin and Emmanuel Sanders. If that's not lock down I don't know what is...he does not get a lot of interceptions though because his hands aren't very good. Definitely a stud from the state of Washington.