kmedic
New member
This season Atlanta has gone away from feeding Turner, who is getting old and slow, and has leaned towards their screen game much more. There's a nice article on SI about this:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/ne ... uk_t12_a12
It appears that they are not intending to necessarily offset the blitz but rather to get small chunks of yardage outside the hashes to create 3rd and short opportunities. Apparently, it has been a big success for them this season. WR screens are usually predicated on blocking out the CB's. We have big, physical CB's that generally snuff out WR screens pretty well, particularly BB. Our LB's, such as KJ and Leroy have also done an excellent job sniffing out the classic RB screens as well. I like the matchup.
As far as getting pressure on the QB, I agree losing Clem is a big deal, so I would hope that Bradley would call more LB, nickel corner, and safety blitzes than usual. The good thing is there is not a lot of film of us blitzing like that during the season, so it could actually be an advantage for us by catching Ryan off guard.
Losing Clem would have been a whole lot worse if we were facing San Fran. Irvin is a significant drop off against the run. In fact, he'd probably not even start against them if that was the case. You'd probably see Scruggs in there.
All in all, you have to like the matchup on paper versus the Falcons. The only X-factor is Tony Gonzalez, particularly on third down. You just know they are going to try to hit him on third down conversions and try to exploit Kam or KJ's coverage on him. Probably the best bet is to try and knock him off his routes at the LOS. Getting a few "illegal contact" penalties might be worth it if we can neutralize him.
The biggest X-factor to this game IMO is the psyche of Atlanta. Are they ready to take that next step? They've been gearing up for this moment all season long to get that monkey off their back. This can work both ways mentally. I just hope that they falter one more time (they can get the monkey off their back next year)!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/ne ... uk_t12_a12
It appears that they are not intending to necessarily offset the blitz but rather to get small chunks of yardage outside the hashes to create 3rd and short opportunities. Apparently, it has been a big success for them this season. WR screens are usually predicated on blocking out the CB's. We have big, physical CB's that generally snuff out WR screens pretty well, particularly BB. Our LB's, such as KJ and Leroy have also done an excellent job sniffing out the classic RB screens as well. I like the matchup.
As far as getting pressure on the QB, I agree losing Clem is a big deal, so I would hope that Bradley would call more LB, nickel corner, and safety blitzes than usual. The good thing is there is not a lot of film of us blitzing like that during the season, so it could actually be an advantage for us by catching Ryan off guard.
Losing Clem would have been a whole lot worse if we were facing San Fran. Irvin is a significant drop off against the run. In fact, he'd probably not even start against them if that was the case. You'd probably see Scruggs in there.
All in all, you have to like the matchup on paper versus the Falcons. The only X-factor is Tony Gonzalez, particularly on third down. You just know they are going to try to hit him on third down conversions and try to exploit Kam or KJ's coverage on him. Probably the best bet is to try and knock him off his routes at the LOS. Getting a few "illegal contact" penalties might be worth it if we can neutralize him.
The biggest X-factor to this game IMO is the psyche of Atlanta. Are they ready to take that next step? They've been gearing up for this moment all season long to get that monkey off their back. This can work both ways mentally. I just hope that they falter one more time (they can get the monkey off their back next year)!