Average Analysis: Atlanta

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

EDIT: Cut the majority to save the space.

The Panthers will look better this week, but they are currently outclassed in nearly every aspect of the game except special teams, and unless every return goes into the endzone this will at least be a much easier loss to watch.

Prediction: Falcons 24 - Panthers 17

[rippadonn]

Final verdict:

The Panthers will look better this week, but they are currently outclassed in nearly every aspect of the game except special teams, and unless every return goes into the endzone this will at least be a much easier loss to watch.

Prediction: Falcons 24 - Panthers 17

I agreed with your assessment up until the highlighted statement. WE are the NFC South Champions they are the scrubs what you say is blasphemy! They need to sniff our jocks to even hope to be in our class what you talkin' bout Willis???

:biggrinjester:

[Ga Cat Fan]

Good post, IMO. I also kinda disagree with the outclassed part.

I hope Goodson and Munnerlyn put Gorilla Glue in their hands to prevent putting the ball on the ground if they field KOs and punts.

I also hope the score is reversed. (Hey, we can hope, can't we??)

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

Good post, IMO. I also kinda disagree with the outclassed part.

I hope Goodson and Munnerlyn put Gorilla Glue in their hands to prevent putting the ball on the ground if they field KOs and punts.

I also hope the score is reversed. (Hey, we can hope, can't we??)

No fumbles on returns last week. I'd like to see that stat continue.

And there is no valid reason why the Panthers can't come out on top this week. But based solely on week one, the Falcons are the better team.

I feel unclean now.

[SCfalconfan]

Couple of comments from the Atlanta perspective.

1. Our kickoff coverage was phenominal last week. I only remember them getting past the 20 once and they were stopped inside the 15 3 times. We were only OK on returns, but one of our two kickoff returns started at about the 18 and got to the 30. Short kick led to short return but good field position.

2. Punt returns - Without Douglas we aren't nearly as dangerous on punt returns, but Weems did well last week. Caught everything and had one nice return. Other returns he maximized the yardage available, which wasn't much. Punt coverage has been a strength of this team. We set and NFL record last year with fewest yards allowed in a season for punt returns (something like 49 yards). I doubt we do that again, but we covered kicks well vs Miami.

3. The big question to me for Falcons opponents is do you stop the run or the pass? Miami sold out to stop the run (usually 8 in the box). They were successful slowing Turner, but that simply opened up the passing game. They also brought a 5MR on most passing plays and only got 2 sacks out of it. On the Gonzalez TD they brought 7. We have the weapons to beat the blitz.

4. On Defense we rarely blitzed vs Miami and relied on our front 4 to generate the 4 sacks we got. I watch the first 3 quarters again last ngiht and only counted 2 blitzes. One was a 5MR and the other was a zone blitz with a 4MR (CB rushed, DE dropped).

[jaymadd]

Actually Roddy White would have been a bigger factor against the Phins but Matt Ryan missed Roddy on Two deep passes that would have been TD. I expect Matt to fine tune his accuracy issues that he had last week and hit White on a few fly patterns especially if Chris Harris is still out and the Panties put 8 or 9 in the box like Miami did.