Matt Ryan and the Falcons are an exact example of what a change of offensive identity can produce

[CatMan72]

Yup, I'm hoping Shanahan is hired for one of these HC vacancies so the Falcons cool off a little. 

[Borat]

8 hours ago, Panthers8969 said:

Top 10 historic offense? Lol

sorry appreciate you being a Falcons fan and not trolling our boards, but cmon now, you might not even have he best offense this year

Tied for 7th in PPG all-time. Tied for 2nd in yards per play all-time. 

 

What's your bar for 'historic?' 

[Snake]

8 hours ago, stankowalski said:

Don't you understand WHY we got exposed?  If your o-line is poo I don't care if you have Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, and Barry Sanders...you're getting your ass handed to you.

Our line was not that bad. We were 18th in allowing sacks and ATL is 11th this year.  So maybe you should look at the numbers before you go spouting off poo. The only two playoff teams they beat this year were the Dolphins and Green Bay while they got to play the Jags, Browns, 49ers,and the Rams all in one season. 

[PantherPhann89]

4 hours ago, ThPantherFan said:

You mean........get the ..........off my field!

Yes, thats exactly what i mean. And it bothered me even more that none our media experts ever mentioned it, none that i heard anyway. I was so proud of Hardy that following year... That is another of many issues thats wrong with our team. Players with a chip on their shoulder that's willing to speak up.

[Khyber53]

11 hours ago, FuFuLamePoo said:

The past 2-3 years a lot of people, including Falcons fans themselves, were becoming very skeptical of Matt Ryan believing he just simply wasn't good enough.  He had seemed to hit a wall in his production, and was perhaps getting worse from the form he was in earlier in his career.  But two years ago the Falcons got a new coaching staff, including an offensive brainiac in Kyle Shanahan and now Matt Ryan is the MVP.  And don't come in here to talk poo about Ryan, he's clearly earned it and you're delusional if you think otherwise.  Ryan had always shown he had the talent to be very good, it was just new philosophy and blood that was needed to get him out of his slump.

Our offense sorely needs a similar infusion right now.  It does suck Shula has become a top scapegoat, because he's called some great games here and the problems run much deeper than him.  But it's a tough league sometimes, and sometimes for the sake of the future you have to make tough decisions even if it means letting someone go that you respect.  For the sake of Cam and the entire team, we need an entirely new offensive philosophy.  One that coaches to the strengths of our QB and caters to the personnel we have.  Teams have caught onto our ground and pound scheme, it is laughable that we still try to run the read option which almost always leads to a minimal gain and our QB getting hit.  

An entirely new playbook and scheme, expect Cam back in Pro Bowl form.  Keep Shula around, I don't know how to expect much better next year

Dang, 15-1 and a Superb Owl appearance doesn't buy you much anymore does it?

PFF Offensive Coordinator of the Year in 2015. Created a new offensive scheme to make the most of Cam Newton's abilities while easing him into NFL-level competition in 2011, netting Newton the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The next year, under Shula's system, Cam improved over the previous year and actually surpassed the performance of Peyton Manning's first two years. But that was all Newton, right?

Nah, Newton is a phenomenal player with the abilities to be the best to ever play the game, but see, Shula had done this before, too, with David Gerrard at Jacksonville. Shula took an underappreciated, but skilled Gerrard and in two seasons took him from a JAG back-up QB to the Pro Bowl, with a 102.2 seasonal passer rating, 64% completion record and only 3 interceptions for the season.

Shula understands how to get the most out of a QB and can do it. Heck, he's proved it here. He can call a competent game and plans around the personnel he has. We made it to 15-1 in the regular season last year because of that. This year, we fell off of a cliff or just came back to earth. Why? Hell, there are a hundred reasons, but they happen to pretty much half the teams that reach the Super Bowl in the following year. This year, both teams were just shadows of themselves and yet both had retained a solid core of great players.

Two things probably made the biggest difference to the Panthers and Broncos this year. The first, and most obvious, is that both teams played extremely long seasons -- 19 games of regular and post season, plus four pre-season games, training camps and OTAs. While other teams were resting up, our guys were still in the toughest fights of the year.

The other factor, and maybe the most important, is that every nuance of the Panthers and Broncos offenses and defenses were studied. Both teams had targets on their backs by any coaching staff out there, because every one of them had to answer to the question, "How do we beat those guys and get the Lombardi?" was asked of them by management. Those playoff games were extra tape on us and on how our opponents, good programs, attacked our tendencies and weaknesses. In short, if the other teams did their homework, they had extra tutoring. If they didn't, well then they ended up like Chip Kelly.

Can Shula fix this? Yeah, I think he can.  And I think a well-rested and restocked team can make another run, except this time it won't be a Cinderella story. Shula, Rivera and Cam will work on new wrinkles and evolutions this year, you can bet on that.

And always remember this, bad teams fire coaches often and keep the carousel turning. Good teams, dynasties, stick with their personnel and keep developing and adjusting. And they don't panic because of one rough season.

[4dabirds]

37 minutes ago, Snake said:

Our line was not that bad. We were 18th in allowing sacks and ATL is 11th this year.  So maybe you should look at the numbers before you go spouting off poo. The only two playoff teams they beat this year were the Dolphins and Green Bay while they got to play the Jags, Browns, 49ers,and the Rams all in one season. 

The Falcons did not play the Jags, Browns or Miami.  The Falcons did play 7 games against teams that were in the playoffs last year and went 5-2.

[Snake]

42 minutes ago, 4dabirds said:

The Falcons did not play the Jags, Browns or Miami.  The Falcons did play 7 games against teams that were in the playoffs last year and went 5-2.

Last year... Lol you guys lost to the Chargers. 

[Borat]

14 minutes ago, Snake said:

Last year... Lol you guys lost to the Chargers. 

Save for the Cowboys and Pats (who are and should be heavy favorites), most of the playoff teams have a eyebrow-raising loss or two. 

[Udogg]

3 hours ago, Promethean Forerunner said:

It goes beyond protection. Look at how they beat us twice. Sure Julio killed us the first go around because of Benwikere's poor conditioning but look at how surgerical it was against us in the second match up. Ryan hit 8 or 9 different receivers. It wasn't by luck. Shanahan threw so many looks at us. We had Julio playing decoy at times while we had 2 WRs going behind our LBs and causing confusion in our secondary. He also used the TEs and RBs to identify where the soft spots were in our zone defense (and used that against us a play or two or three later). They attacked our weakness while we never adjusted.

Julio has always been Julio.  Don't let the Josh Norman hype blind you to the fact, that there aren't 3 WR's in the league better than Julio.  The difference between this year and recent years, is that Matt Ryan had time to throw the ball. We have malled him previous to this year.  I think 14 and 15 season we averaged about 7 sacks a game.  The improvement this year with Mack at center has been tremendous.  Add to the fact that their fullback actually blocks people, he got time to find the holes in our zones.   Any QB  can find the whole in a zone if they get time to throw.  

In comparison, Cam has not been comfortable in the pocket since game 1.   Everyone talks about his footwork (which is valid), but he threw a lot of passes with bad footwork last year that was successful.  The issue is, when he isn't comfortable in the pocket he makes bad decisions, throws, etc.  That it.  People are trying to come up with all the excuses to why Cam has looked bad this year.  It's the line play.  Our O-line played lights out last year.  Although Denver ate us alive, most teams that blitz got burned as well.  The difference between last years line play and this one is night and day. The difference between last years Atlanta line play and this years is night and day. 

[Snake]

1 hour ago, Borat said:

Save for the Cowboys and Pats (who are and should be heavy favorites), most of the playoff teams have a eyebrow-raising loss or two. 

It's a weak year and another reason why it's sad the Panthers had to bomb. I honestly don't know if anyone could stop the Pats this year. Maybe KC but there's a good chance the Pats will win it all. 

[Ace_Aladdin]

2 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

Dang, 15-1 and a Superb Owl appearance doesn't buy you much anymore does it?

PFF Offensive Coordinator of the Year in 2015. Created a new offensive scheme to make the most of Cam Newton's abilities while easing him into NFL-level competition in 2011, netting Newton the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The next year, under Shula's system, Cam improved over the previous year and actually surpassed the performance of Peyton Manning's first two years. But that was all Newton, right?

Nah, Newton is a phenomenal player with the abilities to be the best to ever play the game, but see, Shula had done this before, too, with David Gerrard at Jacksonville. Shula took an underappreciated, but skilled Gerrard and in two seasons took him from a JAG back-up QB to the Pro Bowl, with a 102.2 seasonal passer rating, 64% completion record and only 3 interceptions for the season.

Shula understands how to get the most out of a QB and can do it. Heck, he's proved it here. He can call a competent game and plans around the personnel he has. We made it to 15-1 in the regular season last year because of that. This year, we fell off of a cliff or just came back to earth. Why? Hell, there are a hundred reasons, but they happen to pretty much half the teams that reach the Super Bowl in the following year. This year, both teams were just shadows of themselves and yet both had retained a solid core of great players.

Two things probably made the biggest difference to the Panthers and Broncos this year. The first, and most obvious, is that both teams played extremely long seasons -- 19 games of regular and post season, plus four pre-season games, training camps and OTAs. While other teams were resting up, our guys were still in the toughest fights of the year.

The other factor, and maybe the most important, is that every nuance of the Panthers and Broncos offenses and defenses were studied. Both teams had targets on their backs by any coaching staff out there, because every one of them had to answer to the question, "How do we beat those guys and get the Lombardi?" was asked of them by management. Those playoff games were extra tape on us and on how our opponents, good programs, attacked our tendencies and weaknesses. In short, if the other teams did their homework, they had extra tutoring. If they didn't, well then they ended up like Chip Kelly.

Can Shula fix this? Yeah, I think he can.  And I think a well-rested and restocked team can make another run, except this time it won't be a Cinderella story. Shula, Rivera and Cam will work on new wrinkles and evolutions this year, you can bet on that.

And always remember this, bad teams fire coaches often and keep the carousel turning. Good teams, dynasties, stick with their personnel and keep developing and adjusting. And they don't panic because of one rough season.

well said, we are few pieces away on the offense for another great run.

You know the motto Keep Pounding

[4dabirds]

1 hour ago, Snake said:

Last year... Lol you guys lost to the Chargers. 

So? Green Bay got completely stomped by Tennessee and Washington, and they lost to Indy too. So what does that say about them. A loss is a loss, and just about every team can beat any team on any give Sunday. Every game Atlanta lost was rather close. It's not like anyone went out and hung 40 plus points on them.

[Snake]

3 minutes ago, 4dabirds said:

So? Green Bay got completely stomped by Tennessee and Washington, and they lost to Indy too. So what does that say about them. A loss is a loss, and just about every team can beat any team on any give Sunday. Every game Atlanta lost was rather close. It's not like anyone went out and hung 40 plus points on them.

Your not really helping your argument because you won by a single point to Green Bay at home. Your also the only team in the playoffs that didn't actually face a top playoff team this year. 

[GeorgiaBoyz]

24 minutes ago, Snake said:

Your not really helping your argument because you won by a single point to Green Bay at home. Your also the only team in the playoffs that didn't actually face a top playoff team this year. 

That's a contradiction because GB is a top playoff team this year. Wouldn't be surprised if we host & beat them again this year. We weren't even playing our best ball the last time we beat them!