Ask The Falcoholic Playoff Edition!

I like John Abraham’s chances of getting to Eli, but the rest of the pass rush has been inconsistent at best. They’ll have their work cut out for them.

As far as the pass rush goes, they’re obviously going to be in huge trouble if they’re letting JPP and guys like that into the backfield. I expect they’ll trot out some extra blockers and ask Matt Ryan to make quick reads to try to combat that.

Abe is so good that he makes it seem like the pass rush must be above average, when in fact it’s not. He’s the lone player having a truly great year there, while everyone else has been pretty middling. Unless your offensive line is struggling, it’ll like be Abe or bust.

The most susceptible part of our defense is the secondary. Dunta’s struggled in the zone scheme he’s asked to work in, and Chris Owens has been below average in the nickel slot. Our safeties can be beat deep, too.

Your best bet is to set up a semblance of the run and just pick on the weakest parts of the secondary over and over again. You want to avoid those linebackers at all costs, because that’s our strongest unit.

Quality wide receivers have a way of troubling the Falcons. Cruz is particularly scary.

Definitely Osi and (name is escaping me). Basically, anyone who can rush the passer has a chance to be a headache against the Falcons.

Do you have trouble guarding straight deep routes, or is it YAC?

and are you a Giants fan now that they won?

your a Cowboys fan…

This guy is a Cowboys fan. No questions for you!

He’s been very, very good for the last several weeks and has a knack for coming through late.

We’re a little stronger inside than outside, but Will Svitek has played well in pass protection at left tackle. Your best bet is to just push hard and someone will crack. I don’t think they can keep him from getting sacked.

The guy you might not know is Sean Weatherspoon. He’s had a huge year at OLB and he’s provided pressure, made tackles and been a force against the run all year long. Epect to see him after Bradshaw and Jacobs.

It’ll be close, but I think a turnover or two will make the difference.

If they lose, it will be because you kill Ryan and slow down Turner. The defense isn’t good enough to save the offense in that case.

He just clashed with the coaching staff and they let him walk. He must be better in coverage now than he used to be.

We do love Spoon.

If the line opens up a hole for him, you’re screwed. He’s too fast and powerful in the open field.

You can stymie him by getting a good hit on him at the line of scrimmage. He has a lot of leg drive, but you instantly sap his speed and he has a hard time accelerating again. Just make it your mission to hit him and try to plug as many lanes as possible, because he’s never had elite vision.

I’m glad he’s coming back for another season.

I think Brent Grimes has a good shot of at least slowing down Victor Cruz, because he’s one of the better corners in the league. Nobody else matches up particularly well against your weapons.

But I believe he’s making the league minimum.

The Bears from 2008 and 2009 can tell you a little about that.

I’d be reasonably confident he could get them into position to score, but nervous about their execution. The play calling in the red zone goes all Forrest Gump.

Warm weather team that plays in a Dome. That’s a real issue, even if Ryan did play his games at BC.

Thank you for your service. I hope you get to see the game on the internet or something once you put your boots on the ground.

Screw the gipper!

I don’t what your doing but your serving my country (i think) and I’m very thankful for it.

They frown upon that type of behavior aboard an airplane.

He is considered “above average,” on par with Matt Ryan though some are loathe to bring Ryan down to Eli’s level if you can believe this nonsense.

Can’t make this malarkey up. SMH

For the first four years of his career, I thought too much was being made of him as a passer. I saw him as an inaccurate QB who threw too many picks. Given the way he was lauded, I thought he was overrated.

Somehow he’s become incredibly underrated. His last four seasons have been as good as anybody in the NFL, and what he did this year with little to no ground game has impressed the hell out of me. He’s really hit his stride as an NFL passer, and I’d put him juuuust outside of the group that includes Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers. Eli Manning scares me, I’ll admit it.

I’ve learned better than to compare Ryan to other passers given the fights I’ve gotten into with Ravens fans about Ryan/Flacco.

which is good. He also throws a lot of interceptions. A lot of games I’ve seen him play, he’s made very costly mistakes (Eagles games in the last two years).

I watched most of their superbowl campaign and I thought he got lucky a lot at the time.

He’s good. He’s nearly a tier better than Matt Ryan, because I think he has a much better eye for the big play and he isn’t afraid to take those risks. I think they affect the game in similar fashions though, just drive the ball, keep command of the offense, don’t get sacked, and score touchdowns in the Redzone.

He’s a great quarterback, and I think the G-Men as a team are severely underrated. It’s only been 3 years since they won the Superbowl, yet nobody talks about them like they are a legitimate contender. A lot of your losses this year came from key mistakes late (some on Eli’s part) but I don’t really think you guys got embarassed as often as the Falcons did by good teams.

They’ve had real struggles in pass blocking and run blocking. The pass blocking has stabilized in recent weeks, but they’re still struggling to open up holes.

I’m sure Matt Ryan is a very nice person

Joe Hawley is an expert flopper and Tyson Clabo has always been known as a guy who’s willing to hold and throw a few questionable blocks along the way, so I suspect that’s part of where the reputation comes from. I’ll be the first to criticize them when they’re dirty and they have been at times, but I don’t see anything more egregious than the league average on balance. That’s with homer glasses off.

I think Tuck’s taking that in part from B.J. Raji and Suh, neither of whom should be talking any crap about other players being dirty.

now that the raiders season is over we get this guy back

But since we’re not playing this in an alternate dimension where the Falcons are staffed entirely by 10 years-olds with ACL tears, I’d say it’ll be a little closer than that.

he’s much better then Eli Manning! Matt Ryan is the greatest of all time!

The strength of schedule

The strength of schedule

The Falcons got some lucky breaks last year that weren’t going to be sustainable in 2011. I predicted an 11-5 finish, got flack from some Falcons fans for being pessimistic and wound up being a little too optimistic. They’ve had some injuries, they’ve played some poor games and the offensive line has struggled to stabilize. Those are big factors.

I’d argue that this is one of Ryan’s finest seasons as a pro. When you consider his line allowed way too much pressure—something I know you guys are familiar with from years past—that he was breaking in a rookie receiver and that his ground game was non-existent for a six game stretch, he’s really put the team on his back.

If you look at some of the advanced metrics or ESPN’s weird QBR, he’s about 7th in the NFL after being ranked third a year ago. Sounds about right to me.

Again, I’m not going to get into the Manning/Ryan stuff. I’ve found I can’t possibly have an opinion without getting yelled at by one set of fans or another, so we’ll just go with this: They’re both very, very good.

…every one of those teams can rush the passer. Ryan’s got good pocket presence, but when the line falls apart, he’s a mess.

His best two games by far were against New Orleans, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. This is what scares me so much about the Giants.

Focus on Turner at the point of attack when possible and pass all over them. Simple as that.

Some of these guys play one, maybe two games a season in cold weather. Some have never lived anywhere where the temperature routinely dips below 60 degrees.

I guess we’ll see firsthand on Sunday.

Most overrated may be either Dunta Robinson (Pro Football Focus has him ranked poorly despite his reputation) or maybe even Michael Turner. He’s still good, but there have been games where he just disappears and he’s arguably no longer the focal point of this offense.

The most underrated is probably Grimes. He’s just starting to get his due as one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, which I would argue he is.

With the lockout and a new defensive coordinator, it was a disastrous idea to throw so many unfamiliar players together and expect them to gel. They did come on strong in the second half.

to compete for the division.

In our 10 out-of-division games we play 7 teams that are in the playoffs right now.

He’s an elusive slot receiver. You also do have to watch out for Rodgers, as sexyscottish mentioned. He’s a weapon out of the backfield.

I think of the scene from The Shooter where her pokies are out in full force.

She was in a film called Happythankyoumoreplease, written and directed by Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother). Mara starred alongside Radnor. It’s one of my personal favorites.

Brian Van Gorder runs a zone so soft you could comfortably fall asleep on it. He’s fond of blitzing four, though sometimes he’ll pull his linemen back into coverage to send a linebacker or defensive back in.

It works reasonably well until the opposing offense gets creative, and then it craters.

And unsurprisingly, the power run is about the only part of any team’s ground game the Falcons struggle against. They’re excellent in pursuit, so you have to knock them down.

If I were you, I’d pound Jacbos all day long and hope he breaks a couple of long ones. You need to keep them honest, because if they can key on the pass, they’ve got guys back there who can be turnover machines.

hahaha

I’m still mad about Eugene Robinson, and it’s been 13 years.

The Falcons rest their players A LOT, but mostly only veterans. The injury list isn’t as bad as it looks once you break it down and realize which players are simply resting and which ones won’t affect the game if they can’t make it anyway.

but they quickly said he would practice tomorrow no problem (whew!). They are just being careful with Grimes (mostly why he didn’t play against the Bucs the last game). The only guy that stinks that will definitely not play is our LB Stephen Nicholas. Otherwise, as gilley said, everyone else is pretty much par for the course on the injury report

Bobby Petrino. Yes. He’s a scum bag. He had a history of being a scum bag before he came to Atlanta, and his decision to quite with four games left in the season did nothing to help that reputation.

To make matters worse, he didn’t even talk to Arthur Blank in person. He left a voice mail. That’s how he quit. Then things started surfacing like how he had a “don’t speak unless spoken to” policy with his players. So yeah, that dude is universally hated by Falcons fans.

But then we brought it Mike Smith. Nobody knew who he was when the Falcons hired him, but he’s made it incredibly easy to get over Petrino and nightmarish state in which he and Vick left our beloved franchise.