Atlanta Falcons “A win is A win”, but is that enough?

On September 10, the Atlanta Falcons went above .500 for the first time since 2017 and the fanbase is riled up over this game.  To say we won ugly would be an understatement, but it showed our team has the mentality to scratch and claw for a victory and I love to see that!  Here’s some things I observed during the game that stood out during the game.

1. J Bates III is a grown man and money well spent as our new safety caught two interceptions from the rookie QB Bryce Young and lead the team in tackles with 10!  He has to be the NFC defensive player of the week imo.  He also set up the offense for east scores with his two picks.  He was the best player in a Falcons uniform on Sunday in the Benz!

2. Tyler Allgeiers had a great game having 75 rushing yards off 15 carries with 2 Touchdowns!  He was definitely our sledgehammer against the panthers tough young defense.  My only problem is in the first qtr Tyler had 3 Carries for 45 yards and we never went back to him until the second half of the game!  I understand we have a new toy in Bijan who we need to get touches also, but coach has to ride the hot hand.  Great game young man!

3.  Bijan Robinson was spark plug running the ball 50 yards off 10 carries and 21 yard receiving and a jaw dropping juke a defender on a screen pass and powered through two panther defenders to score his first in many TD’s!  Great game by the rookie for sure

4.  AJ Terrell had a great game imo.  With his sound tackling and his cover skills AJ was locking down his side of the field!  Actually the entire secondary was great today!  

5.  Now to the unpleasantries.  This game felt like the Falcons 4th preseason game.  We wasn’t ready to go from the kickoff.  It goes from the coaching staff to the players we came out super flat and this game had the energy of a preseason game.  We won the game so that is the most important result, but I think we can see this team starters needed more than nine snaps in three preseason games to help gain chemistry.

6.  Arthur Smith felt like he was trying to go according to his script.  I feel like he was trying to get Bijan his touches when he should have been reading the hot hand of Allgeiers in the first half running the ball.  Also he was trying to get ridder in a groove with a lot of short passes or screen passes.  It seem like we only had one drive of over 50 yards in the game and I would rather be talking about this over a win than a loss with some teachable moment’s!  Improvement on the Playcalling from coach smith and rotating Bijan and Tyler will be key moving forward this season with a winning record.

7.  Ridder had 11-15 for 115 yards and 1 TD.  To be fair to Ridder our offensive line was getting whooped and he was under pressure for most of the game.  With that said he has to find away to pass for more than 115 yard as a professional QB in the NFL.  He had to be able to get the ball down the field to open up running lines for the RB’s.  Ridder having more catches in a game than Drake should never happen in either of their careers again.

8.  The offensive line was great on run blocking but was getting manhandled on pass blocking tbh.  Even Chris Lindstrom was getting pushed around and that’s surprising to me.  McGary was a turnstile in pass protect today and that’s one of the main reasons Ridder had a bad game.  There was no time in the pocket for 80% of the game.  They looked in preseason form, but again at least we won the game which is the most important part.  

9.  Ellis and Troy Anderson as inside LB’s was getting mashed against the run.  The panther kept running draw plays right in the A or B gap and our guys could get off blocks or couldn’t fill the hole correctly.  Now ellis did well in coverage, but troy was getting cooked by hurst in coverage.  I will say Tory accounted for one of the two sacks made today in Bryce Young so that is definitely a positive!  We just need him to peel off blocks and make the tackles we need being our middle LB or teams are going to gash this defense up the middle in the running game! 

10.  There was barely any pass rush in this game.   Yes we got two sacks, but Bryce Young was chilling in the pocket for most of the game.  Thank goodness he was a rookie or we could have been carved up.  More teachable moments in a victory instead of sour note in a loss.  

Ok these are the ten things I wanted to highlight in this victory that we can look at and grow from in the future.   What do you guys think?  Was there anything I missed?  Please leave a comment below and thank you for reading our blog!