Hello everyone,
normally I come in every Monday to give to a comprehensive breakdown of the game in 10 bullet points, but today I want to vent.
We as a fanbase was told by the owner “Arthur Blank” that we was in year 3 of terry and Arthur plan and that another 7-10 season wouldn’t be apart of that plan. This was the season we made a legitimate push for the playoffs. We had the second most cap money available this past off season (only the bears had more money than us to reshape this team) and I do feel Terry fontenot did make us a better team defensively through free agency. My problem is we have an offensive minded coach who was hired because he was supposed to be a guru on offense. He chose Desmond Ridder because he felt he could coach Ridder up to the point that we would be a winning team this season.
I’m not mad at Ridder because imo his progression or lack there of is a result or better yet a REFLECTION of Arthur Smith ability to coach Ridder up. Last year there was no competition between Mariota and Ridder in preseason. This season was more of the same as Taylor H was brought in to be the back up to an unproven QB in a make it or break it season set by himself, Terry, and the owner Arthur Blank! I would be very hard pressed to find anyone prior to the season in this city that thought we was going into another rebuild season, but it’s starting to feel like last year all over again tbh. Imo Terry used the money to build the best defensive team in a Falcons uniform since John Abraham was here.
No we don’t have a dominant pass rushing defense but we are very solid all around and our new Defensive Coordinator Ryan N makes adjustments during halftime and we come out playing better. The jags only had one broken play drive on this defense when AJ Terrell let Ridley get behind him because the safety was supposed to make the sack, but whiffed on the QB with the perfect blitz call imo! Perfect call by coach, but players missed in both ends of that play. Tbh I need to see Hellems get more burn at safety over Grant in the future. He was a ball hawk in preseason and I want to find out if that will translate to the regular season.
We have Kyle Pitts who looks like TE2 more than J Smith does in two straight games. Tyler Allgeier isn’t getting enough Carrie’s to be effective in the game, but tbh I can’t give him more touches if Bijan is healthy plain and simple. Bijan is the entire offense and it seemed like the jags plan was to spy Bijan whenever he was on the field and dare Ridder to beat them. The same gameplan the Detroit Lions had! This game we continued to run the ball even on 8 men in the box and Bijan had over 100 yards rushing! Way to dictate to the defense instead of the defense dictating us to pass only. With that said that strategy worked two weeks in a row and is it Ridder fault or the playcalling? Let’s dig into this right quick.
Instead of talking about some obscure play during the game that no one would find let’s talk about the second interception play by Ridder. The play was designed to play action pitch toss to Bijan and to have the the safety drop in the box. The jags had 8 in the box with a single high look.
(For those that don’t know what a single high look is it is when to have your free stafety directly in the center of the field and your strong sfety is up closer to the line for run support)
You got the look and coverage you wanted out if that play but the route design was horrible! Normally in a single high set if you run two receivers one of them would make a five to seven yard post corner and the other would go 15 yard did slant across the Middle of the field to make the free safety decide if he is going to help the the post corner or the 15-20 yard dig route! Both of our wr did a same depth across the field going right at the single high safety so it was an easy read. He didn’t have to move or make a decision because the only two on legit routes came right towards him. All he had to do is watch ridder eyes to shade to that side and catch the puck as he did. The throw was horrible. The staring his wr down the entire play was worst, but the play design was even worst if both players ran their correct depth! If you get a team in single high set you’re supposed to trick that safety and throw it to the open man. Ridder never saw the safety, and threw a horrible ball into double coverage, but the play design was horrible!
That’s why I can’t fully blame ridder for this loss. Imo Ridder failures are a reflection of Arthur Smith inability to coach up Ridder. His suspect playcalling is due to his lack of faith in Ridder, but he made Ridder the starter in a make it break season because he believed he could coach Ridder up! There’s still a lot of games to be played in this season, but we better not lose to this next game vs the young rebuilding Texans! If we do the hot seat with be oven hot for Arthur Smith!
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