Since it was such an active topic last week, I decided to plagerize my fellow blogger and post the Mon-KEYS to the game.
Let me introduce me to my three friends, Throw No Interceptions, Fumble No Balls, and Miss No Blitzers. After re-watching the tape of the Jacksonville game last night, I'm certain that these are the keys to the game today.
Obviously, when you're minus 5 in turnovers, you're not going to win many games, so we just cannot put the ball on the ground, or throw it to the other team when trying to throw it away. In addition to that, if Matt doesn't have a bounce back game today, then all of the "same old Seahawks" skeletons will come out of the closet, and that just won't be good.
Atlanta's defense gave Donovan McNabb (or should I say McNafro, since I'm shamelessly ripping off my fellow bloggers) a run for his money on Monday night, and he's considered amoung the elite of NFL QBs, so Matt's going to have to keep his eyes open and his head on a swivel. However, the Falcon's secondary is hurting, so it's time for our receivers to step up and be there when Matt needs to make a hot-read and avoid a blitz. Oh yea, MoMo can't allow anymore blitzing safeties a free run at Hass.
Our defense should be fine. Sure Vick is a lot more mobile and dangerous that Byron "Fat Albert" Leftwich, but I liked the pressure that we applied in Jacksonville, and our guys held up pretty well under constantly bad field position last week. Hopefully a few of those tipped balls find their way into OUR hands this week, and if we force a fumble, we're able to cover it too.
So, that's my take on this week's Mon-KEYS to the game. What's yours?
-stop Warrick Dunn and Duckett...Vick can play with danger all he wants, we may not have the best defense, but we have a fast one...his speed wont kill us as much as one would think...
ReplyDelete-expect Vick to try to run. he will be forced out of the pocket a million times through the middle with Tubbs...Wistrom and Fisher from the ends...I expect us to collapse their oline today
-force Vick to pass...when he has to pass, he sucks...we have ballhawks all over our secondary, and I expect us to get a couple interceptions this week (or i will suit up and get them for us)
-use 2 running back formations to help block Hass from the pass rush. not only can we not risk losing Hass to injury, but last week aside, he is fumble prone...
-Hass pass on the move. if he wants to avoid the constant pressure he will face (mostly from the right side), he is going to have to run...or pass outta the pocket
-dont test Hall...Owens is overrated so im not sucking the media's penis about how great Hall did, though he was impressive...DJack is a lot more elusive and deceptive then TO, who is mostly size and power...we got 15 hundred receivers this year...use them all...
-run more...though they have a good pass rush, especially from the edges, they suck at defending the run...torch them with it...im talking 25 carries or more...
that what to expect...
We have a great chance of blowing them out, but if their pass rush becomes a constant problem, we may be in trouble
im not predicting anything...im not jinxing this game...
Thanks ADP...now when Monkey files suit against me, you'll be a co-defendant! Good game analysis, I agree with all your takes. Also, we have to put up with another "spy" as the Falcons picked up Omare Lowe, although if he knew what it was we were doing, he'd probably still be on our team!
ReplyDeletePosted by alba
I was coming here to post my monKEYS to the game and find that, here it is, already done in excellent fashion. So rather than wasting space and doing mine, I'll just summarise basically what I was going to post.
ReplyDeleteDefensively:
1) ADP is right, Vick will make some plays, be sure of that, but the real dnager to our team, comes not from the occasional big play; but rather from the running and recieving of Warrick Dunn. If he is alowed to get into a rythym and control the clock we will be in for a long long day.
2) It will be tempting to se a spy for Vick, someone like Tatupu for example; DON'T! This will be playing right into their hands. They would just love to take away one of our linebackers, allowing Crumpler to be open all day long. This in my opinion would be a foolish mistake. Crumpler is probably the most dangerous reciever this team has, just for his ability to move the chains, I owuld much rather see us bump Crumpler hard at the line, and try to cover him effectively than try to take away Vick with a LBer, (something that can't really be done anyway, and certainly not by our young defense).
3) Don't overpursue, Vick is at his most dangerous when he escapes the pocket and makes things happen with his feet. That can be taken away to some by extent by simply not overpursuing. Don't allow those cut-back lanes, collapse the pocket like a noose.
Offensively:
1) Don't turn over the ball. This Falcons defense is the same defense which only two years ago was the worst in the NFL. Now they rank among the best. Why? How did that happen? Simple, their turnover ratio went up, along with an improved pass rush by Kearney and co.
2) Establish a run. Last week Alexander was limited (as I predicted he would be) by that Jags tremendous DLine. This week the Falcons will no doubt, try to do the same thing, (especially since it worked so welll last week). The difference is that the Jags DLine is AWESOME, the Falcons DLine is slightly better than average. The Falcons have a good pass rushing defense that starts up front, but Carolina, and teams like Caroliina that feature the run, have been very effective pounding the ball down their throats. I would like to see Alex get 30-35 carries so that we can simply wear out their defense, and control the clock; two things that we weren't able to do last week, but should be able to do against this D.
3) Loook for the big guys. We know that Engram and Jackson will get their catches as the top two recievers, they will get open and they will make some plays, but the guys we really ought to look for here are Stevens and Jurivicius. The Falcons practice against a very good tight end of thier own in Crumpler, so they are used to covering a good tight end. The difference here though, is that they haven't seen too many TE's with the speed that Stevens has. USE THAT SPEED! Last week, Stevens was wide open on deep routes, (which Hass failed to see) at least three times. Stevens got himself open plenty of times last week, it's time to either crap or get off the toilet with this guy. If he is to be our starting TE then bloody use the guy, and make the best use of his talents. And one of his biggest skills, is his ability to torch LBers deep. Having Jurivicius on this corp, is like having an extra LBer in many ways, and just like last week I expect him to work his way open at least a couple of times, for big plays.
4) And here I echo somewhat ADP again, allow Hass the freedom to run and throw on the run if he must. Hass MUST settle down however, and NOT try to force things that aren't there (ala last week) or this strategy will blow up in our faces. As long as Hass is willing to run out of bounds or simply throw the ball away when no one is open, then this strategy will work very well against the Falcons D. I realize that they practice all week against Vick, who is a dangerous runner, but Vick, during practices, spends most of time working on staying in the pocket, trying to become a pocket passer. As long as Matt is allowed to improvise on the run, but NOT FORCE THINGS, he can be a very disruptive force on the move.
5) This may be the most important of all. the OLine MUST PULL THEIR HEADS OUT!!!! Last week our OLine (supposedly one of the best in the league) made stupid penalties and allowed a ddefender in Hass's grill all game long. SHAME ON THEM! Truly a disgusting sub-par perfomance if ever I saw one by our OLine. No doubt, that Kearney, and perhaps a few others will make a few plays, they have the ability to pass rush well, but a repeat perfomance of last weeks debacle is INEXCUSABLE! Which brings me back to my first key which is to get the balll into Alex's hands, and often, that will slow down their pass rush.
Bottom line, Our D will make some mistakes, they will allow Vick to hurt them on a few plays, it's unavoidable, BUT allowing the Falcons to RUN the ball effectively with Dunn and company should be what we fear the most, just like last week it was the recievers and not Taylor who I warned us about. Stop the run, force Vick to beat us with his arm, which will lead to turnovers, and we can win this game.
Establish a run on the offensive side, which will take some of the pressure off of Hass, and we can control the clock. He who controls time of possesion (and gets the turnovers) wins the game in the end. This is always the case, but even more so in this game. Show some trust in Stevens, if he's gonna get open deep, then throw it deep, stop being afraid that someone will screw up, stop playing not to lose, and you will stop making mistakes and losing. The more a team TRIES not to turn the ball over, the more it invariably will. Play loose, and as Master Yoda said, "Try NOT, do or do not; there is no try!"