Saintaintso

1st Drive : Complete dominance.

* Strief illegal use of hands call was supremely questionable. Looks like a textbook example of how to kick a** during pass protection.

Anyways , stopped the drive 3 points on the board. That situation 9/10 is 7 on the board.

Defense Held well forcing a 3 and out.

2nd Drive

SOS , however I had a reoccurring thought during this Drive. Perhaps we should only pass the ball when needed. This drive stopped basically when SP freaked we didn't get any real yards by running the ball on 1st down , so he threw it on 2nd and missed which forces you to throw it on 3rd and long and are likely to miss again.

Anyways 3 Points on the board. Play calling was suspect in the red zone. You run it to get in the red zone then go all arena league once you get there.

This is where the defense started to unravel a bit here. Nothing real long , just couldn't get off the field. Byrd makes what should've been the game winning play ( yes in the first quarter ).


3rd Drive was in essence how the first two should've ended. 18 yards , 17 , 21 yards and the body shot that is Kyrie Robinson taking it in for 6.

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At this point the game is 13-0. Here is where we should've turned it on. Here is where Seattle breaks teams. Here is where lost the game.

*Mental note Jon Jenkins should've been in a few snaps here , there was no pressure up the middle which allowed space for Ryan to step up. If he is forced back deeper into the pocket to buy time he is essentially putting himself on a direct path with Cam and Galette.

3rd and 15 , Cory White pass interference. That's it there. The play that let them back in the game. 9/10 we get off the field.


4th Drive Cooks TD

20-7. Should be 24 - 3.

Then Ingram does this disappearing act , why wasn't he put In , if I'm not mistaken wasn't there a quarrel on the sidelines about this ? Anyways , he was right , we should've kept feeding him.

You know the story from here , KV missing tackles , Prob is the worst corner on either roster. No pass rush.

ATL gets a FG 20 - 10. Still sticking it to them. Sorta

Then the unthinkable happens , our defense returns to 2012 form. Our offense goes pass happy putting that defense back on the field for even more embarrassment.

Up to a point if we don't throw that interception , the game is essentially over.

Play calling must improve. That would've put us up 27 - 17. Instead it became 20 - 24 almost instantly.

Here on out Ingram goes on a tear , but our defense cannot get off of the field.

*thought of the game. Some of those drives in the 2nd half we should've ran the ball more often. Even if the pass worked if left too much time on the clock. When your defense is on par to give up 600 yards you have to think about protecting them. I'm not talking about scoring here , but had one of those quick 3 and out Drives been extended just ONE MINUTE , Ingrams last TD would've been all she wrote.

Anyways Falcons Tie it up.

OT

We should've run the ball to take the edge off their pass rush then went to the air , NOPE !! Two passes straight out the gate and we still won't learn our lesson.

Colston fumbles , loss.


Overall notes , This offense has great power. And with great power comes great responsibility. We barely used Robinson or Ingram and they performed off the charts , we knew they would.

If that's what it takes for us to lose week in and out then we're In for a great season. On the road , Shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly , Defense is a no show , Overtime , Shooting ourselves I'm the foot again , Drew throwing an unnecessary Pic and we still should've won.

Not many teams can make half that many mistakes and still hope to be the game let alone win it.

We could've put up 50 on the road if not for a few mistakes. And remember Atlanta is one season removed of being 13-3 themselves. Bad , but not all that bad.


Prediction 12-4. 2nd seed , we go to San Francisco.

You Can't Say Impossible without first saying Im Possible ...

saintsfan1976

Atlanta was also 13-3 the year before that and one play from a Super Bowl.

When healthy these two teams give you what you saw yesterday. Difference maker being who makes less mistakes. I think we know the answer there.

I'm not worried but like someone said, our defense isn't surprising anyone this year.

TheOak

1. Jenkins was inactive.. Difficult to get him in.
2. White has in the past as well, proven to generate a penalty with no ball around him.
3. In the first 1/2 Ingram had 4 att for 11 yards (2.8 YPC). He corrected in the second half. Robinson has 4 for 35 yards (8.8 YPC) you go with the hot hand.

Jack Vegas

I like your post about the offense at the end. We should've killed more clock. I remember thinking PT was so close to the goalline there, that Atlanta would've been smart to review it in hopes that he scored so they had more time on offense. We scored on the next play I believe. Left too much time on the clock. Even 25-30 seconds at the end of regulation could've made a difference.

Danno

We were 4 points down. They were trying to score, or get as much yardage as possible.

You don't kill clock when your 4 points down, you try with all you got to score.

Audiotom

yes you do

when it's 1:30 left and you have all three of your timeouts
you have plenty of time

all within the 15 yard line
Colston runs out of bound
then Ingram runs out of bounds

cost us having Atlanta needing to burn time outs and probably 20+ seconds off the game

TheOak

This is getting way to far into the weeds brothers.

Our offense had 10 possessions. Scored on 6, punted on 2, TO on 2. We won the time of possession battle, even though they had one more possession than we did. Play book and game management was fine, pass/run balance was fine 60/40.

8 dropped passes (6 games worth in 2013) and 23 missed tackles (6 games worth in 2013) cost us the game.

How many 1st downs are stopped for them if we make 10 of those 23 tackles? That translates to more punting or FGs by Atlanta.

How many 1st downs or TDs are made if we catch 4 of those 8 dropped passes?

We lost because of on the field execution and you cant blame that on coaches. If we make those tackles, even playing off the ball doesn't cost us the game.

Jack Vegas

Don't get me wrong, it is a bit risky, but the way we were running the ball and with the amount of push our o-line was getting all day, I think you have the confidence to waste one play there at the goal line and then punch it in. Give the Falcons the ball with 50-something seconds left and it's a lot harder for them to get in field goal range.

All this wouldn't matter if the D had proven capable of stopping anybody, obviously. The D clearly lost this game for us. Still it's winnable game, if we kill just 30 seconds off the clock at the end.

Audiotom

it shouldn't have come down to that

the two plays before Colston and Ingram went out of bounds when they could have kept the clock running with plenty of time outs and that close to score

Danno

Or perhaps the defense doesn't give up 600 friggin yards?