TheOak

Overall theme, we were flat.. Slept through the game... Some surprisingly bad grades on offense as well.

Note: We were so flat that I would say this is our once terrible game/year. I say that because most of the players that played badly, played worse than their normal play by far.

I am just going to focus on the ugly for now: (when you read the below, now think about how good our offense actually is when we fire on all cylinders)

Receivers:
Morgan - Thrown at 3 Rec 0
Meachem - Thrown at 2 Rec 0
Colston - Thrown at 8 Rec 5
Note - Drew had the second most passes dropped this week @5.

Defensive Secondary:
Total passes defended 2
Hawthorne - Thrown at 8 allowed 5
White - Thrown at 8 allowed 6
Lewis - Thrown at 7 allowed 6
Robinson - Thrown at 4 allowed 4
Lofton - Thrown at 5 allowed 5
Vaccaro - Thrown at 4 allowed 2
Bush/Byrd both thrown at 1 allowed 1


Missed Tackles
Vaccaro 6
Hawthorne 4
Byrd 3
Jordan/Lewis/Robinson/Hicks 2 each
23 missed frikken tackles.

The only recurring theme I can see here is that we are playing way too far off to stop receptions and that is giving just enough space to dodge tackles.

Sorry, those players are just not that bad on their own 90% of the time. So this begs the question; if its all of them then its scheme, and if its scheme its Rob Ryan.... and what has he changed since last season? Did he get comfortable in the off season and make changes that over complicated things? Is he so concerned with our secondary that he is having all of them play 15-20 yards off which accounts for so few passes defended?

You cant intercept any pass if you are not close enough to play the ball.

There was a fair amount of good as well, I figured I would stick with the general climate so we can all get it out of our system then I will focus on the good.

* Our pass/rush ratio was 60/40 (Atlanta was 73/36)

papz

I'm not concerned but the secondary was absolutely disgusting.

ScottF

those numbers are putrid
23 misses and KV had 6? WTF?

on the bright side, about 10 of the misses occurred on 2 plays

Euphoria

We had very little pressure on the QB. Ryan was able to make those deep throws down the field.

Jamessr

Maybe, but I saw more of an issue with the pass rush.
Matt Ryan added another coat of nail polish on one play.

blackangold

Good write-up.

23 missed tackles is... well... awful.

I think your point about the scheme really says it all. I posted about this a few times as well. Our personnel on the field has only gotten better, what changed was play off coverage vs press-man coverage last season. I dont understand the change.

Danno

The pathetic secondary stats are a direct result of the worst pass rush since Spags.

Jordan, Galette and Hicks should give their game checks to an Atlanta charity.

papz

It was definitely surprising to see how well their line held up. I was disappointed to see us not run more stunt, creative blitzes, and what not. Got to give Matt Ryan some credit as well... he made a few really nice throws.

TheOak

I know my logic is fuzzy and there are a ton of 'but's in this ..

23 missed tackles, assuming each allowed just 4 yards more.
Thats nearly 100 yards of offense.

I know for a fact that some of those missed tackles allowed an extra 10+ yards.

Missed tackles was the culpret.

Another note to ponder:
Missed tackles against Atlanta = 23
Missed tackles in the 2013 regular season = 77 total
Missed tackles in the 2012 regular season = 128 total

Forget about pass defense. Tackle drills all week. Tackle drills on the plane to Cleveland.

TheOak

He did and he was quick on the release.