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30/36, 356 yds, 4 tds, 0 int great job leading the Falcons to another loss draft Fields, we need a scrambling QB, that was a Dawg (before leaving for greener pastures that is)

QB - I like Ryan, I hate that fans are unrealistic about him. At this point, I would hope a true back-up/understudy is drafted or signed in 2020. I like mobile rather than running or statue QBs. RB - What are we doing??? I thought we love Freeman!?!? Protect him, play one of those young inactive guys. Right? Lol. Really, draft a home run prospect. Stop dipping your toes and just jump in the RB pool. FB - I’m good WR - Trade Sanu??? Wow! Dude is actually the clutch 3rd down guy. My opinion only. No need to draft though. We have Ridley. TE - Hooper is fine. Good. Schemes for. Get a Joker TE though. OL - Meh, all around DL - We have really really good players here. Maybe a blue chip guy to play nose. Stop playing. EDGE - Utter crap. Takk May have pressures, but he’s less than mediocre. I don’t care. The only true edge guy is Clayborn and he’s a rotational guy. Utter crap. People will defend certain players, if we have him or him, this guy would be better. No, these guys would still suck. Except Clayborn. LBs - Debo. That is all we have. Everyone else are average with flashes. Secondary - A lot of role players and a guy on his second season ending injury. Time to get realistic and stop playing.

Leading the league in TDs, #2 in yards, #2 completion percentage, #7 QBR, #10 yards per attempt.... But yeah, let's keep looking for issues with Matt...

There’s no one open. The pressure wasn’t even the worst I’ve seen it this season. He had multiple snaps yesterday where he has time to get through all 5 reads, and you could see his head moving from one side of the field to the other. No one was open, not even an outlet. Ill let you draw your own conclusion from there.

why trade for him when you have 2 fully capable running backs on the roster deactivated weekly and haven't even been given the chance to spark something

I'm tired. Plus my pops is 93 and bought the freakin $10K PSL after I advised him not to. He's been hangin in there even longer than me. We need rest guys. I started out as a Packer fan in 1966 because they were the team I used on the vibrating NFL game he gave me for Christmas. Bart Starr was my man. Switched to the Rams when I saw the fearsome foursome and Roman Gabriel. I didn't become a Falcon fan until 1970 when pop took me to my first Falcon game. Against the Steelers. We beat em after Harmon went off. At the time I wanted to be a RB so dude was my first favorite Falcon. Followed by Nobis, Claude and many others. Seen lots of good Falcon fans leave this earth since then. Simply trying to get rest. I don't want to be one of em. At this point I would love to see us spark up an as beatin run. I'm talkin a 9-1 run to get to a second season on a streak. Then go 4-0 to get some rest. I know it sounds far fetched but it's possible if we open up a can of whoopass Sunday and stay on that path. We have the tools. Gotta execute. Players and Coaches. The 2019 league looks watered down to me. Primed for an as whoopin. Dimi might need to add a vet corner and pass rusher before the deadline though. Definitely don't wanna see another rebuild. And please Never Tank!!! We've gone on runs before. See 1980 (11-2) , 1991 (10-3), 1998 (11-1), 2002 (7-0-1), 2008 (9-3), 2010 (13-2), 2012 (13-3), and 2016 (11-4). This league is way softer than it was in those days. The only team that looks legit to me this year is the Patriots. We owe them some get back. I'm really hoping Quinn can coach up his defense starting Sunday and get us headed in the right direction. He usually does in the second half, but he needs to start this Sunday in Week 7. Blank needs rest, Pops needs rest, I need rest, you need rest, we all need rest. Coach em up now Quinn or State Line. Dimi and several players too. We need rest now. Not in 2023.

why does he get to leave? he hasn't earned it...

Duke Riley is gone. I'm excited about that. If nothing else, it's addition by subtraction.

There are a TON of emotional thoughts being presented as facts on this board right now. A bunch of "This is how I feel so it has to be true" comments. It's not over reaction Monday any more. But folks are digging in because they are more focused on validating their feelings instead of looking at facts. Fact One: It's week four. We are three games into the season. If seasons were decided in September, somebody fill me in on when that change happened. Fact Two: The Falcons are 1-2. 1-2 is not a death sentence. But when you listen to the media for a full week after seeing your team look like crap two out of three weeks, you get nervous. Then you see the odds of the team making the postseason with charts like this: Fact Three: The Falcons are a very talented team that is beating themselves. They are second in the NFL in turnovers so far. They are first in the NFL in penalties. These are player mistakes. Ugly ones that can be corrected. Fact Four: Good teams lose ugly games every year. Such as the one we just witnessed vs the Colts. Don't believe me? That's you being emotional and irrational. Exhibit A: The 2018 New England Patriots Opened the season 1-2 Lost to the Jags and Lions in weeks two and three, scoring a combined 30 points in those two losses They were 3-5 on the road the entire season, losing to other bad teams like the Dolphins and Titans They won the Super Bowl Exhibit B: The 2018 Indianapolis Colts Opened the season 1-5 (!) The chart says you have 0% chance to make the playoffs with a 1-5 start Only two teams since the merger have started 1-5 and made the playoffs They ended the season 10-6, becoming the third team to make the playoffs They won a playoff game in the process Exhibit C: The 2015 Chiefs Opened the season 1-5 (!!) Only one team since the merger had started 1-5 and made the playoffs They ended the season 11-5, becoming the second team to make the playoffs They won a playoff game in the process Those are all factual examples of September football not making or breaking a season. The Patriots are an example of a team struggling mightily on the road as well. 3-5 on the road and losing to bad teams? That's hard to overcome unless you dominate at home. I've been saying that for three weeks now. Win at home and steal some on the road. Yes, they've looked inept on the road. But so did the Patriots just last year. For all the talk of "Belichick doesn't let his team look this bad", you're a liar and there is the proof. Go watch the highlights of them losing 34-10 to the 9-7 non-playoffs Tennessee Titans. They looked terrible. Yet, they bounced back and eventually won the SB. I'm not saying this Falcons team is a SB team. Not in September. But I'm also not going to use three games into a season as a death knell on this team. Just for kicks, here's one more example: Exhibit D: The 2015 Falcons Opened the season 5-0 The chart says that's 91% chance to make the playoffs Falcons went 8-8 Missed the playoffs Right now, the Falcons are 1-2. They have played two bad games on the road. Yet, in both of those games, you saw glimpses of the team they can be if they play clean football. Since 2005, only 35 times has a team won with a -3 turnover margin out of 408 instances. That's an 8.6% win rate. I don't recall a team winning a football game with 16 penalties (one shy of the franchise record). That's two out of the three games they've played, giving themselves less than 9% chance to win in both from self inflicted wounds. I wouldn't say the Vikings or Colts were plain better than the Falcons. The Colts especially not. But as I pointed out with the Pats just last year, even SB dynasty teams lay eggs. Believing otherwise is foolish. The big question for the Falcons for the next 14 weeks is whether they will sort themselves out like the three teams I pointed out above did. Going on a run is not out of the question. DQ was the HC when he took this team on a SB run when his team was 4-3 and ripped off a 9-2 run to the SB. They were 4-4 in 2017 then ripped off a 7-2 run before falling to the Eagles in the playoffs. Acting like DQ is a bad coach and one that can't turn this thing around ignores factual evidence that says otherwise. Even last year, they ended the season with a 3 game run when they could have easily folded. And some of the same people here complaining now mentioned that 3 game streak was good for momentum in 2019. Well either you still believe that or you were just making yourself feel good then. Time will tell. Time always tells. But 3 games does not make or break a season.

Things we may get in a trade for Beasley:

Wow, something's wrong with the Falcons? Guy's a genius.

Rex looks like he eats cream puffs for dinner.

We really gonna ***** about everything.

I've mentioned this in a few different threads. There is a culture on this team that goes WAY back. All the way back to Jim Mora. 15 years ago. The culture is this -- we have a few lights out seasons with a new HC, and then things sour. In Mora's case, we only had the 1 really nice season and 2 mediocre ones, plus Mora went on the radio saying he'd really like to be the Huskies HC, so Blank had a quick trigger. The thing with Mora is this -- Vick was being coddled, all the way back from 2003 when Blank was pushing him onto the field in his wheelchair. Everything ran through him. Not Vick's fault by any means, but it was what it was. The team lived or died with Michael Vick. So Mora rode that horse as far as it would take him, which was 2006. Then he was fired. Leave Petrino out for a second because he's an anomaly and wasn't even here a full season. Skip to 2008. Mike Smith was hired in 2008. We went to the playoffs that season, losing to the eventual Super Bowl runner up. 2009, 2nd winning season in a row, a franchise first, but no playoffs. 2010, nice playoff run but got lit up by Green Bay in the playoffs, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champions. 2011, another nice run, but the Giants destroyed us on the back of Mularkey's "gosh we probably can't go deep because their pass rush is ever so scary" gameplan, and they fired both coordinators. The Giants were also the eventual Super Bowl champions. We got beaten by good teams. As for the firings, technically, Mularkey got a HC job and Van Gorder went to Auburn, but it's a poorly kept secret that neither of them were coming back here. 2012 we almost make the Super Bowl with Koetter and Nolan as the new coordinators. 2013, the team hit the skids. 2014 it got worse. Blank fires Smith. 2015, Quinn comes along. Decent, but forgettable season. 2016 was magical. Super Bowl run. 7th best offensive performance in NFL history. The defense gelled down the stretch and flat tore it up in the playoffs. We destroyed teams on the way to the Super Bowl, and should have won. 2017, we make the playoffs, but offensive struggles with the new coordinator slowed us down. We torched the Rams in the Wild Card round, and we almost advanced to the NFCCG but fell a play short to the eventual Super Bowl winners. Not quite shades of 2012, much less 2016, but a nice showing overall. 2018 injuries hurt us. 2019 is now looking exactly like 2014. The team has quit on the coach. Blank is probably going to fire Quinn, despite the fact that Quinn isn't coaching these guys to miss tackles, lose contain, blow coverage assignments, etc. This isn't a coaching problem. It isn't even really a player problem. There is something about this team that allows some success, but not sustained success. My best theory is the way Blank and TD and McKay run the organization, players get really comfortable here. Comfortable enough that they think they can *** off for entire seasons and not have to perform. And this lasts until a new coach comes in and starts amputating the tumors, but then due to the culture, new cancers eventually arise. I think this is a top down problem. Fire the coach. Fine. My issue is I don't see it changing. So I hope the new coach wins a Super Bowl in year 2 or 3, because I'm willing to bet years 4 and 5 are going to look a whole lot like we're seeing right now. Dan Quinn didn't forget how to coach football. These players have quit. Its embarrassing. And it's unacceptable. But the front office will be accepting it if they axe Quinn. Because he can't go out there and make plays for these chumps. They have to have enough pride to play the game the right way. And right now they don't. Firing him isn't going to change that. The new coach is going to have to clean house on defense and start over. Keep Grady. Keep Jones. Maybe keep Rico. Literally everyone else can pound sand. Because none of them want it. Let them go somewhere else and be lazy. This is a culture issue. The owner goes out in the media and talks about who is going to be a Falcon for life, and we're going to take care of this guy, and we really want that guy here. The GM doesn't cut bait with players who are underperforming, instead overpaying them a lot of times. Every year Blank makes noise in the media about how the coach is on the hot seat and our expectations are this, that or the other, and it's playoffs or bust, blah, blah, blah. But players are never on the hot seat, and there are no expectations there, only bigger contracts and bigger excuses. I'm unsurprised they don't want to play. They don't have to. The gravy train hasn't left the station for them. Some of this falls on Quinn, for sure. He could have insisted that Beasley be let go for example, and I'm sure TD would acquiesce. But it isn't that easy. If you've read The War Room and Mike Smith's book, two things are apparent. When Blank decides he wants something, he gets it. That's why Julio Jones is here right now. And I love Julio, but we traded an entire draft for him, and got Mike Smith fired in the process because the defense was putrid and the offense didn't play like 80% of the resources were allocated to it. I'm glad we went offensive line in the first round this season. But if that means we're deferring on defense, then the owner has to understand that and I don't think he does. I don't think he does because I remember when we cut Grimes and took back-to-back corners, one of whom was cut last offseason and the other is one of the biggest problems on this defense for lack of effort and playing like an idiot. But it doesn't matter if it works out. If Blank wants a player, or a draft to go a certain way, or whatever, that's what happens. And if it doesn't work out, the coach is the problem. Blank is never the problem. I'm here to say, I think Blank is the problem. That's what I think is going on here. And until he keeps his nose out of football operations, get used to this garbage we keep seeing over and over and over, because it will never improve. The culture is too toxic for any coach to remain here long.

I was right behind the Falcons bench. From the get go there was no energy. Before the start DQ and Raheem Morris walk out of the tunnel looking hung over. No energy, stuttering to side lines. Defense got out at the beginning of the game with some swag. But after Half time, the way they got out of tunnel you would think the team wasn’t leading 17-16 but trailing by 20 points. None of these defensive players were being coached on sidelines on mistakes other than sitting like they lost the game. Where is the fire? The only guy screaming on the side lines was Ryan on the offense. Bottom line this team looked like they were going through the motions and had to play a game. Heck MS never lost the team, they went to NO and knocked out the saints week before he was fired.

What a coincidence. I'm not having fun watching them.

Falcons had a Top 5 NFL offense, and a bottom 5 NFL defense in 2018. So what do TD/DQ do? Fire their OC, spend most of their tight free agent capital on two meh OGs and freaking Ty Sambrito, and then spend their two most important draft picks on even more offensive lineman. To top this weird offseason off they pay team’s worst defensive player from last season, Vic Beasley, nearly $13M. And I asked WTF were they doing? And TAFT said there was a ‘plan’.

Ryan isn't beyond criticism, but he is far from the problem with this team right now. Try again.

I disagree Tim. Quinn has the whole team undisciplined. 15 penalties is inexcusable

New coach will be worse. Always is. No savior coming. DQ gets a chance to right the ship

"We feel really good about bringing Jordan back. He knows the scheme, he did some great things for us last year, we are excited to have him back. He fits what we are trying to do on defense and is a guy that is extremely physical at the point of attack." Brace yourself...

We had offers last year at the trade deadline and turned them down. Now he has shown even more that he is a scrub, and he is a free agent next year. What kind of value could he possibly bring? Should have pulled the trigger last year.

We really are just throwing everything at the wall at this point huh???

We have rookie QBs playing better than Ryan and they are not surrounded by the talent that he has. I’ll take my chances with a new regime and QB

Of course Dan Quinn gets most of the blame because he is the Head Coach. But the biggest reason the Falcons lost this game this week is that Dan Quinn, the Defensive Coordinator, simply did a terrible job. His game plan was lazy and arrogant, and he obviously underestimated Jacoby Brisset terribly. On top of that, the plan put the Falcons defensive players in a passive state, being reactive instead of attacking. It was sickening to watch. He left those guys in that crappy zone far too long, waiting for the mistakes that were obviously never coming, and by the time he got them manned up and they showed a little (and a very little) life it was way too late. I can be entertained even watching the team lose, but geez, at least go down putting up a fight. Quinn didn't put these guys in position to do that yesterday. Let's hope he learned from it.

No sacred cows, next man up. If player y is slacking, give player z a chance to shine. It can't get any worse.

Hello guys it's been a while since I requested a "Mods Please Deliver" message, but we are in dire straits right now with no rest in site. If you guys are searching for ideas to right the ship here are a few: BLANK Issue an edict tonight. One 2019 playoff win or all heads are on the block Start looking for a real NFL football man to run your organization Go with McKay if you can't find one. At least he is a decent trench man Stop coddling players. Do what Billy would do. No more life timers Stay out of all football decisions henceforth and forever more please DIMI Pull a low round trade for a vet corner that can play NFL football next week (Foxy/Asante type trade) Scour the free agent market and all practice squads for upgrades that can play in a couple weeks Start lining up a few coaching candidates for our 2020 season. Preferably someone that knows the NFL Push back harder on dumass suggestions from our owner and coach. And never be a puppet. Ever Sharpen your 2020 cap casualty pencil cause it aint lookin good bro. You really Troffed us this time QUINN Commit to a real 3-4 or go back to your 4-3 cause this is some 3-4 window dressing that is getting lit up bad Bench some players. Oliver first, but anybody else that can't play fundamental football. Even in the game Put Grace, Sheffield, Cominsky, Senat, BHill, Miller and Ollison on the field. Somebody might catch a spark Tell Kutty and Larkey if they can't run the ball, they will be gone by Thanksgiving. Figure it out now or get gone Fix the slow starts or get ready for a trip Daniel. To the State Line. I'm ready and you were on my short list

This team is very frustrating. Very. From getting blown out and embarrassed week one to bouncing back in convincing fashion in week two to laying a complete egg in week three. When you can't even rely on some of your pillar players to play a clean 60 minutes of football, what do you do? Matt had a great game, but his INT led to another 10 point swing in a game we lost by 3. That is just plain old inexcusable and not something a HC can fix. Players constantly jumping offsides. Your stud DT not getting off the field resulting in a 12 man on the field penalty. Basic, elementary level stuff that millionaire players shouldn't be struggling with. Especially since they aren't rookies. Mistakes happen. But these mistakes are just careless. It shows the players aren't fully locked in and engaged. Julio was the only player who showed any degree of fire and frustration. This was a very big problem right now that can potentially tank this team and this season. The good news? It's only week three. As much as I was confident this team should have beaten the Colts, I knew this result was much more likely to happen than I cared to admit. This was the most Falcons thing to happen. They got comfortable. They relaxed. They didn't take the Colts serious. They saw the same talent gap we all saw. They thought just showing up would be good enough. But they forgot they still had a game to play. By the time they woke up, it was 20-3. You saw the talent gap in the second half, when they held the Colts to 7 points while scoring three straight TD drives. But the problem was the continued self inflicted mistakes that no coach should take the blame for. Jumping offsides is a player issue. Every single time. It extended several drives, which either resulted in points or restricted the offense's ability to exploit their advantage further. Until the players hold themselves and each other accountable, you can bring Bill Belichick in here and they'd still be trending for an 8-8 season. We are 1-2. Ugly loss to a solid Colts team that should not have happened. This was the worst defensive performance from this team: Even with Matt's INT, this offense wasn't stopped. Yet, just look at the EPA from the defense. It was worse than the Steelers game from last year. DQ didn't do his part. At all. Playing soft was stupid. Period. Why he didn't force Brissett into mistakes is a big question he needs to ask himself. But again, the players were still bad. I saw Debo jogging to cover a deep crosser behind him that was easy pitch and catch for the Colts because of his poor effort. How does your MLB play like that? Seriously. He's supposed to be the heart beat of the defense and if the other players see that, what do you think is going to happen? It's unacceptable but that's player accountability. DQ and Ulbrich can cuss him out all they want, but you never see Luke Kuechly doing that. He's got a standard for himself that he holds everybody else to. Until the players have that for themselves, you'll continue to get these ugly performances. Last point: Even though it-'s frustrating and grim, one thing DQ has proven is that he won't let this thing get out of hand. Yes, 2018 was ugly. They went on a skid. But they also bounced back. Ugly losses happen to every team. The Titans even beat the Patriots 34-10 last year. Think about that. The 9-7 Titans. The Patriots rolled into Nashville and thought the Titans would roll over and this happened in November. Well into the season. They also beat the Eagles last year too. The two SB participants the year prior came to Nashville and left with L's to an inferior team. A team that didn't even make the playoffs. It happens. The players still respond to DQ and he continues to coach and look at the issues head on. It remains to be seen how 2019 will pan out, but best believe, they lose to the Titans and a 1-3 record with this roster and DQ won't be seeing 2020. I know people are down on him. Rightfully so. But DQ has looked in the mirror more times than I think the players have. They need to decide what kind of team they want to be. At the end of the day, the talent on the field has to produce. What made the LOB so great was not Pete Carroll and Dan Quinn, but the players on the field that could take what their coaches were trying to do and bring it fully to life each and every snap. From Sherman's brash and arrogant nature, to Kam's ferocious physicality, to ET's cerebral and confident demeanor, those guys brought it every week and didn't let anybody, neither their opponent or their teammates, have a breather from the pressure of the LOB. Until this team, defense in particular, finds those fiery players, it won't matter. Head Coach: Mike Vrabel Offensive Style: Balanced, West Coast Offense Defensive Style: 3-4 defense 2018 Record: 9-7 Falcons All Time Record: 7-7 The Way I See It: Quite frankly, the Titans are a mediocre team. Which means jack shlt with this Falcons team, since they're just as mediocre right now. Throw the rosters out of the window. The Falcons haven't decided who they want to be. The Titans are relying on a very subpar QB, but the gap between Mariota and Ryan isn't as big as it should be given Matt hasn't been making good decisions on his own. I said this in the breakdown about the Colts game: It applies here. They didn't take the Colts seriously until it was too late. This Titans team is just as capable of leaving Atlanta with a 35-10 victory as they are getting blown out 35-10 on the road. Just like Atlanta. Mess around and you will be 1-3 and you are what your record says you are. How We Match Up: Again, we match up well. Since the Vikings game, we haven't had a match up problem. It's a want to problem. If they don't want to play on Sunday, then all bets are off. They'll let inferior players out play them in match ups they should own. If they play their game, the Falcons should win this one. Same thing I said last week. The Falcons play the first half of the Colts game like the second half, they win 42-14. The ability is there. The Titans aren't any less talented than the Colts. They have talent on offense in Henry, Lewis, Davis, Brown, Humphries, Walker, and Sharpe. Mariota is subpar, but the same was said about Brissett and the defense chose to let him look like Matt Ryan. On defense, the Titans have a good chunk of talent. Very well rounded but can be inconsistent and poorly coached. Sounds like a spitting image of the Falcons defense. I don't know who these match ups favor honestly, because both teams are wildly inconsistent. When the Falcons are on Offense: Matt Ryan. Man. 29/34, 85%, 304 yards. 3 TDs. 8.94 YPA. Matt Ryan should have been praised this week for having a phenomenal game, picking apart a defense I noted didn't match up with this offense at all in anyway. Especially without Leonard. They dominated the soft middle of the defense like I expected. But the one glaring thing is the interception. I know people are pointing to the defense and saying "So Matt has to play perfect for us to win?!". I get all of that, and I'll get to the defense very shortly. But Matt is continuing to make grave mistakes in scoring positions. That pass to Stocker is completely indefensible. Not only was it to a limited TE in double coverage, but it was ridiculously high and just a poor decision to any weapon not named Julio. If that throw was to Julio, I'd grumble and move on. But forcing that pass to a blocking TE in scoring position is just not one I'm going to let slide. He throws that ball in the dirt and the Falcons might have won this game. Same with the Eagles game. And even the same with the Vikings game. He's throw three straight INTs in scoring positions. Two inside the ten yard line. That's up to 21 points right there. He needs to stop. The second half though, he was electric, leading the offense to three straight TD drives and several third and long conversions that shouldn't have happened. That's the Matt we've been waiting on. It's as simple as that. Matt shows up and balls out, the Falcons most times will win. This Titans defense is tough and not going to give up things like the Colts defense. But they are also prone to some clueless plays that make no sense. If we get second half Matt, they win. The running game showed some signs of life, but had to get shut down due to the situation. Freeman was at 5.5 YPC. It was consistently churning out 3-5 runs. You saw it on that 15 min drive in the third quarter. That's what wins games. They'll need that again Sunday. When the Falcons are on Defense: I really hate these guys man. Something I've said multiple times now, they are too busy listening to the noise on how good they should be and were after the Philly game. Are they talented? Yes. Should they believe it? Yes. Should they play like it? Yes. Do they? No. When you have players who can actually be flat in September, only two games into the season, you may have a problem. The coaches shouldn't have to get them up. Like Rico said, it's the players. The other problem is this whole "We play better when we're under dogs..." Who is calling you the underdog? The media. So you're telling me the media can influence your week to week performance? Again, that's the players. That's pathetic. And until the players choose to change, it won't matter who the coach is. They are focused on being praised instead of kicking a**. They are missing a lead dog. Alpha male won't let a Jacoby Brissett just march down the field repeatedly on them without getting pissed about it. Who would be in his teammates faces pissed that they keep jumping offsides. There is no killer instinct on this side of the ball. That doesn't come from coaches, no matter how many times fans try to make that case. If it did, they'd have it in spades with the DC from the LOB. Mike Smith coached a very physical and at times dominating Jags defense, but that mentality didn't come here because he couldn't bring Donovin Darius, Mike Peterson, Rasean Mathis, Marcus Stroud and John Henderson with him. Those guys were hard hitting, nasty men who didn't just role over because the media said they were good. Yet, Smitty couldn't react it here because he never had those types of guys on his roster. When your best player gets called for an offsides and 12th man on the field penalty, that's want to. Does this defense want to? I guess they may since people are talking so bad about them now. Maybe they'll want to make a point that they can play fast and physical every week, not just the prime time games. I don't know. This one honestly doesn't come down to the Titans offense. It comes down to the Falcons defense. You saw in the second half, Brissett turned back into a pumpkin because the defense chose to play better. But even when it was time to make a play, they chose to step on their dlcks with a penalty instead of a play. Yes, DQ is bringing in a full referee crew this week for practice, but jumping offsides isn't because of the refs being ticky tack. It's because the players are lackadaisical. They can get 5 sacks and multiple three and outs, or they can struggle to get off the field. Neither would surprise me. Vegas Line: Vegas has the Falcons as a 4.5 point home favorite, with the o/u set at 46.5. Take it for what you will. Prediction: Oh well. The Falcons chose to show they don't know how to take every week seriously. We can get a very good game that convinces us to be fans again. Or we can get a stinker that convinces more people on the "Fire DQ" bandwagon. That's where we are three weeks into this thing. As an eternal optimist, I'm also very rational and don't blame people for it at this point. They haven't earned any goodwill. All of it is gone. Each week for the next few weeks is going to be a wait and see approach. I thought we'd know who this team was after the Eagles game. But it's clear, this team doesn't even know who they want to be yet themselves. We'll keep waiting, but at this point, nothing will surprise us on Sunday.

Since most of us have moved on to trying to figure out what the heIl went wrong with this defense and how to rebuild it, I wanted to post this article. Steven Ruiz made a four part series essentially looking at life of NFL defenses after the Legion of Boom. When Carroll came into the league, he brought his Cover 3 defense. It took the league by storm and won him a SB. But we've seen everybody else struggle to get even close to replicating it. Why? Because the offenses in the NFL have adjusted. So much so, that if you run a heavy cover 3 base defense, you will look bad. It's just like when the Tampa 2 was destroying offenses then looked like it was something out of the 70s trying to cover modern offenses. Ruiz has been looking into what went wrong, how to cover modern offenses, how to stop the run, and how to even build a defense in this new offensive environment. You can read the others, but I wanted to start with the building part, because I think it will set off a ton of alarms to the issue and how this offseason should go if we hope to see any improvement on that side of the ball: New Orleans let go of a player who could do more things — and do those things closer to the line of scrimmage where he can make more of an impact — in order to bring in one who was really only suited for one role. It’s easy to point and laugh at the Saints for the miscalculation, but this was happening all over the league, as teams devalued safeties who played closer to the line of scrimmage as they searched for a player like Thomas. Those decision-makers, meanwhile, seemed to be ignoring the importance of Kam Chancellor in Seattle’s scheme. Chancellor was, first and foremost, seen as an intimidator, but he was so much more than that. The guy could cover on one snap and then take on a Pro Bowl guard on the next. In the third post in this series, I discussed how Kirby Smart was forced to develop a new defensive front to combat spread schemes because his linebackers, who were getting smaller in order to cover receivers in the passing game, weren’t capable of taking on guards. Well, Chancellor could cover and take on guards … at the safety position. He was as much of a unicorn as Thomas. Jenkins is a similar kind of player. He’s good in coverage, which allows him to man-up on tight ends or slot receivers, but is also tough enough to hold up as a run defender in the box. As offenses blur the lines between pass and run formations, players like Jenkins and Chancellor, before injuries prematurely ended his career, grew in importance. It’s just taken the NFL a little longer to realize it. They certainly hadn’t figured it out by the time the 2018 NFL draft rolled around, when the league allowed Derwin James to fall to the Chargers at the 17th pick despite looking like the perfect player for a modern NFL defense. Unsurprisingly, James dominated during his rookie season. In all phases of the game. He covered. He stopped the run. He even rushed the passer. In a league that is turning to more hybrid players on defense, James is the prototype. These safeties who can hold in coverage or against the run will be pivotal in the evolution of defenses over the next few seasons. Offenses have become so good at creating mismatches with personnel groupings and that’s necessitated the need for more hybrid types. If an offense can play a running back with legit receiving skills on the field and two tight ends who can block and catch the ball, the defense has no chance. If they send out their base defense, which is typically how teams match 12 personnel (1 running back and 2 tight ends), there will be a mismatch somewhere on the field. That’s why the league passing numbers out of 12 personnel look so good, while the running numbers are, well, awful (as judged by Sports Info Systems Expected Points Added). That high spike for EPA per dropback in 2 TE sets is easy to explain: NFL defenses are, for the most part, matching those sets with base personnel (four defensive backs) and treating the extra tight end like an extra run blocker instead of an extra pass catcher: The numbers suggest defenses should probably be matching 12 personnel sets with nickel more than they currently are, but the players making up those groups matter. You need safeties who are more like cornerback/linebacker hybrids in order to feel comfortable doing that consistently. Players like James and Chancellor are hard to find, but maybe that will change if the league starts to value them properly. The same can be said for more athletic linebackers who can be factors in pass coverage. A linebacker being rangy enough to stay on the field on passing downs was once seen as a luxury. Today those players are a necessity because of how integral they are in pass coverage now that tight ends and running backs are being used as viable receiving options. According to Pro Football Focus’ resident nerds, Seahawks LB Bobby Wagner has been a more valuable player than Aaron Donald, who is arguably the most dominant player in the league, according to their proprietary Wins Above Replacement metric. Wagner has been worth 2.4 WAR over the last three years while Donald has been worth “only” 2.0 WAR. Pro Football Focus explained: That’s why Seattle was willing to make Wagner the highest-paid linebacker in league history recently. He wasn’t the only off-the-ball linebacker who cashed in this offseason, either. Kwon Alexander got paid in San Francisco. C.J. Mosely got quarterback money in New York. And Deion Jones got big money from the Falcons just a few years after slipping in the draft because of concerns about his ability to defend the run. The same thing happened to 2018 NFL defensive rookie of the year Darius Leonard. He was seen as a ‘tweener player who’d have a hard time getting off of blocks and making plays in the run game. One 163-tackle, seven-sack, two-interception season later, nobody is questioning Leonard’s play-making ability. Coaches at every level are realizing there are ways to keep those lighter defenders clean by turning to three-man fronts meant to clog the interior gaps and funnel things out to the perimeter where athletic linebackers and defensive backers have the advantage. The Tite/Mint front that’s taking over college football is one way to do that. In order to properly run those fronts, though, defenses need players capable of clogging multiple gaps in order to steal back numbers in the box. Two-gapping defensive linemen have been devalued over the years as teams have turned to one-gap approaches, but that could change as pro offenses start to resemble college offenses more and more. Against the Chiefs, a team that has fully embraced the spread revolution going on at the NFL level, the Patriots did a ton of two-gapping in order to slow down the RPO game. These positional archetypes — the safety who plays close to the line of scrimmage, the lighter one-dimensional linebacker, the two-gapping defensive lineman — that had been written off because of a supposed lack of versatility are now the keys to a more versatile defense. And if the rest of the league hasn’t caught on, they can be viewed as an exploitable market inefficiency that will help certain teams catch up to modern offenses and close the widening gap between the two sides of the ball. The mistakes so many teams made when trying to emulate the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom defense wasn’t necessarily overrating the importance of Earl Thomas to the scheme; it was underrating how important hybrid players like Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor and Michael Bennett, who could play edge rusher one snap and gap clogger the next, were to the success of not only that defense but the future of NFL defenses as a whole. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/09/building-modern-nfl-defense-roster-management DQ, for all of the flaws this defense is showing, may not have been wrong in his approach to the defense this year. If you notice, they run more Tite with Bailey, Davison, and Grady. They have a massive personnel issue though. After the DL, they have Debo and nothing else built for this modern offensive league. That's why they look terrible on a weekly basis. I think DQ was hoping he could reconstruct this defense on the fly, but he can't overcome the lack of personnel. They needed a full overhaul of the defense but couldn't justify it. Guys like Vic, Campbell, Kazee, Ish are not fits for what's going on right now on defense. They added Wilcox to add more athleticism and coverage in the middle of the field but he went down. They didn't have the cap space to truly overhaul this defense, but he saw it needed to be. Unfortunately, he may be losing his job before he can do it. They don't run as much Cover 3, but the problem is, he's got a bunch of players who aren't comfortable running the other coverages. That's why he stressed communication all offseason. Cover 4 especially requires pristine communication. He may be getting fired, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next DC gets a chance to completely overhaul this defense and they finish what DQ started. You've got decent DL personnel to build on. You have one of the best MLBs in the league to build around. Getting Neal back will be interesting, because he fits that mold of hybrid safety, but without the ball skills, do you invest long term. All in all, this defense is terrible because they aren't built for today's NFL. That's a fact. They aren't well coached, but they also aren't much more than just a collection of talented players in mismatch roles. You have two man cover corners, but the rest of your defense is built for zone. When you go zone, you don't have a secondary that communicates well, leading to several lapses in simple coverages. You don't have a deep pass rush, limiting your ability to get pressure without blitzing, but you don't have sound blitzing players in the back seven so you revert to more players in coverage, but that gives QBs more time to find an open WR. It's a cluster right now, but I'm not overly pessimistic it should be a long term issue. Do I think DQ and TD are the right men for the job? I don't know. But would the next HC/GM truly see where the NFL is headed and plan appropriately for it?

Should have gotten rid of him last year when he possibly had more value. Would be surprised if they got anything higher than a 3rd for him, which would be a win with good scouting

D. Led follows the Cowboys too. Please tell me that means he’s transferring.

ATLANTA Morning News - A 15 year old boy was at the center of a FULTON County courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible. The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him. After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the ATLANTA FALCONS, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

Matt's the least of our problems

If we trade Hooper we're stupid. Which worries me because we are in fact stupid.

A lesson to some of you, sometimes you have to lose a battle to in the war. Those 3 wins at the end of last year obviously did not carry over any momentum to this season, did not inspire our coaches or players to perform better this year. The only thing it did was give us a mid round pick in each draft round. Not only did this impact our pick in the 1st rd it also lessened the value of our picks in each rd. With a top 5 pick which we were on pace for even if we drafted the same players in the first couple of rounds we could have traded back instead of traded up and gotten more picks.As we see this year depth is still a problem, we certainly could have used some more weight across the DL which an extra pick or two could have gotten us if we did not have to trade up for a second OL. Sometimes a long term strategy comes into play when you are having a losing season and have no shot at the playoff's. Those games at the end of last year meant nothing and hurt the long term progress for this team.

Plain and simple. DQ thought he could change a man. He learned a valuable lesson. You can't.

Here's my solution. Fire Thomas Dimitroff right now. Start the GM search. Keep quiet about coaching changes for the time being, but the plan should be to let the new GM decide whether to keep Quinn for another season or move on. If we move on (we almost certainly will), let the new GM hire the new coach. That way you aren't "giving up on the season," but if changes are made, you are at least not doing the same thing you did with the last 2 hires, which is let TD have a large say in who the chef is and then stock the pantry with rotten food.

Feel bad for him at this point. Just get the dude a coach before he croaks of old age ffs

As for fixing it, if I'm Dan Quinn I have a meeting with Blank and TD and I say "if you want me to fix this, I need your patience. It may cost us the season, but it will pay long-term dividends." Then I start making non-performers inactive on gameday, maybe cutting them. You want to crap the bed, Tru? How about you put whatever you do on your inactive days on film for other teams, because we're cutting your *** this offseason. Until then, you can ride pine. Takk, you want to play for the Cowboys? Good luck, because you are going to ride the bench until your attitude and play both improve. Beasley? You want to keep spinning around like you think you're Stevie Nicks circa 1978? Do it from your house, because you aren't playing this Sunday either. Are we going to win games that way? Probably not. Will it send a message to the other players? Absolutely. And I'd rather lose with scrubs who try hard than with starters who teach the younger players and backups that effort isn't really expected. You want to fix this team? Let Dan Quinn start busting skulls on this roster. Let him bench and cut people. Get out of the way and let the man have a free hand with disciplining this team. In 1998, Dan Reeves had us playing very well, but against the Niners, our first loss I think, he cut Juran Bolden. Now, Juran Bolden at the time was our best returner, and Reeves was criticized. He played a rookie, Tim Dwight, in his place. Everyone said he was tanking the season. We went to the Super Bowl, beating the 49ers in the playoffs along the way. Tim Dwight is a big reason why. Sometimes you have to send a message to the team that sorry, sloppy, low effort play will not be tolerated. That time is now.

Omg JUST PUT HIM ON IR AND RELEASE HIM AFTER THE SEASON. keep Wile WHILE we have the chance

Ebron is a solid dude.

I'm normally the eternal optimist, but these 2019 Falcons are trying me. It's one thing to be a bad football team. I've seen plenty of that. I have no problem just disconnecting and taking it for what it is, but it's another thing to see a talented team get beat because they are their own worst enemy. And that's the long and short of what I saw Sunday. The Colts didn't come out and throw a whole bunch of unscouted looks at us; they were doing basic stuff that we should have been able to neutralize if we had just executed our fundamentals the way we did the week before vs. Philly. I don't think there was another play all day long that made me want to vomit more than this one right here. 3rd and 12 - midfield, early in the second quarter. Colts don't really push the ball down the field so this should be easy, right? DQ actually calls up a nice play. We only have two down lineman with Takk and Vic both mugging the line along with Deion. All three are going to drop and Campbell and Kazee are coming off the slots -- like a double nickel blitz. Up top we are playing in a rare two deep shell. It's actually a nicely designed play. At the snap we bail. As you can see, Brissett's first look is to get it out quick to #15, but 3rd and 12, he knows he's protected, he passes him up to look downfield. The running back is in a check release. He's going to check to see if his man is coming. Usually he's scanning inside out. If he's picked up, he releases into his route. Now here is where it gets interesting. We got everything covered up, so Brissett dumps it off underneath, which is exactly what you want when you play Cover-2. You want the QB to check the ball down underneath. You'll give up these little 5 yard dump offs all game. Let the back catch it underneath then smack the s*** out him. You wanna hit him so many times he's going back to the huddle cursing out his QB, telling him he better not throw him another one. You aren't going to get beat by check downs... UNLESS you decide to tackle like a bunch of keystone cops. Ball is caught, and right here, we are actually in pretty good position. You see how well we're spaced to constrict ground to the ball carrier. This right here is where it starts to go bad. The spacing still isn't terrible, but Vic... VICTOR RAMON BEASLEY JR! Bro! He needs to be coming to balance right here. Stop chasing and come to balance, and get ready to make that tackle, or let the back run himself into the pursuit. And this is where it turns into a clown show. Vic completely over-ran the play and opened the back door. He should have a foot at the 45 yard line. When Quinn talks about trusting the man next to you and playing just your leverage -- well this is the opposite of all that. Details. Fundamentals. It's not a big thing I'm talking about, but it absolutely adds up to being the difference between a win or a loss. This is how you wind up forcing 1 punt in an entire game. It's not scheme. It's not talent. It's a total lack of discipline. And DQ... can we please stop getting cute and playing Vic in space? It don't work. ... and that dude didn't make that 1st down.

50 a game from this offense would probably result in an 8-8 season

3rd degree burns don't heal in a week. Makes sense.

Dude has the swagga. Also, my grandma had a chair in her living room that looked a lot like that jacket.

Man. 1-3. This team right now does not look well coached. A lot of issues. From talent on the roster, to coaching on the sidelines, to players on the field. Until they start winning... The opponent will be the Atlanta Falcons. See yall once they break .500 again.

11 Years - 178 Games 58% W/L record 48,000 yards 303 TD’s 138 INT’s 66% Completion Rate #2 All Tine Playoff QBR Only QB to thrive in all 3 offensive philosophies Defense supporting him averages bottom 25% for his career * Robbed of SB Championship & SB MVP by his coaches Mike Vick: 11 years - 143 Games 48% Win/Loss Record 23,000 Yards 123 TD’s 88 INT’s 56% Completion

I'm done making any kind of predictions or feeling any kind of way about the Atlanta Falcons. Gonna just sit back and enjoy the ride the best I can.