My take on the Falcons this season........................hope it gets better.

[Flayko247]

After watching the game against Baltimore on NFLN, it really pains me to have only seen a few bright spots concerning this team, and that's not just including this game, but the whole preseason.

I do believe that Shockley definitely earned a roster spot with his play. Ryan has looked fairly well considering he's a rookie and has had to face 4 very solid defenses this preseason. The linebackers looked stout as well, and Grimes has definitely impressed. Offensive line has its moments, looking pretty good some series and looks average at best at other times.

Now for the bad news...........................

The pass rush seems pretty non-existent!! I can recall a couple of plays this entire preseason when we actually got pressure on the opposing quarterback, but for the most part, it's just not there. I realize the defense hasn't given up a touchdown this preseason, but I can honestly say I don't see how. Grimes has been the only bright spot as far as our corners are concerned. Chevis Jackson has looked fairly well as a rookie also. But let's be honest, in the game against the Colts, if Manning was starting instead of Sorgi, we would have probably been lit up!! Flacco and Bramlet, yeah I said Bramlet, moved the ball pretty well also, just couldn't finish the drive....it wasn't so much as our defense stopping them as it was them stopping themselves with dropped passes or overthrown balls ( which wasn't caused by a pass rush either!!)

This offensive unit is putting alot of undue pressure on Ryan by having too many penalties. I don't know how many times Ryan would have the team with a 2nd and 5, or a 3rd and 3, only to have it called back for holding, offensive pass interference, or an offensive lineman with some stupid personal foul!!

These things better get corrected by Coach Smith real quick or it's going to look like the "expert" analysts really do look like they know what they're talking about.

I've said my peace and with that note...............

GO FALCONS!!!!!!!!1

[crankdatfalcon]

i agree, the pass rush sucked big time, but then again that has been a trend with our team for a long time. zimmers defense didnt have a pass rush either, so did donatell's defense. its so hard to watch a QB sit for the opposing sit hav more then 7 seconds back there in the pocket and our secondary playing their butts off having to run around with the recievers that long. we got a couple of good blitzes in, but not enough. i think the team needs to blitz at least once or twice every series instead of dropping back in coverage and leaving it up to the front 4. well might as well call them the front 3. jamaal still sucks and is still non exsistant.

[Rockford]

I'll just say that if this year's team played last year's team, I woudl favor this year's.

More than four wins.

[Magic Man]

This year compared to last year, we RULE. I do agree with the pass rush assessment, but this is only preseason, so I am not taking anything as far as scheme goes, for face value.

[Rockford]

This year compared to last year, we RULE. I do agree with the pass rush assessment, but this is only preseason, so I am not taking anything as far as scheme goes, for face value.

I'm just comparing to last year's team when we had no pass rush either. So that much is a wash. Other than possibly secondaruym where we got worse, maybe, I don't se any other significant area where this team looses ground on last year's team and a few where it looks like it has gained, and a few where things could pan out to have gained significantly. I just can't see losing more games than last year's train wreck.

[EvilMeetsInsane13]

I'd agree with the pass rush comment. That has to get improved. Luckily the secondary has played well to kind of neutralize our lack of a pass rush. Maybe coach Smith needs to change up the playcalling on defense.

Another thing that I found both positive and negative was our offense. We seem to move the ball pretty well on our drives, but we haven't scored that many points to show for it. We only have 60 points on the preseason, or 15 points a game. Though we won with only 10 points yesterday, 15 points isn't enough to secure a victory every week. I'd either like to see us either score more points off of our drives or improve on our 30:02 time of possession so the other team can't score.