How bad is the Falcons' defense?

[Money Lee]

Jake Delhomme's last 4 games:

L vs. Arizona: 13-34 205 yds 50% 1 td 5 int 39.1 rating 1 fumble lost

L vs. Philadelphia: 7-17 73 yds 41.2% 4 int 14.7 rating 2 fumbles lost

L @ Atlanta: 25-41 308 yds 61% 1 td 1 int 82.2 rating

L @ Dallas: 22-33 220 yds 66.7% 1 td 2 int 70.3 rating 1 fumble lost

It's a sign of a bigger issue. The Falcons need to kick it up a notch. This passive-aggressive zone defense scheme isn't working. Particularly when paired with an offense that's supposed to be all world, but is all too predictabe and conservative. You don't pay White, Ryan, Gonzales and Turner that kind of money just to be a low risk, low reward group.

I'm placing this at the foot of the coaching staff. You have the horses for a high powered offense, yet refuse to open up the playbook. Smith's background is supposed to be on the defensive side of the ball, yet the defense plays soft, particularly when matched up with a powerful offense.

Let's not kid ourselves. The Falcons could EASILY be 0-3. It took a Pro Bowl effort from Mike Peterson to beat the Dolphins, we were fortunate to play a horrible Jake Delhomme when the Panthers ran all over us, and we were lucky to lose to the Patriots by only 16 as Tom Brady was missing throws he normally makes in his sleep while they proceeded to run all over us.

[Sun Tzu 7]

Smith is the head coach and not the defensive coordinator.

If you want to blame someone for the defense... I would blame him.

I'm not because we're still trying to fix the team from the Bobby Petrino disaster. Don't forget HE was the head coach when we drafted Anderson and Houston.

[Jaymadd]

Jake Delhomme's last 4 games:

L vs. Arizona: 13-34 205 yds 50% 1 td 5 int 39.1 rating 1 fumble lost

L vs. Philadelphia: 7-17 73 yds 41.2% 4 int 14.7 rating 2 fumbles lost

L @ Atlanta: 25-41 308 yds 61% 1 td 1 int 82.2 rating

L @ Dallas: 22-33 220 yds 66.7% 1 td 2 int 70.3 rating 1 fumble lost

It's a sign of a bigger issue. The Falcons need to kick it up a notch. This passive-aggressive zone defense scheme isn't working. Particularly when paired with an offense that's supposed to be all world, but is all too predictabe and conservative. You don't pay White, Ryan, Gonzales and Turner that kind of money just to be a low risk, low reward group.

I'm placing this at the foot of the coaching staff. You have the horses for a high powered offense, yet refuse to open up the playbook. Smith's background is supposed to be on the defensive side of the ball, yet the defense plays soft, particularly when matched up with a powerful offense.

Let's not kid ourselves. The Falcons could EASILY be 0-3. It took a Pro Bowl effort from Mike Peterson to beat the Dolphins, we were fortunate to play a horrible Jake Delhomme when the Panthers ran all over us, and we were lucky to lose to the Patriots by only 16 as Tom Brady was missing throws he normally makes in his sleep while they proceeded to run all over us.

Stop crying were are not 0-3 and we should have beat the Dolphins/Panthers by wider margins if it was not for turnovers. We really should be 3-0 and should have beat the Patriots

[Guest Gritz]

Jake Delhomme's last 4 games:

L vs. Arizona: 13-34 205 yds 50% 1 td 5 int 39.1 rating 1 fumble lost

L vs. Philadelphia: 7-17 73 yds 41.2% 4 int 14.7 rating 2 fumbles lost

L @ Atlanta: 25-41 308 yds 61% 1 td 1 int 82.2 rating

L @ Dallas: 22-33 220 yds 66.7% 1 td 2 int 70.3 rating 1 fumble lost

It's a sign of a bigger issue. The Falcons need to kick it up a notch. This passive-aggressive zone defense scheme isn't working. Particularly when paired with an offense that's supposed to be all world, but is all too predictabe and conservative. You don't pay White, Ryan, Gonzales and Turner that kind of money just to be a low risk, low reward group.

I'm placing this at the foot of the coaching staff. You have the horses for a high powered offense, yet refuse to open up the playbook. Smith's background is supposed to be on the defensive side of the ball, yet the defense plays soft, particularly when matched up with a powerful offense.

Let's not kid ourselves. The Falcons could EASILY be 0-3. It took a Pro Bowl effort from Mike Peterson to beat the Dolphins, we were fortunate to play a horrible Jake Delhomme when the Panthers ran all over us, and we were lucky to lose to the Patriots by only 16 as Tom Brady was missing throws he normally makes in his sleep while they proceeded to run all over us.

What little credibility you had went out the window with that statement. Peterson had a great game but we dominated the Fins from the opening whistle. Elam cost us 7 points with his crappy kicking that day and except for that late touchdown we almost shut out an offense whose running alone rolled up well over 200 yards on a solid Indy defense the next week.

Come to the table with a little more game next time.

[ConnFalcon]

Our defense will be fine. Not to mention it was a divisonal game. Jake has played us mannnyyyyy times.

[bossFALCON™]

we could easily be 0-3? peterson or no peterson the phins only made it past the 50 3 times in the whole game and we should've scored 26-7 if it wasn't for elam having a bad day. the dolphins were never even close in that game. lets also not forget we were up 15 pts in the 4th against the panthers. that game should've never been as close as it was. we just got too conservative to early.

i swear this board has some of the biggest knee jerk reactions ever.

[ATLballer]

Jake Delhomme's last 4 games:

L vs. Arizona: 13-34 205 yds 50% 1 td 5 int 39.1 rating 1 fumble lost

L vs. Philadelphia: 7-17 73 yds 41.2% 4 int 14.7 rating 2 fumbles lost

L @ Atlanta: 25-41 308 yds 61% 1 td 1 int 82.2 rating

L @ Dallas: 22-33 220 yds 66.7% 1 td 2 int 70.3 rating 1 fumble lost

It's a sign of a bigger issue. The Falcons need to kick it up a notch. This passive-aggressive zone defense scheme isn't working. Particularly when paired with an offense that's supposed to be all world, but is all too predictabe and conservative. You don't pay White, Ryan, Gonzales and Turner that kind of money just to be a low risk, low reward group.

I'm placing this at the foot of the coaching staff. You have the horses for a high powered offense, yet refuse to open up the playbook. Smith's background is supposed to be on the defensive side of the ball, yet the defense plays soft, particularly when matched up with a powerful offense.

Let's not kid ourselves. The Falcons could EASILY be 0-3. It took a Pro Bowl effort from Mike Peterson to beat the Dolphins, we were fortunate to play a horrible Jake Delhomme when the Panthers ran all over us, and we were lucky to lose to the Patriots by only 16 as Tom Brady was missing throws he normally makes in his sleep while they proceeded to run all over us.

i AGREE WITH ALOT YOU PUT IN THE POST, just not everything...I do agree our defense is making mediocre team look alot better than they really are. The only game where our defense really stepped up was the miami game..I'll just put that on the first game of the season and adrenaline..we are lucky that gore will be out this game....very lucky...