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One Effing Yard!


Peyton

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The regular season for the Falcons really turned on their inability to pick up a single yard. And so did their playoff fortunes.

It cost them the Saints game.

They failed on three 3rd and 1 plays in the Texans loss.

Today the inability to pick up a single yard again was the turning point of the game.

The inability of Mike Mularkey to design any dependable 1 yard play....or even a play that occasionally works....is the most obvious reason it's time for him to go.

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The dirty little secret is that it's been this way for a few years. When we've needed to bully, we couldn't. This goes right along with the other dirty little secret about this team. As much as analysts want to consider us a power football team, we have not been that this year. We've ran in volume, at times, but as far as a consistent running game, we haven't had it. Turner will bust one from time to time, and the stats inflate. I'm not trying to make the argument that was made with Warrick Dunn, "Those big runs don't count! he can't get yards!" What I'm pointing out is that we aren't the physical team that folks wanted to make us out to be.

The issue with this entire season is that we could never decide who we were. We had no identity or true philosophy that we stuck to. To make a religious reference, we were neither hot nor cold (pass nor run), thus making us lukewarm, and making them worth of being spewed out of our mouths.

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Yahoo Sports: Jason Cole

Excerpt:

Worse for Atlanta, the Giants seemed to have a very good idea of exactly what to expect. Both Canty and Tuck said they studied the exact quarterback sneak plays the Falcons tried to run.

“We saw the second one on film this week,” Tuck said, referring to a play in which the Falcons had four players shift before the snap. “They were trying to draw us off. We’d seen that.”

I think we all knew what was going to happen. Ryan is not athletic enough to make plays like that and our O line is not powerful enough. Now can someone please go tell MS and MM! I dropped my head on the second attempt because I knew we would fail.

Edited by number10
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I lol'd at Turner's face after the second failed 4th and 1. Announcers were saying that he should have been in but Turner would not have picked up that yard either. We telegraph all of our plays before the snap, especially on that last QB sneak, Giants even said they knew what was coming. Just an ounce of creativity would have gotten us one, if not both, of those conversions. go 5 wide, have Ryan drop back and pick it up with his feet, do something, anything, except what the D expects you to do.

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I lol'd at Turner's face after the second failed 4th and 1. Announcers were saying that he should have been in but Turner would not have picked up that yard either. We telegraph all of our plays before the snap, especially on that last QB sneak, Giants even said they knew what was coming. Just an ounce of creativity would have gotten us one, if not both, of those conversions. go 5 wide, have Ryan drop back and pick it up with his feet, do something, anything, except what the D expects you to do.

If Turner is in the game, you at least have the option of play action. I just don't understand anything that the Falcons have tried to do on 1 yard conversions this year. They haven't been close to making most of them.

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Justin Tuck said they knew the play. This is how many times we have heard that? You can convert anything if the defense knows what's coming.

Worse for Atlanta, the Giants seemed to have a very good idea of exactly what to expect. Both Canty and Tuck said they studied the exact quarterback sneak plays the Falcons tried to run.

“We saw the second one on film this week,” Tuck said, referring to a play in which the Falcons had four players shift before the snap. “They were trying to draw us off. We’d seen that.”

Edited by vel
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I remember being on this board during the Lions-Saints game and everyone was commenting on how annoying it was that Sean Payton ALWAYS goes for it on 4th & 1, and even 4th & 2.

Well don't worry folks! Because Mike Smith does it too!

Only difference is, Saints ALWAYS get the first down, and Falcons ALWAYS don't.

Very disappointing. The crazy thing is, the time that I think we really should have gone for it, we didn't. We got away with the first fail because instead of 3pts we got 2 AND the ball back, but then we didn't hit home the advantage by scoring again, because we punted at 4th & 1. NYG scored a TD on the next drive anyway. That was the time we had the momentum and Smith bottled it.

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I remember being on this board during the Lions-Saints game and everyone was commenting on how annoying it was that Sean Payton ALWAYS goes for it on 4th & 1, and even 4th & 2.

Well don't worry folks! Because Mike Smith does it too!

Only difference is, Saints ALWAYS get the first down, and Falcons ALWAYS don't.

Very disappointing. The crazy thing is, the time that I think we really should have gone for it, we didn't. We got away with the first fail because instead of 3pts we got 2 AND the ball back, but then we didn't hit home the advantage by scoring again, because we punted at 4th & 1. NYG scored a TD on the next drive anyway. That was the time we had the momentum and Smith bottled it.

I agree with both times we went for it. Like you said, if we convert, nobody is crying. Smitty was playing like there was no tomorrow. If we punt, everybody is pointing to those times as moments he didn't have balls and should have gone for it (like you are doing with the other 4th & 1 that I also agree we should have went for it). But, like Tuck pointed out in the interview, if they know the play before you run it, there is no chance of success. We went 5 wide (but tight splits) and they had 6 guys on the line. But because of the tight splits, they didn't have to be spread out to cover the WRs. It was a perfect to time use the "motion" but actually hand it off to Julio for a quick sweep. The only play that Julio gets the handoff is that same end around. Look at how the Steelers get their speedy WRs the ball.

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I agree with both times we went for it. Like you said, if we convert, nobody is crying. Smitty was playing like there was no tomorrow. If we punt, everybody is pointing to those times as moments he didn't have balls and should have gone for it (like you are doing with the other 4th & 1 that I also agree we should have went for it). But, like Tuck pointed out in the interview, if they know the play before you run it, there is no chance of success. We went 5 wide (but tight splits) and they had 6 guys on the line. But because of the tight splits, they didn't have to be spread out to cover the WRs. It was a perfect to time use the "motion" but actually hand it off to Julio for a quick sweep. The only play that Julio gets the handoff is that same end around. Look at how the Steelers get their speedy WRs the ball.

Yep, rather than being annoyed we went for it, I'm annoyed that we don't seem to be able to convert them when you consider the number of options we have on offence.

I would have thought that these situations are the ones you simply HAVE to keep coming up with variations in your play, and that the biggest crime would be to re-run the same 'unusual' play as you have done before, as so long as the defence have done their homework, you're screwed.

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Justin Tuck said they knew the play. This is how many times we have heard that? You can't convert anything if the defense knows what's coming.

This is why this ENTIRE coaching staff needs to go. It's part of being out-coached. Every team in the league knows our tendancies as we seem to have just a few plays for each formation. We are light-years behind the coaches who can think and plan. This group is a bunch of clowns!

To have Ryan, Smith, MM and everyone else look at a Giants DL that had 5 guys across from Ryan, one on the center, one on each guard and two LBs filling the gaps between, and still think that play would gain a half-inch shows just how stupid and blind to reality this bunch is.

They had 5 people to blow up 3 blockers (the same three who couldn't block one-on-one all day to begin with), yet we were determined to sneak our QB there anyway. LOL. The Giants watched our receivers go in motion and didn't bat an eye, because they knew we were just putting window dressing on a play they knew exactly how to crush. And crush it they did!

Out-coached, out-smarted, out-prepared ... the list could go on and on. Pathetic.

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