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Kyle Shanahan Wants A Balanced Offense In Atlanta


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New Atlanta Falcons Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan looks to bring balance to a team that has struggled to run the football in the last three seasons. The Falcons’ offense under Dirk Koetter, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was heavily predicated on the mid-range passing game. As talented as Matt Ryan and his receiving corps were under Koetter, opposing defenses had no problem blitzing Ryan with great regularity as they knew the Falcons were going to pass the ball most of the time. It didn’t help that his offensive line was slow and experienced. We saw Ryan on his back way too much for a Pro Bowl passer of his caliber.

Kyle Shanahan said after Week 2 of organized team activities, “Our goal is to be balanced. You want to make teams defend both the run and the pass on first and second down. Try to be in a 50-50 area.” It’s comforting to know that Atlanta’s previous lack of balance on offense is being addressed both on the field and in the classroom.

Players are eager to see just how the running game and passing attack feed off each other in Shanahan’s new look offense. Running back Antone Smith said, “The system does work, obviously. The track record has been working since the Denver days.” But even with Shanahan’s often-praised running game, you still have to make the most of your opportunities and Smith seems well aware of it.

New WR Leonard Hankerson spoke highly of the receiving corps he is now a part of saying,” it’s one of the best I’ve been on.” Hankerson played in a talented WR group in Washington with DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, and Santana Moss. His comfort with playing alongside talented receivers makes for a nice fit for him here in Atlanta. Not to mention, Hankerson played under Kyle Shanahan in DC for three seasons (2011-13), so he is familiar with our new OC’s passing game.

It’s not even training camp yet, but I’m excited that Shanahan will make running the football part of the Atlanta Falcons offensive game plan in 2015. As much as I would like to see Matt Ryan throw for 4,500 yards through the air, I would rather see him lead us into the playoffs with 3,500 passing yards in Shanahan’s more balanced offense.

I think Coach Shanahan will design and call plays to better use his players in space. If Mike Smith couldn’t intimidate anybody with size, why not use speed and blow by everyone in the NFC? I believe Kyle Shanahan has the weapons in place to have a top ten offense in the NFL in 2015. Still way too early to tell, though. Rise Up, ATL!

http://atlallday.com/2015/06/03/kyle-shanahan-wants-a-balanced-offense-in-atlanta/

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Shanahan, koetter, malarkey....At this point I think weve seen what Matt Ryan can do. He's already peaked.

Matt Ryan was hit more than any QB in football last year and he wasn't injured. Yes, we've seen what he can do. Even without an O-Line and no healthy receivers. 4600 yards passing and 28 TD's.

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Lawd knows I'm looking forward to running more. I love a good running game. Even if it's a finesse ZBS with a bunch of stretch runs. In the Dimi regime we've gone from a slap yo mama smash mouth run game to an any screen is a running play Madden attack.

2008-2014 ATLANTA FALCON RUN/PASS SPLITS

2008 - 56/44 (11-5)

2009 - 44/56 (9-7)

2010 - 45/55 (13-3)

2011 - 43/57 (10-6)

2012 - 38/62 (13-3)

2013 - 33/67 (4-12)

2014 - 37/63 (6-10)

Lawd knows Kutty went pass happier than a June Jones chuck and duck on steroids. We went 23-25. We need to get back to running the dam ball. By the way, Mud Duck, Clabo, Dahl, Blalock and Weiner combined for 14 PFF run score seasons of +7.0 during that stretch. Not one Dimi Olineman acquisition has had one. Not one folks. None. Heaven help us. Jeez.

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Lawd knows I'm looking forward to running more. I love a good running game. Even if it's a finesse ZBS with a bunch of stretch runs. In the Dimi regime we've gone from a slap yo mama smash mouth run game to an any screen is a running play Madden attack.

2008-2014 ATLANTA FALCON RUN/PASS SPLITS

2008 - 56/44 (11-5)

2009 - 44/56 (9-7)

2010 - 45/55 (13-3)

2011 - 43/57 (10-6)

2012 - 38/62 (13-3)

2013 - 33/67 (4-12)

2014 - 37/63 (6-10)

Lawd knows Kutty went pass happier than a June Jones chuck and duck on steroids. We went 23-25. We need to get back to running the dam ball. By the way, Mud Duck, Clabo, Dahl, Blalock and Weiner combined for 14 PFF run score seasons of +7.0 during that stretch. Not one Dimi Olineman acquisition has had one. Not one folks. None. Heaven help us. Jeez.

Opposing Defenses knew our offense was one dimensional.... No freaking running game

Signing SJ39 was a waste of time and cap space .....

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the "we want to be 50/50 pass/run" quote stood out to me when I watched the week 2 of OTA's highlight video too. That will be great to see. Can't wait to see all those running plays and all the play action off of them.

That terrifies me. Even run oriented teams tend to be more along the lines of 45 run 55 pass. To break the top 10 in "run orientation" you would pass 56% of the time and run 44%.

I'm hoping he means 50/50 on 1st and 2nd down, with 3rd being 70/30 pass or whatever. Would love to see us at 42/58 or so total, but with a legitimate run game.

But now that you said it, I'm going to go watch that video. I'm just always wary when people say balance means 50/50, instead of balance means the equilibrium point of effectiveness.

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That terrifies me. Even run oriented teams tend to be more along the lines of 45 run 55 pass. To break the top 10 in "run orientation" you would pass 56% of the time and run 44%.

I'm hoping he means 50/50 on 1st and 2nd down, with 3rd being 70/30 pass or whatever. Would love to see us at 42/58 or so total, but with a legitimate run game.

But now that you said it, I'm going to go watch that video. I'm just always wary when people say balance means 50/50, instead of balance means the equilibrium point of effectiveness.

I don't know if he was being literal, and I doubt he's going to force us to rush when it doesn't make sense just to keep a ratio intact. That being said, we passed the ball the 3'rd most in the league from a % standpoint last year. I do not want to be that high. 60/40 might be okay, but i'd rather it be slightly below that, if possible.

There's no golden percentage, but I will say the teams that rush the most tend to do better than the teams that pass the most. Seattle and Dallas are both top 3 of the former group, us the Bears and the Raiders are the top 3 of the latter group.

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I don't know if he was being literal, and I doubt he's going to force us to rush when it doesn't make sense just to keep a ratio intact. That being said, we passed the ball the 3'rd most in the league from a % standpoint last year. I do not want to be that high. 60/40 might be okay, but i'd rather it be slightly below that, if possible.

There's no golden percentage, but I will say the teams that rush the most tend to do better than the teams that pass the most. Seattle and Dallas are both top 3 of the former group, us the Bears and the Raiders are the top 3 of the latter group.

Yeah, we were definitely too high. It needs to be more balanced, for certain.

Being able to run obviously means you're not too far behind, and have a decent OL...so teams like that will win a lot, not due to the running, but due to having a defense keeping games close, and a strong OL.

But yeah, I want to run more, and mostly, want to run very efficiently. Let's be top 10 in successful runs, and maybe in YPC. That would be outstanding. Passing game is critical, but you have to have a legitimate run game too...you just can't make it easy on the D.

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