atlbaby Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Easy fix. Sign Rodger Saffold and draft Cody Ford Quote Analysis: How to fix the Falcons' 2018 run game failures By: Scott Carasik | January 18, 2019 8:30 am The Atlanta Falcons had one of the worst run games in the NFL in 2018, despite ranking No. 13 in the league by averaging 4.48 yards per carry. They averaged just 98.7 rush yards per game, which was only No. 27 in the league. Success running the ball may not directly correlate to winning games, but it doesn’t hurt. With some help from Football Outsiders, we’ll do a quick review of the rushing attack in 2018. We’ll look at what worked, what didn’t and how the Falcons can improve in 2019. Interior runs The Falcons ran the lowest percentage of plays behind the interior three offensive linemen at just 32 percent of their snaps this season. For comparison, the second-lowest was Washington at 43.8 percent. The NFL average was 57 percent. Before anyone says, “it was because the offensive line couldn’t block well,” take note that the Falcons averaged 4.68 yards per carry on those interior carries, good enough to rank No. 11 in the NFL. Plays like this work because the line works together to open the hole in the middle. It’s one of the simplest running plays in all of football and for Atlanta, it was one of the more effective ones. The Falcons should use it more often in 2019 with Devonta Freeman and Ito Smith shouldering the load. Outside zone, off-tackle The bread and butter of the Falcons’ scheme is the outside zone. On outside zone plays that went off the right tackle, the team averaged 5.11 yards per carry – fourth-most in the NFL. Off the left tackle, Atlanta ranked No. 20, gaining 3.98 yards per rush. The Falcons called this play on just over a quarter of their run plays, which wasn’t often enough considering how effective it proved to be, at least on the right side. Toss plays The worst part of Atlanta’s running game during the 2018 season sadly also accounted for the biggest portion. Toss plays made up 40 percent of the rushing offense. To the right side, they averaged 3.94 yards per carry, which was just No. 21 in the NFL. To the left, they averaged 3.06 yards, which ranked them 26th. Unless the Falcons want to bring the usage of this play down to around 3 to 5 percent, they’d be better off just scrapping it altogether. How to fix the run game moving forward Focusing more on inside and outside zone plays should help the team gain a lot more yards. When the Falcons focused on keeping their runs between the tackles or just off-tackle, they averaged 5.19 yards per carry. When they tossed it outside, they averaged 3.44 yards per carry. Along with some fresh talent in the trenches to help Jake Matthews and Alex Mack, this could help Atlanta take the next step as an offense in 2019. Replacing former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian with Dirk Koetter should help in this area because at least he will likely scrap most of the ineffective toss plays. Also, the front office needs to focus on bulking up the offensive line to run the outside and inside zone plays more effectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconsIn2012 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Makes sense. Can’t efectively execute the toss? Lets just keep practicing it during the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcons007 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Saffold is weakest Run blocker on that OL of that Rams team with a RB like Gurley. Get an Healthy Freeman or draft a RB and hope DK will trust run game more than Sark. Cody Ford is probably a better OG than Tackle in NFL. Sign a RT and draft ford as OG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconsIn2012 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 3 minutes ago, falcons007 said: Saffold is weakest Run blocker on that OL of that Rams team with a RB like Gurley. Get an Healthy Freeman or draft a RB and hope DK will trust run game more than Sark. Cody Ford is probably a better OG than Tackle in NFL. Ford might be worse in pass blocking than Schraeder in his rookie year. Any OL we draft in 1st two rounds will likely have a Matthews trajectory. Rookie year will be a struggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 How to fix the run game? #1.....Get freeman healthy. #2.....Don’t give up on run so early in games (both Shanny and Sark tended to do that). Stay committed to running the ******* ball! #3.....Draft this bad *** dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconsIn2012 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 5 minutes ago, Vandy said: How to fix the run game? #1.....Get freeman healthy. #2.....Don’t give up on run so early in games (both Shanny and Sark tended to do that). Stay committed to running the ******* ball! #3.....Draft this bad *** dude Can only draft Ford if we transition away from ZBS. Ford is a power gap guy who IMO should slide inside to OG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcons007 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 1 hour ago, Falconsin2012 said: Any OL we draft in 1st two rounds will likely have a Matthews trajectory. Rookie year will be a struggle. Yeah, I rather had them struggle with a high round rookie guard than struggle with with a bottom value FA OL of Garland and Wes. Mathews should have been rested for first 6 weeks in his rookie year. He had no business playing. Even then his Rookie year was way better than most OT rookies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyicefalcon Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 2 hours ago, Falconsin2012 said: Makes sense. Can’t efectively execute the toss? Lets just keep practicing it during the game. Quinn and Sark HIGHLY to be blamed for this cluster ****! In my opinion, this is Quinns make or break year! If he doesnt take us to Superbowl...hes a bust! No excuse, for not executing with soo much talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyicefalcon Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 4 minutes ago, falcons007 said: Yeah, I rather had them struggle with a high round rookie guard than struggle with with a bottom value FA OL of Garland and Wes. Exactly, if you draft right player...even if his learning curve is slow...eventually, skill set and work ethic will show positive results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlbaby Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 2 hours ago, falcons007 said: Saffold is weakest Run blocker on that OL of that Rams team with a RB like Gurley. Get an Healthy Freeman or draft a RB and hope DK will trust run game more than Sark. Cody Ford is probably a better OG than Tackle in NFL. Sign a RT and draft ford as OG. The bold is untrue. Quote Stat shows how dominant Andrew Whitworth-Rodger Saffold duo was in 2017 The offensive line was a major question heading into last offseason for the Los Angeles Rams. Jared Goff was coming off a season in which he was sacked 26 times in just seven games and Todd Gurley had a great deal of trouble finding any running lanes behind a putrid offensive line. After seeing their two stars have paltry seasons, the Rams set out to fix the trenches by adding Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan to a group of young linemen. The result? Just 25 sacks for Goff in 15 games and 2,093 yards from scrimmage from Gurley. Whitworth joined Rodger Saffold on the left side of the line, protecting Goff’s blindside. He also helped open big holes for Gurley, who had a great deal of success running to the left. That’s probably because Whitworth and Sullivan combined to give the Rams the best run-blocking duo at left tackle and guard in the NFL. It wasn’t particularly close, either. There are still questions on the offensive line moving forward, but those won’t arise until next year. Saffold, Jamon Brown and Rob Havenstein will all be free agents in 2019, while it’s unclear how long Whitworth and Sullivan can continue playing at 36 and 32 years old, respectively. For now, the Rams have one of the best offensive lines in all of football and it’ll remain intact for at least one more season, barring injury. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcons007 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 2 hours ago, atlbaby said: The bold is untrue. Last I checked it’s not 2017. Let’s talk about 2018. In 2017, Schraeder and Alford were good and a year later we know the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSalmon Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 5 hours ago, Falconsin2012 said: Can only draft Ford if we transition away from ZBS. Ford is a power gap guy who IMO should slide inside to OG Oklahoma ran a bunch of zone concepts. He can move laterally just fine. I do agree that he’s a G. In fact I think he can be an Alll Pro G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconsIn2012 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, MSalmon said: Oklahoma ran a bunch of zone concepts. He can move laterally just fine. I do agree that he’s a G. In fact I think he can be an Alll Pro G Ceiling is almost Quinton Nelson as an OG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlbaby Posted January 20, 2019 Author Share Posted January 20, 2019 29 minutes ago, falcons007 said: Last I checked it’s not 2017. Let’s talk about 2018. In 2017, Schraeder and Alford were good and a year later we know the story. It’s still untrue. Even in 2018. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcons007 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 1 minute ago, atlbaby said: It’s still untrue. Even in 2018. Lol. He is third best OL on the Rams team in runblocking in 2018. I am not surprised, TATF likes mediocre players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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