birdz4i Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 CHARLES ODUM (AP Sports Writer) The Associated Press Sep 23, 2019, 7:18 PM FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) -- Ricardo Allen says the Atlanta Falcons can't afford to assume talent will make up for the team's 1-2 start. Instead, the safety says the Falcons must make changes now if they want to expect different results. ''I don't care how much talent you have,'' Allen said Monday. ''If you're not finding a way to win with it, you've got to shake something up. Something has to be different.'' Allen didn't have a quick answer on what changes are needed. The bigger mystery is how the Falcons can fix their startling three-game trend for penalties that extend opponents' drives and stop their own. Sunday's 27-24 loss at Indianapolis increased the pressure on coach Dan Quinn to eliminate mistakes. The Falcons committed 16 penalties for 128 yards against the Colts and fell behind 20-3 at halftime. They have 35 penalties through three games. Until the Falcons play a clean game, Allen says the record must be believed. ''You have to take it for what it is, you're a 1-2 team,'' Allen said. ''You're not an overly talented team. You're a 1-2 team. You've got to be realistic with it. You've got to get better. You've got to get back to the drawing board.'' Allen said he remains loyal to Quinn, who is in his fifth season. ''Until the clock hits 0:00, I'm going to fight with him until there ain't no tomorrow,'' Allen said. ''That's all I can do.'' Quinn said Monday he'll have a full crew of officials calling penalties at practice this week. The Falcons normally have a partial crew at practice. ''We're going to address it right now and we're not waiting,'' Quinn said. Asked if he'll have punishment for penalties, such as running laps, Quinn said he'll instead have guilty players stand beside him on the sideline. He said that punishment is ''more punitive to me.'' If the heat on the coach continues to intensify, standing next to Quinn could become increasingly uncomfortable for players. WHAT'S WORKING The offense recovered from a slow start to enjoy its best balance of the season and strong production from Matt Ryan . Devonta Freeman ran for a season-best 88 yards, including a 28-yarder. His 18 carries show he can handle a big workload. Backups Ito Smith and Kenjon Barner left the game with concussions, so the team's confidence in Freeman is especially important. Ryan threw two scoring passes to tight end Austin Hooper and completed eight passes for 128 yards and an impressive 10-yard touchdown to Julio Jones. The three second-half scores only made the first-half struggles more frustrating. WHAT NEEDS HELP The defense managed only one sack and couldn't stop the Colts, who had 29 first downs. The inability to produce big plays on defense and the wave of penalties combined for another awful start. After trailing 21-0 at halftime of their opening game at Minnesota, the Falcons trailed the Colts 20-3 at the break. That's a combined 41-3 halftime deficit in two road games, prompting Quinn to make a postgame demand for his players to find their road mentality. STOCK UP Hooper, who made his first Pro Bowl last season, continues to emerge as one of Ryan's top targets. The tight end had his first two-touchdown game, and his six catches marked his third straight game with at least four. Hooper, Calvin Ridley and Mohamed Sanu should continue to benefit from extra defensive attention devoted to Jones. STOCK DOWN Of the team's 16 penalties, 10 were called on the defense. Quinn says pre-snap penalties are most damaging, and defensive tackle Jack Crawford had two neutral zone infractions in the first half. INJURED Losing the game was tough. Perhaps more painful was the loss of safety Keanu Neal, a leader of the defense, to a torn left Achilles tendon. The injury ends his season after he missed most of 2018 with a knee injury. Kemal Ishmael is expected to replace Neal at strong safety. Brian Hill could be next in line to serve as Freeman's backup if Smith and Barner can't return from concussions. Rookie Qadree Ollison also could have a bigger role. KEY NUMBER 51 - Jones had his 51st game with at least 100 yards receiving. Only three receivers have more: Jerry Rice (76), Randy Moss (64) and Marvin Harrison (59). NEXT STEPS The Falcons (1-2) return home to face Tennessee on Sunday. They then face two straight road games at Houston and Arizona, making this week's home game especially important. https://sports.yahoo.com/falcons-looking-ways-fix-penalties-slow-starts-231817121--nfl.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sun Tzu 7 Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 What did Smitty do when they had penalties? Was it something about holding hands? Or was that fighting? Either way Quinn needs to figure it out. falcons007 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilleniumFalcon Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 31 minutes ago, Sun Tzu 7 said: What did Smitty do when they had penalties? Was it something about holding hands? Or was that fighting? Either way Quinn needs to figure it out. During team meetings, Smitty would bring up the guys who committed penalties, called them out on it, and make them get embarrassed in front of the whole team. Maybe DQ needs to take a similar approach. Sun Tzu 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B_Lo_Touchdowns Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 Rico should be the coach Standing next to DQ is the punishment are you ******* kidding me. Dude is worse then I said he was day one vitaman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUsualStuff Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 This is one of those details that should have been worked on from day 1 of training camp, in year 1. I'm sick of this regime being more reactionary instead of proactive. It took too long before Dan Quinn said it's time to be fast and furious. Took too long for DQ to address the defensive flaws. Took too long for him to address not knowing when and how to manage the clock and timeouts. Now he's finally going to get around to addressing discipline and penalties. He's always addressing things after the fact, whereas the best coaches address things from the beginning and never let them develop into problems. He's always reacting to a manifested problem that has already cost us dearly instead of having the foresight to say "ya know.. we are NOT going to be a team that doesn't beat itself with stupid asinine penalties". vitaman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcons007 Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Sun Tzu 7 said: What did Smitty do when they had penalties? Was it something about holding hands? Or was that fighting? Either way Quinn needs to figure it out. This is what HD said about the process followed when he was here in ATL. They had officiating crew in practices throwing flag and they would correct the mistakes. The players used to get what the officiating crews likes to call penalties, what they don’t call and what you can get away with during the game. Every Monday, Smitty would chew players if they made dumb plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis York Morgan Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 2 hours ago, B_Lo_Touchdowns said: Rico should be the coach Standing next to DQ is the punishment are you ******* kidding me. Dude is worse then I said he was day one All I know is running laps isn't doing **** to Pro players. Standing next to Q and getting an earful/embarrassed is going to do more than a lap. It's a step. This team was still good about penalties for the first three years Quinn was here - if he can fix it, the team can do a lot going forward. The team's mentality is just atrocious though imho. Gotta take it one week at a time. Every game is **** important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwifalcon Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 Fines fine the farkers have a team fund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyicefalcon Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Sun Tzu 7 said: What did Smitty do when they had penalties? Was it something about holding hands? Or was that fighting? Either way Quinn needs to figure it out. They should now hire Smitty as PENALTY COACH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonDeion Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 We have a consultant for everything. Why not bring in Mike Smith as penalties consultant? red falcon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capologist Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 8 hours ago, B_Lo_Touchdowns said: Rico should be the coach Standing next to DQ is the punishment are you ******* kidding me. Dude is worse then I said he was day one If they are standing next to DQ, they aren't on the field, you missed it... 1989Fan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghosts of Glanville Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 They’ve played in pewee league, middle school, high school, college, and now the NFL. Why the **** are they still needing to ‘figure’ this stuff out?? Show me what level that starting slow and committing a truckload of penalties works. This would be like me reporting to my board of directors that we lost a million dollars last month, and me saying ‘I should figure out how this calculator thing works’. They are a mentally lazy team that expects to get by on talent. Not going to work at this level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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