Expert's Take: Falcons at Cowboys

[Hawksquawk]

Each week during the NFL season a member of the national media will offer an opinion on the Falcons and the team's upcoming opponent.

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[coachx]

Each week during the NFL season a member of the national media will offer an opinion on the Falcons and the team's upcoming opponent.

View the full article

This game really scares me.

Dallas is coming off a bye and Miles is coming off that monster 250 + yard games and we are missing our best CB. Felix Jones and Marion Barber could be back to nearly 100% and even if they are not, T. Choice may play the game of his life since all of his Georgia Tech buddies will be watching the Falcons.

Matt Ryan will need to be on for this game and cannot have another 1st quarter like he played vs. the Bears . I am glad Matty Ice has already seen some 3-4 defenses this year. The offense will likely look pretty vanilla from here on out with both Norwood and Douglas are out of the picture. Their speed and play making ability allowed us to run some trick plays.....like reverses, end arounds, direct snaps, and some "Wild Cat." Now it will be good old fashioned vanilla football where we just have to out muscle people and out execute people without the gimmicks / trickery. I think Matty Ice is up to the job but the defense needs to hold Dallas under 30 points to have a chance.

With Jerry and Williams out for the season on defense and Norwood and Douglas (our speed guys) out on offense the margin for error has been closed significantly.

Time to show what your made of. We need to beat teams up physically from here on out...............AND I LOVE SOME PHYSICAL FOOTBALL !

Edited October 21, 2009 by coachx

[jy23]

Hopefully we get the bad Romo, i see that being the only way we slow their offense down. These guys run the ball VERY well and its going to be tough to stop them, if we can get Romo to make some mistakes and capatilize on them i like our chances. If Matty Ice can just be efficient that should be enough to pull out the win.

[coachx]

Hopefully we get the bad Romo, i see that being the only way we slow their offense down. These guys run the ball VERY well and its going to be tough to stop them, if we can get Romo to make some mistakes and capatilize on them i like our chances. If Matty Ice can just be efficient that should be enough to pull out the win.

Its up to the pass rush in order for the Falcons to see the "bad Romo." If the front 4 get a pass rush going we will get the bad Romo.............he can't handle pressure with his feable frame. Here is to Babbineaux, Biermann, Abe, & Sidbury bringing the heat and who knows...............maybe Jam can turn into to a pass rusher at DT on 3rd downs.

We need Peterson and Lofton to keep their trio of RBs in check

If not Witten that Miles dude may feast on our secondary. I think Chevis Jackson can stay with Williams (who is pretty slow).

Decoude will get his chance to prove his worth vs. Witten.

At this point the defense is worrying me more then the offense since we lost B. Willaims.

The Cowboys have some coaches on their staff who are X-Falcons (Phillips and Camillas) so they have a tad but of extra motivation.

[DrReality]

We've been getting better and maturing weel to week. That is impressive and if we keep doing that we can win this game. But I think it could be very tricky. We've got to use the no hundle to our advantage.

[jy23]

Its up to the pass rush in order for the Falcons to see the "bad Romo." If the front 4 get a pass rush going we will get the bad Romo.............he can't handle pressure with his feable frame. Here is to Babbineaux, Biermann, Abe, & Sidbury bringing the heat and who knows...............maybe Jam can turn into to a pass rusher at DT on 3rd downs.

We need Peterson and Lofton to keep their trio of RBs in check

If not Witten that Miles dude may feast on our secondary. I think Chevis Jackson can stay with Williams (who is pretty slow).

Decoude will get his chance to prove his worth vs. Witten.

At this point the defense is worrying me more then the offense since we lost B. Willaims.

The Cowboys have some coaches on their staff who are X-Falcons (Phillips and Camillas) so they have a tad but of extra motivation.

Totally agree..... :helpsmilie: please let the front four cause some trouble for Romo. I think that Jam actually looked fairly decent at dt. Hopefully we've found something where he can at least be a lil effective for us. Austin does worry me, bc he's the big strong type of wideout that would give us problems, not as worried about roy bc of the speed factor. Witten is going to get catches.....thats just what he does.......he doesn't get yac and we can't allow him to do it against us. If he catches we have to bottle him up quickly. Their running game is just scary, they have a guy that pounds all day everyday in barber and then they have a guy who can bust a big one EVERYTIME he touches the ball in Jones. And of course Choice is no scrub as a 3RD OPTION. Oh yeah.....their coming off a bye week which means that their backs will be fresh. I still think we can take em bc u never know what ur going to get out of Romo, if we can create some kind of pressure I see us winning this game

[High5]

This game really scares me.

Dallas is coming off a bye and Miles is coming off that monster 250 + yard games and we are missing our best CB. Felix Jones and Marion Barber could be back to nearly 100% and even if they are not, T. Choice may play the game of his life since all of his Georgia Tech buddies will be watching the Falcons.

Matt Ryan will need to be on for this game and cannot have another 1st quarter like he played vs. the Bears . I am glad Matty Ice has already seen some 3-4 defenses this year. The offense will likely look pretty vanilla from here on out with both Norwood and Douglas are out of the picture. Their speed and play making ability allowed us to run some trick plays.....like reverses, end arounds, direct snaps, and some "Wild Cat." Now it will be good old fashioned vanilla football where we just have to out muscle people and out execute people without the gimmicks / trickery. I think Matty Ice is up to the job but the defense needs to hold Dallas under 30 points to have a chance.

With Jerry and Williams out for the season on defense and Norwood and Douglas (our speed guys) out on offense the margin for error has been closed significantly.

Time to show what your made of. We need to beat teams up physically from here on out...............AND I LOVE SOME PHYSICAL FOOTBALL !

A Mike Mularkey offense is FAR from vanilla. But I agree with the rest.

[frosgrim]

Guys, remember we have a secret weapon on offense: Kieth Brooking. Dude makes more blocks for the offense than he makes tackleds for the defnese ;)

Seriously though. The game plan should tartget Brooking. He's a liability in the passing game these days. Most of his tackles when he was with the Falcons the last few years were several yards down field from the LOS. Falcons should just run behind Dahl most of the game as that is where Brooking will be lined up.

CoachX, I agree the defenese is going to be problematic for the rest of the season. Williams let the Birds blitz. I don't know if BvG is going to take the same chances with Hill or Jackson. However, the Falcons have to do something to get to Romo. Blitzing seems like the solution right now, as the linemen just aren't consistant enough.

[Plainview1981]

Each week during the NFL season a member of the national media will offer an opinion on the Falcons and the team's upcoming opponent.

View the full article

The Falcons were abit of a fluke last year. They might make the playoffs again, but they didn't play well against a key team like NE and played poorly against a mediocre Dallas Cowboy team in the first half today.

[EazyRoc]

They weren't a fluke. They just had an easy schedule. Sure they didn't play well against NE, but NE is arguably the best team in the league and we were in New England. Today we're just having an off day. Everything that we do well, we're not doing well. You're not going to win every game throughout the course of a 16 game season.

[APE]

They weren't a fluke. They just had an easy schedule. Sure they didn't play well against NE, but NE is arguably the best team in the league and we were in New England. Today we're just having an off day. Everything that we do well, we're not doing well. You're not going to win every game throughout the course of a 16 game season.

New Englad better than Indianapolis, Minnesotta, Denver, & Pittsburgh?

[EazyRoc]

I personally don't think they're better than Pittsburgh or Indianapolis, but I'm sure there's experts and fans who think they are. The Win-Loss record means nothing at this point in the season, because it's still so early. However, based on how they've been playing the last couple of weeks, one could say they are the best.

Edited October 25, 2009 by EazyRoc

[APE]

I personally don't think they're better than Pittsburgh or Indiana, but I'm sure there's experts and fans who think they are. The Win-Loss record means nothing at this point in the season, because it's still so early. However, based on how they've been playing the last couple of weeks, one could say they are the best.

"experts" from ESPN only.

[Plainview1981]

They weren't a fluke. They just had an easy schedule. Sure they didn't play well against NE, but NE is arguably the best team in the league and we were in New England. Today we're just having an off day. Everything that we do well, we're not doing well. You're not going to win every game throughout the course of a 16 game season.

The Falcons are good enough to beat mediocre and decent teams. But a loss like this to a mediocre Cowboys team is not good.

[Plainview1981]

Matt Ryan has been throwing a lot of INT's lately. I admit it, I overrated him.

[EazyRoc]

The Falcons are good enough to beat mediocre and decent teams. But a loss like this to a mediocre Cowboys team is not good.

I don't see how you can draw that conclusion when the only good team we've played is New England @ Foxsboro. This was an ugly loss, but like I said, you're not going to win every game. Even good teams lose to mediocre teams and sometimes even bad teams. It happens. The Falcons are a good team this year.

[EazyRoc]

Matt Ryan has been throwing a lot of INT's lately. I admit it, I overrated him.

Matt Ryan is a very cerebral QB, but he isn't that accurate. He overthrows people a lot, and every now and then he'll try to force a pass into coverage.

[EazyRoc]

"experts" from ESPN only.

At this point, who one can consider the best is an opinion anyways. I personally don't think New England is the best, but some people could argue that they are. I actually think the Saints are the best team in football.

[APE]

At this point, who one can consider the best is an opinion anyways. I personally don't think New England is the best, but some people could argue that they are. I actually think the Saints are the best team in football.

Well right now Miami is giving them all they can handle.

[EazyRoc]

That just goes to prove my point. Even a bad team can give a good team problems, and potentially beat them.