Falcons lost!!! talk NFL- cleveland browns :)

[cyman3]

Im not bad at the fact that the Falcons lost... its more of the fact that THEY MADE BIG MISTAKES!

Vick threw a PERFECT pass to Flannigan for the long touchdown... and it was dropped.

Vick threw a nice pass in the END ZONE to reggie kelly and NO TOUCHDOWN...

The falcons lost to themselves!

Im VERY IMPRESSED with MICHAEL VICK. His SPEED and ARM is simply amazing. This year will be his breakout year! This guy is plain out ATHLETIC and can THROW.

even though the falcons lost- HEY.. its all good though

its better than losing like the CLEVELAND BROWNS (hahahaha- did u guys catch that?).

[ersimo2889]

Yea, watching the game, I was really impressed with Vick, too. He threw 40 yards with no effort, reaching across his body. Warrick Dunn is also a lot better than I thought he would be, but, damn, Ahman Green was killing us!

[Traceman]

We are going to be in SERIOUS trouble next week if we don't do a better job against the run. The A-Train is a load and the Bears will run him to death as long as we don't stop him.

[Guest]

The Falcons need some hard hitters.They are

soft as a babies pillow.The 3/4 defense isn't

going to work.The Falcons linebackers aren't

on Pittsburg level.

[Traceman]

The linebackers may not be as good as Pittsburgh's but they are solid. Brooking is a Pro Bowler and the other guys are all solid. The problem is that we don't have those big, strong run stuffing guys up front. I think we need a Ted Washington/Gilbert Brown/Chester McGlockton type to clog up the middle in running situations (primarily 1st and 2nd down). I think we will improve significantly when (IF) Hall gets healthy. If we could start Hall, Jasper and Kerney up front, I think we would be a lot better. I still think Jasper is too small to be an every down nose tackle but having a healthy Hall in the mix would make him better. Getting Overstreet, Simoneau, Ulmer and Draft back will help out the LBs a lot as well.

[Gray Mule]

Last season, Hawks had injuries to key people. They

didn't make the playoffs.

Now, the Falcons have many defensive players out on I.R.

and they really need them. Fresh bodies in the fourth

quarter would have made a difference.

Offensive line looked pretty good and Vick really shined.

Two T.D. passes dropped would have made enough

difference to win this game.

Dang. So close, and no win. This is only one. Hope we

get some players well enough to play soon. This is a

new defensive scheme and it will take a little time to

get it down pat. I still look for a great season.

Gray Mule

[hds428]

watching ESPN darlings (slurp slurp) Tampax Bay get punked in their own house by the Saints. I heard their little boat even capsized from all the bandwagon fans jumpin off! LMAO! But the best part was when the Buttfukkaneers kicker threw the ball right into the hands of the defense in the ENDZONE! BRILLIANT!!! In the words of philosopher/playground bully Nelson Muntz: HA-HA! Vick did look good sunday, once the D gels and some guys get healthy and used to Wade's scheme, its all gonna be good. My goat is Finneran, he should'a had that pass with nobody even close to him, just sloppy. Game ball goes to the Texans, even though they were'nt exactly playing against America's Team, they looked surprisingly tough against the 'Boys.

[Traceman]

I agree that our lack of depth really hurt us on Sunday but that doesn't explain why the first unit couldn't stop the run while playing only limited snaps in the preseason. The next series that they completely shut down the run will be the first one. I went to the Giants & Jags games in the preseason and they both just ran all over us in the first series.

I like the way Pittsburgh's D-Linemen play the run. The nose tackle almost always commands a double team and that allows the linebackers to run free and make plays. Catfish is better than most NTs at rushing the passer but he's too light to command a double team against the run and Ellis Johnson weighs almost 20 lbs less than he does. I think we need a big old fat, nasty guy like Gilbert Brown, Ted Washington or Chester McGlockton to play NT on running plays.

Hopefully, they will do better this week but I think they face a strong test against the Bears. The Bears will run the A Train all day unless they stop him. in addition, Vick & Co face a much tougher task this week as well. Urlacher is an amazing player and he won't be as easy to get away from as GB's LBs were. It will be a tough game but if the O-Line plays as well as they did last week, we have a chance.

[KB21]

What you need are players that fit the scheme of defense your are running.

In the 3-4 defense, your defensive linemen play 2 gaps whereas in the 4-3 defense, the defensive linemen play 1 gap. The defensive ends in a 3-4 defense have to play like tackles. Their primary job is to stop the run. Patrick Kearney is a very good DE, but he isn't a 2 gap DE. He's being taken away from his strengths, which is his ability to rush the passer from the outside and his quckness. Now, he's being asked to take on double teams and hold up the blockers so the linebackers can make the play. He isn't big nor strong enough to do that. It isn't his strength. The same thing goes for your DTs. Jasper and Johnson are players that need to step into a single gap and collaspe the pocket. They aren't going to do very well at holding up at the point and reading two gaps. Travis Hall is the only lineman that I think can do this.

I also think you are taking Brookings away from what his strengths are, which are his instincts and his ability to make plays sideline to sideline. By putting him in a 3-4 defense, you are putting constraints on what he can do. Look at Ray Lewis struggling in the new 3-4 defense Baltimore runs. He's not going to be nearly as effective because he can't take on blocks and isn't being asked to read the play as much as he will be asked to fill a hole.

[cyman3]

This guy looks IMPRESSIVE as well. He has that JESSIE TUGGLE type effect on our team. A pro bowler... maybe, maybe not... but hes a GOOD and RELIABLE like our CBs.

[hds428]

After review by the league office Keith was credited with 22 tackles in the GB game, equal to the franchise record for tackles. The only knock I can see is that the tackles were all pretty good distances from the line of scrimmage. And the D has'nt even gelled yet. Dude is a monster. Take a read at this article, it'll explain ALOT of what went wrong on D sunday:

Defensive line has a numbers problem

By MATT WINKELJOHN

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Flowery Branch -- The Falcons have problems on their defensive line involving numbers.

Some figures are too high, like 224. That's the number of plays Atlanta's starters recorded against Green Bay.

Others are too low, like five. That's the number of healthy linemen the team had last weekend, and will again for Sunday's game against Chicago.

It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out the two are related.

Defensive end Patrick Kerney played all 77 defensive snaps and end Brady Smith 76 in Sunday's 37-34 overtime loss at Green Bay. Starting noseguard Ed Jasper played 71. Jasper's backup, Ellis Johnson, played 27, and reserve end Ronald Flemons a mere one.

The Packers rushed for a whopping 211 yards on 38 carries. So a question comes to mind.

When shaping the final roster, whose idea was it to keep six defensive linemen? Especially when one of those linemen, Travis Hall, has been out more than a month with a severely strained lower abdomen (he's not likely to play Sunday, either).

Defensive linemen, after all, are generally the most frequently substituted positions in the NFL.

Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and his staff have input for the final cuts, but Phillips said, "[Head coach Dan Reeves] makes the decision on all those things; it's his football team."

Said Reeves: "Having six or five linebackers at a time [injured] had a lot to do with the cut." The team kept 10 linebackers -- one or two above the norm -- because five are injured. "[Defensive line] is definitely an area we had to sacrifice."

Smith and Jasper were more like sacrificial lambs Sunday as temperatures approached 90 degrees.

"I thought [Kerney, who had 11 tackles] played well," Phillips said. "I think it affected the other two [starters], but Patrick is so much better conditioned than any normal human being."

Reeves sent a message Monday to Phillips and defensive line coach Bill Johnson: Play the reserves more.

"Even though we may not have the depth or the quality you would like, we still need to keep those guys a little bit fresher," Reeves said.

Ellis Johnson joined the Falcons six days before the Packers game after nine-year NFL veteran defensive lineman Maa Tanuvasa was a surprise cut, and Flemons made the team.

"[Flemons] was the only [end] option, and he's not there as a first-line player," Phillips said. "He's a second-line player. [Ellis Johnson] came Monday. He played 27 plays, but if we knew him better, he would have played 40."

Keeping four injured linebackers on the active roster chews up valuable spots. Mark Simoneau, Will Overstreet, Chris Draft and Artie Ulmer missed the Green Bay game. Ulmer (sprained knee) and perhaps Simoneau (strained lower abdomen) might be back for the Bears game.

Phillips' original plan was for 6-foot-4, 295-pound Hall, the team's biggest defensive lineman, to start at left end and occasionally spell 6-2, 293-pound Jasper inside.

Kerney would have started at right end, where Smith would have been the backup, and Kerney also would play some left end.

"Then you got [linebackers John] Thierry . . . and [sam] Rogers, who've been hurt, who can both play defensive end," Phillips said. "But they can't right now. In the long term, they can. So that gives you two more defensive line types."

I keep thinking about Sam Adams, he was a free agent this summer and ended up with the Raiders. That's what I'd like to see in Phillips' scheme, a big mofo of a DT who stands over 6 feet and weighs in over 300. YIKES!

[Traceman]

He is going to make plays in either a 3-4 or a 4-3. In fact, didn't he have 11 tackles on Sunday? Brady Smith and Ed Jasper are the ones who look out of place in the 3-4. Kerney would probably be even more effective at right end whe he played in college and where the team planned to move him before Hall got hurt. Kerney is not big but he is strong and he more than holds his own at the point of attack. Did you notice how GB kept having success running to the left? that's because they were running away from Kerney and at Smith.

Constraints on Brooking? He has more freedom in this defense than he ever did last year. In fact, his teamates kid him saying that they have 10 guys playing coordinated, team defense and Brooking. According to Phillips, Brooking doesn't have quite the freedom that Junior Seau does but the defense is designed to free him up to make plays. Brooking has almost ZERO responsibilities for filling a particular hole. His job is to run to the football and make plays. The other linebackers give themselves up so that he can make plays.

The thing Brooking needs to improve upon is making tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage rather than 3 or 4 yards downfield. He has a lot of talent and he makes a lot of plays but that is the main thing that separates him from guys like Lewis and Urlacher.