FalcFans Forums

Getting things kicked off for next week. The Falcons have to get the job done this week. They need to get pressure on Losman and make him make rookie mistakes. They need to stop McGahee, and we need to run the football effectively. It's not rocket science.

I do expect the Falcons to come out a bit stronger than they did this past week.

I suspect Hall will be matched up against Lee Evans, which will allow the team to try and double Moulds with Webster and Scott. The Bucs locked down Moulds/Evans this past week, limiting them to 3 catches for 20 yards. Although Josh Reed had a good game (6 catches). The Texans didn't have such success, as Moulds/Evans had 7 catches for 108 yards. But it's a key that the Falcons need to stop McGahee.

As for our offensive production, I don't suspect us to have much success against the Bills D. Their corners will be able to sit on islands against our receivers. They have a good front 7, not great, but it can be tough with playmakers like Adams, Schobel, Spikes, and Fletcher.

Once again, the defense needs to set the tone early. We didn't this past week and have to next week, until our offense finds it feet.

I hope Mora lays the wood on the falcon's this week's practice.After seeing the falcon's not adjusting in the first half to seattle makes me believe our the falcon coaches to slow on recognizes how to beat other teams schemes? I believe the first half the defense was playing a zone coverage then second half man to man.Why does it take 2 quarters to adjust>? Getting back to Buffalo they will be pumped(Buffalo) since it is a home game and they do not want to lose at home.

Was it vick's hamstring or cramps? If it is a hamstring then Vick better get used to passing.Buffalo has the kind of defense it will be all day.Now Cadillac Williams did run over 100 yards so maybe the falcon's can run but I hope the falcon's offense has learned its lesson.you have to pass to set up the run.Teams are starting to play 8 and 9 men in the box and until vick completes passes consistently then the same thing will happen as it did today.

I hope this loss stays in the falcon's mouths for a long time.Mora and the coaching staff also let down the team.Sometimes I feel they are not adjusting but rather doing the same thing over and over to beat an opponent.Alot of the times it works but super bowl teams can sdjust and beat you with the pass or run and if that isn't working the defense will come up big.One thing is for sure it is going to be hard hitting in buffalo and I hope we come out on top.Having losman a rookie at QB helps since they tend to take awhile to adjust with all the defensive schemes.Will see what hapens should be a great game!

A few notes for you guys:

1. Evans is slipping ahead of Moulds as the #1 guy, imo.
2. The Bills defense is fine, but was on the field too long last week.
3. The Atlanta pass rush scares me.
4. The Bills Special teams are still great. Terrence McGee has looked very good running back kicks.
5. If Vick is passing and has accuracy problems (which I have seen in the past), Clements, Vincent, Milloy and McGee will make him pay.

All in all, I am looking forward to a fun game. Vick is fun to watch and the Falcons are a very good team.

what do Buffalo's Dlinemen weigh? teams who clog the middle tend to slow us down considerably.

Sam Adams weighs alot. He is listed at 335, but that is generous. He is probably 350+. Ron Edwards is listed at 320, and that is pretty close.

The backups (who do rotate in and out) weigh less. (Justin Bannan = 305, Tim Anderson = 304).

London Fletcher, at MLB, has the most tackles in the NFL over the last 5 years. The linebacking core is right at the top of the NFL with Takeo Spikes (Pro-bowler), Fletcher (just outside the PB level) and Jeff Posey (Solid, unspectacular player).

that kind of beef gives up problems with our lighter O line. i can see us running more screens and attacking the tackles as a result. maybe we can get some big plays on the edge.

we are gonna have to get our runs on the edges because the Bills are really big and good inside. Other than Spikes I think they are pretty slow in the front 7. I may be wrong since I havn't exactly followed the Bills over the last few years but it seems to me that they are the exact opposite of our defense, big, strong, slow. We have to turn Vick loose in the offense more. I really like running the ball and every thing but if we want Vick to progress as a passer we have to at least let him have a chance to throw the ball. I think we can work the passing game since the Bills will probably keep 8 in the box all day until we force them to do otherwise.
My question is how good (and big) are the bills o-linemen. If they are big and physical then we may be in trouble. We need to be able to find a way to beat the power run game, we keep getting killed by it. (KC last year for example)

If not for their weak-ish DE's the Bills have the sickest front 7 in the NFL. Spikes is an animal who I would put right there with Ray Lewis as the scariest in the league. Fletcher is a great sideline to sideline LB and Sam Adams may be the most dominant DT in the league when he plays full tilt. Add to that their nasty DB's and you got one scary defense.

Still, our best bet will be throwing the ball because our O-line won't get a push against Adams at all, probably just the opposite to be honest. Outside runs will be tough because they have rangy LB's too, but their pass rush is not tremendous. They will have to bring 5, 6, or even 7 guys to effectively get after Vick and it could be a break out game for him if he plays smart.

Personally, I would put D.Hall man to man on Moulds all game long and double Evans when needed. I think Demorrio can cover McGahee, but the Bills have a decent O-line and we will have to slow their run the first half & get a lead. It's going to be a tough game no doubt, but with our schedule the nest 3 weeks we have to have this game.

To answer some of the questions:

The Bills have a decent sized O-line. RT Mike Williams might miss the game with an ankle injury. Guards Bennie Anderson and Chris Villarrial are maulers. Center Trey Teague is smallish, but smart. LT Mike Gandy is the big unknown this year.

The DE's are the weakest part of the front 7. Aaron Schobel is a good pass-rusher but can teams can run at him (if you run away from him, he has very good pursuit) New DT Ron Edwards is inconsistent, but is a sold pass-rushing DT.

How good is the center of your O-line? And how big is the center of teh D-line?

And what about kick and punt coverage? Terrence McGee on KO's and Clements and punts have been big weapons the last two years.

Anybody here coming up for the game?

Schobel and Kerney are similar players, except I think Kerney has more natural strength and playing strength than Schobel (he has about 10 pounds on him, and any and everybody that has seen Kerney knows he's all muscle).

I suspect the Falcons will try to attack the edges of the Bills defense. Spikes is tough, but he's not as good at the point of attack as he is in pursuit. We should try to run at him and Schobel. Also, Jeff Posey is not going to be able to cover Crumpler. I suspect that is going to mean that the Bills are going to try to use Spikes or Troy Vincent to be the main guy to match up with Crump, or at least help Posey. If that's the case, it should make for better opportunities for us to hit the Bills deep. McGee and esp. Clements don't lack speed at all (as you will recall Clements almost beat Rossum in the 40-yard dash at the Pro Bowl), and our WRs aren't known to be burners, but they are deceptively fast. It should also open up opportunities for Dunn & Griffith out of the backfield too.

The Bills have a tough defense, so I'd be surprised if the Falcons scored more than 2 or so touchdowns.

The Bills offense is not scary, but can be if we can't get pressure on Losman. We need to make Losman beat us. Take McGahee out of the mix, and don't let Evans get behind us. Moulds is a very reliable recevier, but isn't the playmaker he used to be. Evans is the guy that is probably going to make or break the Bills passing offense.

I'm slightly concerned, but I think the Falcons are too good of a team to make the same mistakes 2 weeks in a row (i.e. not stopping the run and not pressuring the QB). I think the Falcons should really try to promote the matchup of Patrick Kerney vs. Mike Gandy. Gandy is a natural OG playing LT, and he can't handle Kerney.

Not much anyone can add to what has already been stated. I do think the DeLo is perfectly capable of matching Lee Evans stride for stride and give him as many problems as he did T.O.

I am concerned that Vick has been figured out by the NFL as long as he can't pass the ball with any consistency. I'm noticing less and less opportunities for him to break out and create breathtaking runs. He'll get his one 10 to 20 yard run every game. But the opportunities are dissapearing as teams are learning to stay put and not go with the all out rush on him.

absolutely..it was just a matter of time before they honed in on vick's inability to consistently pass from the pocket, as well as our lack of recieving talent (hopefully jenk and roddy will come around). vick's gotta learn how to pass this season if we want to keep up not only with the league but what is looking to be a strong nfc south.

I agree that we will have all of the opportunities in the world to pass the ball, but then again we usually do every game and never quite get it done. I tihnk we can run on this team but it will be hard at first. Since they are a bigger team I think we should be able to wear them down, but to do that we need TJ to have a good game and the coachs to have the sense to use him if he is.

To answer the Bills fan, our center is small and likes to hold a lot. We are small across our D-line to but they are all very high motor, smart, quick, and strong. Rod Coleman although he is small plays the run well. Chad Lavalais is young but he hasn't shown me a lot of reason to worry about him either.

Our ST are the strongest part of our team. We have excellant kick coverage, and Rossum is one of the best PR in the league (if he's healthy)

Atlanta at Buffalo

Falcons 26th OFF; Bills 3rd DEF

Falcons t-5th rushing; Bills 30th vs. run

Falcons 31st passing; Bills 1st vs. pass

Falcons t-19th points; Bills 10th points allowed

Bills 30th OFF; Falcons 28th DEF

Bills 17th rushing; Falcons 18th vs. run

Bills 30th passing; Falcons 26th vs. pass

Bills 26th points; Falcons 12th points allowed

Falcons +1 TO (t-12th NFL); Bills +5 TO (t-3rd NFL)

The Falcons are 1-0 vs. the Bills in the last five years and the Falcons are 1-1 vs. the Bills in the last 10 years.

Bills WR Eric Moulds has caught at least one pass in 112 consecutive games. He had one catch for 8 yards in Week Two vs. the Bucs.

The Bills only held the ball for 21:10 in their Week Two loss to Tampa.

The Bills are 5-0 in games when LB Takeo Spikes forces a fumble.

The Falcons Vick, Dunn and Duckett have rushed for a combined 315 yards this season.

Vick has accounted for 72 percent of the Falcons’ total yards and half of their touchdowns in 2005.

Second-year BLB Demorrio Williams leads the Falcons in tackles with 18.

If Vick plays and puts up 250 yards it will be huge in the development of our offense.

Me thinks the Bills game and Patriots game are going to be down right ugly if Vick & Crew don't gel and Knapp doesn't get better at play calls.

If I'm a defensive coordinator looking at the Falcons, here are my keys:

1) Play contain in pass rush. Don't give Vick too many holes. I'd rather force him to beat us with his arm than his legs. I myself have only really seen one game where Vick was excellent passing from the pocket, and that was last year's first game vs. Carolina. Vick was 10-18 for 148 yards with 1 INT, not great numbers, but managed to move the ball well from throwing from the pocket.

2) Bring an extra safety in the box to play the run. Although there have been times where Falcon receivers have gotten deep thus far this year, unless I have ultra-slow corners, none of these guys really possess that elite 4.4 speed, besides Roddy White and he doesn't play. And when its an expected pass play, use that extra safety to double TE Crumpler.

3) Man coverage is preferred over zone. Crumpler seems to work his best at finding soft spots in the zone, and so has Finneran. Besides Crumpler, none of their receivers are good enough to merit double coverage, so unless I have once again extremely slow or bad starting corners, I'm very willing to leave them on an island.

4) Blitz early to set defensive tone. The Eagles did a good job bltizing the Falcons because their RBs, WRs, and TEs all had trouble picking up a 7th/8th pass rusher. Vick is also a QB that will start to look at the pass rush once he is sacked for a 3rd or 4th time in a short period of time. Depending on how successful the blitz is early (and it probably will be), will determine how much I blitz later in the game.

5) The "simple" thing of stopping the run.

Our offense is so simple that it doesn't take a genius to figure out how to stop it. It just matters if a team has the personnel to do it.

Blitzing will occur. Jerry Gray loves to blitz. And he brings everybody, form CB's to LB's and is very good at disguising the blitz.

That pass against stat is misleading because why throw on a team that you can run on? The Bills lost Pat Williams last year to FA and it looks like that was a major loss and London Fletcher is banged up. Teams have taken advantage of that and run it right down the Bills throat and that is why they are #1 in pass D. [/b]

They do have a good secondary though. Nate Clements is a very good corner, and both of their safties are older but are both very smart, capable players.

I believe the Falcon's should run the ball against a buffalo defense that has proved it has diffuculty in stopping it.I know that the passing game needs more attempts but if the falcon's are moving the ball run it 60% pass 40%.I normally wouldn't say that but if something works use it.I believe the Bills do play the pass well so if that gets shut down you go to the ground attack.Cadillac Willimas had over 100 yrds no reason to think the falcon's can't move the ball .

When I say run it don't run it 80% of the time and pass 20%.There has to be some balance .I think this will be a low scoring game and a game knapp loves ball controled defensive oriented.

Yeah, Nate is on the verge of surplanting Bailey & McAllister as the top corner in the league or at the very least hop up there next to them. Having a corner that will more than likely not get burned makes having older, slower, but smarter & wiser safeties an option for your D. He will most likely be on Jenkins all day so this will be a good test for Jenk to see how far his athleticism really can carry him.

Wow....I thought Clemons was a midget, like 5'9" or 5'10" but he's 6'0" 209. WOW.

I was gonna say lets just give Jenks some lobs up there like we do for Finn, but nevermind.

The key matchup of WR vs. CB will be Roddy vs. McGee. He's still trying to prove he's more then a Rossum for them. And I dont care what he did vs. the Texans.

How good is McGee their other CB. It seems to me that if Roddy starts that who he'll see all day

Same time post, heh....I was just thinking that also.

He completely shutdown Corey Bradford but I say big whoopdy-doo. He's only 5'9" and relies on his speed, from what I've seen/heard. Which should matchup well for us considering how pgysical Rowdy is.

Hopefully after this game Mora will be telling Roddy, "YOU OWN HIM"