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Hall is the second fastest player on the field besides Vick but I do wonder how he is going to measure up against lining up against T.O. who is... I hate to say it but one of the best in the league... GO FALCONS!!!

Well I'm going to concede 1 TD to T.O. A shutout is just so unlikely. But if Hall can hold T.O. to only 1, and assuming the rest of the defense steps up, we have a good shot at this one.

The question will be is if Mora will try to use Hall to shadow T.O. or will he use several corners (Webster, Mathis, etc.) on him as well. If it were me, I'm going to use Hall to shadow T.O. Webster has a decent chance against Owens, but I'd be very hesitant to leave him on an island with him.

Actually, Vick admits that D. Hall is faster than he is. Not trying to be a stickler about it, just making sure everyone gets accurate info.

We can also drop DeMo into coverage to assist DeLo against Owens. T.O. has never been blistering fast, quick yes, fast no. T.O. got were he is today because he's big and physical. Someone like DeMo should be able to play T.O. stride for stride and his size is enough to frustrate T.O.

I disagree. T.O. is so dangerous because he's faster than people think. Can he beat Hall in a foot race? No, but he does have deep speed, coupled with the fact that it's hard to jam him and he runs good routes, makes him tough to stop for the big play.

The Steelers were one of the few teams that were effective in stopping T.O. last year, and basically they used a lot of zone against him and seemingly always shadowed an extra DB to his side.

DeMo, is not polished enough in coverage to do the job. He has the speed, but his hips aren't that great, so he always seems a bit late breaking on the ball.

I think it's going to have to be a combo of Carpenter and B Scott that are going to have to help Hall with T.O.

Trust me the Falcons are going to be keying on not giving up the big play vs. Philly, so I'm expecting we'll see a lot of zone. That puts pressure on the DBs and LBs to make tackles, something we had difficulty doing in the NFC Championship game. Westbrook is one of the hardest players to tackle in the open field in the league, so our guys are going to have be better than they would any particular week. I suspect using both DeMO and Reese to match up with Westbrook is going to the team's strategy since neither Brooking or Hartwell can keep pace.

McNabb is also a very elusive QB and is even harder to sack than Vick is (one on one). OUr front 4 is going to have to put pressure on him. We need to win the battle there, because if McNabb has time to throw, he's going to pick apart our zone.

Another gameplan we need to establish is our running game. If we can't get the running game going, then we aren't going to win. Our passing offense just isn't ready to beat any team let alone the Eagles who arguably have the best secondary in the league. We'll need Lehr, McClure and Forney to get upfield and make blocks on Trotter. He's the key to their run defense, since their DTs don't impress me too much (they can be run on). Blocking Kearse & Co. is going to be another big key to success.

The Falcons have a lot of work ahead of him to get the W. It will be a testament to the players and coaches if they are ready for this test this early in the year.

I think we can win, and we have a better chance than we did last year. I think we match up pretty well with the Eagles, a lot better than most non-Falcon fans give us credit for.

Just a side note...before training camp Owens was in Atlanta working out with Jimmy Farris. Now we all know that Farris was a really fast WR. Well TO beat him in a footrace. The NFL network (where I saw all of this stuff at) reported that TO ran a 4.3 40!!! With that said I think our only hope is to line D-Lo up over him and have B. Scott in a deep zone to pick him up when he loses Deangelo. I think TO will get his td and his 100 yards, the key to the ga,e is to establish the run and to put pressure on McNabb so that 1 td is all TO gets.
If our offense stays on the field then TO/Westbrook/McNabb can't hurt us.

The Philly game could very well yield our blandest group of offensive plays all season. If we get the lead at any point the offense will shift to "grind down the clock" and attempt to stay on field as long as possible. Our best defense in this case is our offense. If the Philly trio can't get the ball then they can't do anything.

The million dollar question is can we keep stupid mistakes to a minimum. We lost some games based on plain ol stupid mistakes. We do excel at giving the opposing team many opportunities to play catch up; more so in the second half of the game.

We definitely have the talent to beat the Eagles, but we're going to have to get Ducket going and give him a number of carries to neutralize the speed of their D. I love Dunn, but he is the kind of back that the Eagles D is built to stop. We're goin to have to outplay them physically by throwing the ball up to Jenkins sometimes and giving it Duckett more than usual. The Eagles are like the Rams used to be and so you have to go out there & keep punching them in the mouth so they fold, just like the Steelers did last year during the regular season.

One thing Dunn has over Duckett is the ability to make game breaking plays. Duckett might be able to run head long into 5 defenders and gain 5 yards. But he can't find a sliver of daylight and turn it into a 60 yard TD scamper. Dunn is also far more tougher then people still give him credit for.

Duckett needs a high YPC to be effective. He won't break long runs and go to the house often so he has to dominate the line of scrimmage. Until he does this on a regular basis he won't get the start.

TO does worry me.

If DeLo cant do good vs. TO then the eagles will keep feeding him. We will have no safety help because Scott and Heard are unimpressive in coverage IMO.

We also have to worry about Westbrook going into the slot. We should be able to x this out with the addition of Hartwell in the middle. He will show the eagles how much better and bigger he is then Chris Draft.

But the thing that is going to kill me the most, and I know Angry is with me on this, is that Philly does use 3 & 4 WR sets, meaning Rossum will be on the field in coverage. He will most likely be lining up to cover either Westbrook if he is one of those 4 recievers, Greg Lewis (who can match Rossums speed) or McCants who is like 6'4".

Again I said I love Dunn, but it has been proven over the past few years that power backs tend to have success against speed D's. The likelihood of Dunn bustin a 80 yarder on this D is slim to none, but Duckett has a great chaznce of driving us down the field. TO will be a big factor and will be looking to make an impact on Monday Night Football just like he did in the Super Bowl. Probably the best option is to have DeLo smother the #2 WR and double TO with Webster & a safety if we play man. Obviously this D is mostly a zone D to begin with so it's unlikely to work out that way, but if DeLo can manage a pcik while covering TO it would be HUGE so it might be worth the risk of putting him on an island. We have to stop Westbrook on the run though.

The real reason Dunn starts over Duckett: Duckett is useless on passing plays.

He cant catch a ball to save his life, and sadly little 5'8" 185 lb. Warrick Dunn is a waaaaaaaaay better pass blocker then Duckett is.

Which is another reason I hope we dont keep Duckett for too long. We will need to have another productive HB that can catch and pass protect. As long as we have Duckett we will have the need for another RB that can perform. Not just a "situational back". We just need to face it guys....Duckett IS our situiational back. Duckett IS our change of pace back, and IMO it should stay that way.

I'm thinking that McKay may just let Duckett's contract expire along with Dunn and look to draft a future starting runningback when this occurs.

I don't see either back being resigned at the end of their contracts. Dunn being the excpetion if he signs on the cheap.

Oh, I do agree with you vickis, I do! The secondary worries me in coverage this year, sans Hall, much like back when we had the best coverage man in the game, Deon Sanders. Teams still passed at will on us because of the weak play from the rest of the secondary.

We got nothin but smurfs, and really whose friggin idea was it that Rossum could play coverage. Every single time I see him on the field playing D my heart sinks a little

Mora has an infinitity for short DB's... See one Webster brought over from his old Niners squad.