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I am going to have to impress the tough crowd with this one ( cough Wease). This was a tough, ugly win that you have take. It was great to see the Falcons defense continue it's hard play with success. The game wasn't all cheery, as Brian Williams tore his ACL. The offense was dismal in the first quarter, but the no-huddle startled up the offense. Overall, a strange day running the ball and some odd throws by Ryan was bad, but to see the defense step up on a rested Chicago offense had to make Falcons Fans happy.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=291018001

Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT RATING
M. Ryan 19/33 185 5.6 2 2 68.4


Ryan did miss some throws, he made a terrible overthrow to Gonzalez that led to an INT, but still decent performance. It didn't help Jenkins was dropping almost every pass thrown to him, which hurt his stats. He got everyone involved and really took what the Bears gave him. Overall, solid performance, despite the shaky numbers.

Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LG
M. Turner 13 30 2.3 1 11
J. Norwood 4 21 5.3 0 8
J. Snelling 3 9 3.0 0 6
M. Ryan 3 8 2.7 0 7
Team 23 68 3.0 1 11

This was just a forgettable night. The o-line couldn't get any push, which killed the balance. Turner couldn't get any room, so the blame is on the o-line. The Bears' week off must have helped them stop Turner, because the front four of Chicago doesn't impress me. The loss of Ovie likely led to some less holes. I liked the call to give the ball to Turner on second and goal on the game winning drive. It was a great fake by Ryan, but I just thought that Turner was ready to pound it in with nobody coming in his way. Norwood provided a spark, but surprise he got hurt again. It gets on your nerves to see a guy always getting hurt, but he has been getting hit by linebackers really hard this season, so for a nimble guy it doesn't surprise me.


Receiving
REC YDS AVG TD LG TGTS
R. White 4 56 14.0 1 40 6
T. Gonzalez 4 52 13.0 1 16 9
J. Snelling 2 22 11.0 0 13 2
M. Turner 2 16 8.0 0 10 2
M. Jenkins 2 15 7.5 0 11 6
J. Norwood 2 12 6.0 0 8 2
J. Peelle 2 8 4.0 0 5 2
B. Finneran 1 4 4.0 0 4 2
Team 19 185 9.7 2 40 31

Not many highlight worthy catches other than Roddy's touchdown, but Ryan spread it out well. You have to give Gonzalez and Finneran credit on Roddy's touchdown. They executed perfect blocks and Roddy broke two shoe string tackles to go all the way. Roddy made some clutch catches, also an alert catch before the half to get out of bounds knowing that the Falcons only had one timeout. Gonzalez was another player that just made a play when needed. His touchdown catch before the end of the half was classic Gonzalez. He ran a perfect route completely fooling Nick Roach ( I wonder if Urlacher would have been fooled) for a touchdown. On the last drive, Gonzalez pretty much showed everyone why the Falcons got him. He caught a pass on third down that looked to be knocked down by Bowman, but hung on to it for a 16 yard catch. He made another third down catch to set up Turner's touchdown. Jenkins had a rough game, the wide open drop that would have given the Falcons' first and goal was a killer. The Falcons got lucky by the Bears 12 man on the field penalty and the momentum shifted. The other drop was on a screen that could have gotten him a first down. It was cool to see Turner make some catches.

Blocking

Run Blocking: It was just another effort that was just strange. I know the Falcons didn't run it a lot, but I noticed the interior of Blalock, Dahl, and McClure not getting any push. I still think the loss of Ovie has affected the run blocking.

Pass Blocking: Another clean game for Ryan. The Bears got some pressure, but Ryan reacted to it very well. The Bears didn't even get a hit on Ryan, which is pretty outstanding. I want to point out to Tyson Clabo for doing a good job on Ogunleye. Ogunleye came into the game on a hot streak of getting to the quarterback, but was invisible for most of the game. He popped up at the end of the game being fooled by Ryan, which led to Turner's game winning touchdown.

Defense

TACKLES MISC
TOT SOLO SACK TFL PD QB HTS
C. Lofton 10 9 0 1 0 0 1 FF
E. Coleman 9 7 0 0 0 0
M. Peterson 6 6 1 2 1 1
C. Houston 6 6 0 0 0 0
T. DeCoud 5 5 0 0 2 0 2 INT
B. Grimes 4 3 0 0 0 0
J. Abraham 4 3 0 0 0 2
C. Wire 3 3 0 0 0 0 1 FR
J. Babineaux3 2 .5 1 1 2 1 FF
J. Anderson 2 2 .5 0 0 0
B. Williams 2 2 0 0 1 0
S. Nicholas 2 2 0 0 0 0
T. Johnson 2 2 0 1 0 1
W. Moore 2 1 0 0 0 0
M. Jenkins 1 1 0 0 0 0
K. Biermann 1 1 0 0 0 1
C. Owens 1 1 0 0 0 0
B. Finneran 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 FF
Team 64 57 2 5 5 7 0

Key note: I don't count sacks into TFL's in reviews. On the stat leaders blog I will do, I will count sacks into TFL's.

Run Defense: A dominant showing by the Falcons. I was surprised to see Babs have that much success against Kreutz and Garza. Both of them are solid lineman. The run defense shined on the goal line where Forte's leap got swallowed up, which led to a fumble, but recovered by the Bears. Lofton made a huge stop in mid air, which led to the fumble. On the next play, the Bears looked doomed to the stop. As I was watching, only bad tackling can lead to a touchdown. Then, Babs got the penetration and put his helmet into the ball, which led to the fumble. Coy Wire, who was on the floor recovered the fumble. It's always a good feeling when an underdog like Wire makes a huge play. Forte got stuffed most of the night. Peterson had a tackle for a loss, along with Thomas Johnson. Johnson also shined getting the better of Frank Omalye when in the game.

Coverage: The coverage was on and off. Houston got me ( well, everybody) pissed off. Houston got burnt by Johnny Knox on the first touchdown of the game badly. When I saw Cutler throw it, I was asking myself why blitz with Williams not Houston? Williams could have made a play on that, unlike I forget to look at the ball Houston. Houston also had a bad PI in the 4th quarter, which led to a first down. Brent Grimes played well, which was needed because of the damage Knox can do. Grimes made some key plays on Knox, including a key tackle on a 3rd and 7 when it was just one on one. It was good to see Grimes bounce back, after the terrible miss tackle on Josh Morgan last week. Olson and Clark had their shining moments making some remarkable catches. Brian Williams had his on and off moments, where he got beat by Olson on a 41 yard bomb to making a great deflection on a fade route to Olsen. That would be the last down Williams would play for the season, as he tore his ACL. I praise Williams for going out like that and is presence was already missed on the first play with him gone. Olsen used his body on a slant route and beat Chevis Jackson, who was Williams' replacement. Coleman left Jackson one on one with Olsen, which is just a complete disadvantage. Babs and Peterson had pass defensed as well. Of course, I can't leave out the defensive player of the week in week 6 Thomas DeCoud. Other than being juked out by Hester on a 34 yard catch, DeCoud played flawless. He had two pass defensed and had two interceptions. The second one was a gimmie ( a classic DeAngelo Hall interception ), but the first one was DeCoud reading Cutler's eyes and cutting out Hester's route. It was also nice to see DeCoud actually catch throws near him, after his butter fingers debacle in New England. Speaking of Hall, DeCoud is the first Falcon to have 2 interceptions in a game, since Hall's two picks against the Bucs back in 2006.

Pressure

Remember, a sack also includes a QB hit. So, that is why I don't include the hits into sacks. Of course the same rules apply to TFL's and it will include when I put out the Stat Leaders Blog.

They carried their game plan from the West Coast back to the East Coast. They were blitzing Cutler and hitting him hard on many occasions. They had some success, but Cutler did make some outstanding throws against the blitz. Mike Peterson had a sack along with Babs & Anderson split a sack. The split sack was impressive as the whole front four collapsed on Cutler. It was too bad that Lofton had to get that PI the next play to make things more complicated. People are getting on Abe's back for not getting sacks. Obviously, he has been underperforming, but Abraham has two QB hits on Cutler. He was getting held by Pace ( what else is new) and give credit to Abe for playing mind games with Pace ( the FS on 4th and 1). It was nice to see Chauncey Davis getting some pressure, although he was not on the stat sheet. Bierrmann, Johnson, Babs had a QB hit. Anderson also was a part of the great pressure and showed for a second straight week that there is hope for him.

Special teams

Elam wasn't tested as he only kicked 3 XP's. Koenen had a good day averaging 47.5 a punt, including a 61 yard punt. Eric Weems provided a spark that was lacking. Weems nearly scored on a punt return, but just barely stepped out of bounds so it was only a 20 yard return. Weems has a knack for breaking tackles and has some game breaking speed. He needs to continue to do this, if he wants to keep his job from Harry Douglas next year. Weems also came up big when the Falcons offense needed it. After a game tying touchdown by Chicago, Weems had a 62 yard return that set up the Falcons offense in great field position. Weems broke a few tackles and has proven ( at least to me) that he should stay at KR, instead of Norwood.


I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to your comments. I hope I gave better information and data about this game. As for the fan-boyish comment, I am sorry for that and will work on it.

Emmitt, I think you've gotten better each week.

Since I was at the game, the only thing perhaps left out was how exciting it was!!
The Bears in our red zone so often worked my nerves and voice. Man their were lots of times where our defense could have just folded.

Yes we converted some big 3rd downs, and Ryan was facing another very tough defense.
At games end me and my friend just sat their exhausted, we've seen the Falcons lose so many of these.

We seemed to be evenly matched and getting the win was huge.

That run back by Weems shifted momentum and was a game changer, at that moment it was the biggest play of the game IMO.

Good Job!!

Thanks Cyril, I have been heavily scrutinized so I am trying to step it up.

I don't think you have been heavily scrutinized at all. It is something you wanted to do. No one asked, or demanded that you do it. You forgot the final score again by the way.

If a few off hand comments equals "heavily scrutinized," then I weep for our education system. Either that or Emmitt is super sensitive.

I have yet to see any real analysis in any of these. Why was Houston bad? Out of position? Scheme? Slow? Why did the running game not impress you? What was it about the line and why do you think that? To do an analysis, you have to know the game. If you know the game, you will enjoy watching it even more. So far, I see a lot of trite platitudes and a fairly limited vocabulary. Solid? As opposed to liquid?

Without criticism, you will never know what to improve. As I said, expect it and the real test is how you deal with it. If people only praised, there would never be improvement. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, life hasn't.

Keep at it. You will know when you get there. The only way you will never get better is if you give up.

W

As a guy once told me about the math dept. at the local college, "The infighting is so bitter because there's so little at stake."

I have to get used to putting the new score up. Wease, I must thank you because I will look to improve. I will continue to try to explain myself better when I make theories. I am doing the reviews to keep the tradition going. Capo is a good guy that is going through problems, since Atlanta had that storm so I want to keep it going. FalcFans is an awesome website, since I live in NYC, I can't really talk to many people about the inside stuff about the Falcons. All I can talk about is Ryan is amazing, Turner can't do anything, Roddy is a God, and Gonzalez is a blessing. So, I really value FalcFans a lot. That was my loving speech of the day, so let's go VIKINGS TODAY!!!

Emmitt,
I would not dismiss any critique. I would not do this to keep a tradition going either, do
it to make yourself better. At the end of the day you are still needing to judge how you are doing
verses to how you started out.... Yea its a bitch, the same problem Michael Jenkins faces every week. So
keep improving and taking as much time as it takes you to get it right.

I still see your consistent improvement, and don't need any N.Y. excuses (: