I was settling in for about 10 hours of NFL football yesterday. Family and I went to church, ate lunch, and I sat back in my chair ready to watch some Falcons football. No matter their record, the Falcons and Saints always play a good game
I was clearly shocked at the play of both offense and defense. Before a near sellout crowd at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA, the offense was flying all over the field. Running back Cordarrelle Patterson was running up those rushing yards, 120 to be exact, and added 16 more receiving yards. Quarterback Marcus Mariota was flying all around the field looking like Michael Vick, wait a minute, not really. But he is a mobile quarterback where if the first, second, or third read is not there, he can take off and try to gain the first down without just throwing it out of bounds. Mariota ended the game with 215 passing yards with no passing touchdowns but did have a rushing score. London had five receptions for 74 yards. London looks like the real deal, he just needs to capitalize better and keep growing and learning his routes.
The one big problem I saw last year that has carried over to this year is TE Kyle Pitts is not catching touchdowns. He doesn’t have a touchdown on American soil. The only NFL touchdown in his career came on England soil last year when the Falcons beat the New York Jets. I was wishing that things would change a little going from Matt Ryan last year to Mariota this year, but looks like it hasn’t. It’s not the play of the quarterback. Defenses understand that Pitts is the only real receiving threat for the Falcons so they are going to double cover him and not let him get open.
Watching the defense was watching a totally different team. This team was flying around the ball putting pressure of Saints QB Jamies Winston, sacking him four times. The Falcons had a total of 18 sacks last year, worst in the NFL. Falcons Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees said during the offseason he was opening up the playbook for this year and not holding anything back. Well, he did that for three quarters as the Falcons had the lead 23-10 going into the fourth. This is when it turned bad for the Falcons.
Falcons stopped putting pressure on Winston and started playing prevent, and threw all over the field and scored 14 unanswered points. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Mariota was driving his team down the field as the Falcons got the ball back on a turnover. It was third and five inside the redzone and Mariota had picked up the first down, but fumbled the ball away back to the Saints. That was the turning point in the game as the game winning field goal was made by Saints punter Wil Lutz with :20 left on the clock, just not enough for the Falcons to mount a comeback. Final score 27-26, Falcons lose and start season on a bad note.
The Good
-Mariota was spreading the ball around to his running backs, tight ends, and receivers. For the game, Mariota connected with 8 different players for passes.
-Falcons rushed for 201 total yards. Team only averaged 85 yards a game last year.
-Patterson rushed for 120 yards, which marked the third time in his career that he had more than 100 rushing yards in a game.
-Receiver London showed no ill signs of a knee injury that plagued him during the preseason. He combined for 74 receiving yards on five catches.
-Falcons defense was playing well causing havoc on QB Winston, sacking him four times
The Bad
-The Falcons defense forgot a game was four quarters, not three.
-Falcons receivers still can’t find the endzone
-Pitts needs to be used more in the redzone, resulting in more touchdowns
Next Game: Atlanta Falcons (0-1) travel out west to play the 2021 Super Bowl Champions Los Angeles Rams (0-1). Gametime set for Sunday, September 18, 4:05pm EST on Fox.
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