On NFL Live, an ESPN program, analyst Cris Carter thinks that the Atlanta Falcons would be the best fit for free-agent corner Nnamdi Asomugha. This is a big statement, because if it were to happen it would create all sorts of problems on the depth chart. 

Continue reading this post »

When the Atlanta Falcons traded up 21 spots to nab Alabama receiver Julio Jones they knew they’d have to give up a lot of picks in this year’s and next year’s drafts. Yet so many media outlets have pegged this as a do or die pick, that if it doesn't work out the Falcons are essentially up the creek without a paddle.

This judgement though is based purely on the notion that the Falcons never had depth before this draft. That is a complete fallacy. Three years prior to this Atlanta has built substantially through the draft, some players have seen the field little if at all.  

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

I’m not sure quite what to say. Did I expect this to happen? I’d have to say yes. The Falcons defense is notoriously horrendous in pass defense and it kiled the team for the three-thousand and fifty seventh time for the season. Aaron Rodgers had all the time in the world and was able to find Jordan Nelson for the touchdown reception to tie the game up at 17 a piece.

With 49 seconds left on the clock the Falcons get the ball on the fifty yard line and have a chance to win the game, but is it the first time the team can’t win a game in the last 2 minutes?

Matt Ryan has been very good in the last two minutes throughout his career as his nickname Matty Ice is an extension of that. It would seem the Falcons need about a 45 yard field goal to give them a chance to win the game.

Jason Snelling went down on Sunday and it appears his questionable is return. He was much needed on that last offensive drive for the Falcons as they couldn’t complete a crucial 3rd down.

The defense now has this game to lose (or win depending on your perspective). Rodgers has been brilliant all day long and is a fantasy stud. It’ll be a frustrating ride to the end of the game with 7 minutes 30 left on the clock, plenty of time for the Packers to get that game tying touchdown.

John Abraham and the front-four have to step up and get pressure on the Packers All-Pro QB and the secondary has to shutdown the receivers.

So far it appears that the likes of Brent Grimes, Thomas Decoud and William Moore have been able to limit some of the deeper throws, but they have to rap up the ball-carrier and limit their yards after the catch. 

Aaron Rodgers maneuvarability has killed the Falcons at time and he's been the Packers leading rusher. 

What a drive, a needed one at that. The Falcons after giving up a touchdown marched down the field and gave one back to the Pakcers as Turner punched it in for the 1-yard score.

A controversial ruling on the field had Tony Gonzalez not catching the touchdown (inconclusive evidence was the rule). It didn’t matter as the Falcons went for it on 4th and Goal.

Matt Ryan was efficient on the drive making the necessary throws to pick up the first downs. As well the receivers did a good job of getting separation to help him. They need to keep it up if we are to win the game. 

Another methodical drive had the Falcons chew up a bunch of clock. As we head into the fourth quarter it’ll be another nail-bitting finish as we all know that Green Bay is a high powered offense. The defense cannot afford to go into their prevent defense it was something they did against the Ravens and it cost them dearly let’s see if it happens again.

Big chunks of yards is the utter definition of what the Atlanta Falcons defense gives up. On the last Packers drive Aaron Rodgers picked and chose who and what he wanted as he ran in for what was an obvious draw play.

It’s probably safe to say that Green Bay “deserved” a touchdown as they have looked just as good on offense as Atlanta, but that’s not how the NFL works. If everything was “fair and equal” we’d see a lot more clarity.

But enough of that. Atlanta needs to make sure they contain Aaron Rodgers. The Packers offense is Rodgers, the buck stops with him. Contain him and you can contain the entirety of that football team, it’s not always as simple as that but it seems sometimes the defense forgets about him.

Atlanta now has the ball and is looking to equalize, though they looked like a frozen caveman at 40 yard line last time.

Aaron Rodgers had his first fumble of the year, thank goodness for Atlanta’s sake it was today. After the Falcons defense gave up completion after completion they tightened their grip in the Red-zone holding Rodgers and forcing the turnover.

With that Matt Ryan took control and marched the team down in a time consuming drive (6 minutes to be exact). It left 12 seconds on the clock and Tony Gonzalez caught the touchdown to put Atlanta up 10-3.

We have to thank our lucky stars twice.

First, the fact that Rodgers fumbled the ball astounds me. He’s usually one to take care of the ball.

Second, the fact that the Packers didn’t review that Gonzalez 4th down reception that by all accounts was incomplete.

But that’s what you get in this league, it’s up to your team to capitalize and make your own fortunes. The touchdown pass was no luck, that was execution, so for all you fair-weather fans remember that as you try to dismiss the lone touchdown for either team today.

A personal foul penalty on Harvey Dahl forced Atlanta out of field goal range on third down but Matt Ryan was able to find Michael Jenkins to set up a field goal to get some points.

Atlanta started things with a nice drive to set the tone as Ryan hooked up with Roddy White for a couple of first downs. Also Michael Turner was running efficiently towards the left side which is surprising to say the least (Sam Baker isn’t a notorious run blocker).

Keep your eyes on Clay Matthews though so far it appears the Falcons front line has done a decent job of keeping Matt Ryan upright as he himself has manipulated the pocket to pick up key first downs.

Atlanta’s defense however is key to today’s matchup. If they can’t stop Aaron Rodgers and his high powered offense we can say so long to a win. So keep an eye on that too.

Amazing. 

Just one word needed really, but good god I have to go to my doctor because that was insane. With the Falcons down by 1 needing a field goal Matt Ryan pulled out all the throws to lead his team to victory. If you didn't think Matty was known as "Ice" then you should now. 

On a day that had the Falcons dominating most facets of the game the Ravens would just never go away. But this was the Falcons best win since...well, ever. 

You have to give it to the Ravens they played one hell of a game, but this is Matt Ryan's house, he's a winner in there.

No one cares that Roddy White dropped a view passes here or there, he won the game. Some will debate whether it was offensive pass interference, but you could also make the argument that Josh Wilson just fell down on the play because he wasn't strong enough to contain White.

Enjoy this game Falcons fans, you are 7-2 and that is all that matters. 

Some highlights from the game:

• John Abraham was beastly tonight getting 2 sacks and constantly pressuring Flacco.
• Matt Ryan played a fantastic, gun-slinging game going 32/50 for 316 yards and 3 Touchdowns
• Roddy White has to be considered an MVP now, 12 Receptions for 138 yards and 2 Touchdowns
• Brent Grimes was amazing in coverage. Okay sure he gave up some touchdowns, but he was targeted pretty much every time Flacco threw the ball.

The Atlanta Falcons several times this season have kept teams in the game. On those occasions they’ve been able to close out to secure the win, this time they did not. Against one of the best teams in the league Atlanta kept Baltimore in the game and it has bitten them on the ass.

A 13 point lead, gone. All the stats, meaningless. The Falcons wanted the Ravens to stay in this game and they did just that.

Roddy White had a chance to catch the ball on 3rd down, he did not. It seems to me that Atlanta doesn’t possess the mental state of mind to put the sword to the throat early.

Sure the Falcons have looked decent for the most part but if you can’t put teams away early then your chances of winning the game are nil.

There’s still some time left in the game for a field goal. But it seems like there just isn’t enough time for Atlanta to escape this one.

The Baltimore Ravens are still in it. All of the statistics may be in the Falcons favor, however the Ravens are staying in it. Joe Flacco manufactured a quick scoring drive to keep them in the game putting the game back into the great Baltimore defense led by Ray Lewis.

While Flacco hasn’t had the “best” game by any definition he’s still fighting and displaying his great leadership skills by going about his business.

The Falcons defense however didn’t do the offense any favors by letting Baltimore come back. Roddy White also didn’t help proceedings by dropping a pass on 3rd down again giving Joe a chance to win the game. It comes down to this, let’s see if the Falcons can hold on, I have my suspiciousness they will not.

Joe Flacco: 15/25 for 121 yards and 2 Touchdowns
Ray Rice: 11 Carries for 57 Yards
Anquan Boldin: 4 Receptions for 41 Yards and 1 Touchdown
Todd Heap: 2 Receptions for 30 Yards

On a third and one the Ravens stacked the line expecting run, they weren’t expecting Roddy White to turn up. As silly as that sounds White has been dominant tearing the Ravens up. On a 77 yard drive the Falcons needed the touchdown to protect their lead.

Matt Ryan has been efficient and effective making clutch 3rd down throws and the last play was an extension of that.

The Ravens are driving now looking to reply to the Falcons touchdown. Atlanta’s defense has done a nice job for the most part. However that means little if they can’t hold the Ravens to secure this game.

Here are some of the offensive statistics:

Matt Ryan: 28/40 for 228 yards and 2 Touchdowns
Roddy White: 9 Receptions for 74 Yards and 1 Touchdown
Michael Turner: 16 Carries for 36 Yards
Jason Snelling: 6 Receptions for 56 Yards and 1 Touchdown Reception
Tony Gonzalez: 4 Receptions for 38 Yards
Michael Jenkins: 4 Receptions for 24 Yards

The Baltimore Ravens are coming back. With a 13 point lead for the Falcons now down to 6 it appears once again that Atlanta loves to keep teams in the game. Give credit to the Ravens though as Anquan Boldin reached up and seized a Joe Flacco pass over Brent Grimes. It was unfortunate that Brent mistimed the throw, but for the most part he’s been stellar.

Baltimore came out and started to run the ball, which is what they do best. It appeared that Flacco was much more settled and making more decisive throws. The Falcons need to get better pressure on the ball like they did on the drive before.

For your fantasy update here are some of the Ravens statistics:

Joe Flacco: 8/13 for 45 yards 1 Touchdown and 1 Interception
Ray Rice: 8 Carries for 47 yards
Anquan Boldin: 1 Reception for 5 yards and a touchdown
Donte Stallworth: 2 Carries for 34 yards

The Atlanta Falcons are looking great on defense as Brent Grimes grabbed his 3rd interception of the season. With that Atlanta came out on offense looking to capitalize and they put some points up on the board to make it 13-0.

However a problem the Falcons have had in the past is they have kept teams in the game. Last week Atlanta was up 14-0 over Tampa Bay, but Freeman led his team right back into it. With a 13 point lead at current it’s not time to get complacent against a great team in the Ravens.

John Abraham also recorded his 7th sack of the season once again showing that the young 30 still has “it.”

Baltimore will look to get their run game going to settle Joe Flacco’s nerves. Atlanta has done a great job of covering in the secondary, so look for Ray Rice to get it going.

With the Falcons driving and Matt Ryan slinging the ball it seemed inevitable that things would end in a touchdown. A 14 play 91 yard drive later and the Falcons have the lead 7-0.

On the touchdown play the Ravens sent a blitz and lost Jason Snelling in the flat. He would catch it run in the open field, bulldozer over a defender and dive for the endzone.

On the drive Ryan was extremely efficient on throwing one incompletion. The Falcons ran the no-huddle to perfection as the Ravens could not make the proper substitutions and adjustments to counteract the fast pace of the offense.

Here are some stats for the Falcons offense:

M. Ryan: 12/17 for 125 yards and 1 Touchdown
M. Turner: 5 Rushes for 11 yards
J. Snelling: 2 Catches for 33 Yards and 1 Touchdown
R. White: 5 Receptions for 41 Yards
T. Gonzalez: 3 Receptions for 25 Yards. 

On Thursday Night Football linebacker Ray Lewis was injured when Michael Turner blocked him on a blitz pickup. It appears that Lewis might be okay to come back in but things aren’t known at this point in time.

Lewis is key to the Ravens defense he is both the a vocal and performing leader. The Falcons drive stalled on a 3rd and 5 giving the Ravens the ball back on their 10 yard line.

A number of times Lewis and Terrell Suggs put pressure on Matt Ryan to force him into some tough throws. The Ravens are a top 10 defense and it would appear that if Lewis were to be out the game may swing in the Falcons favor. Still though it will be a tough game with or without Ray in the lineup.

The score remains tied at 0-0 and hopefully there are no more injuries for both teams so this can remain a competitive game.

Continue reading this post »

And just like that the Buccaneers are back in it in a matter of seconds. The Atlanta Falcons special teams, have for the most part been abysmal in kickoff coverage. Once again they show their inability to tackle giving Tampa Bay life.

Just after the Falcons had driven down the field and kicked the field goal Tampa Bay gets back at them with the touchdown.

If the Falcons want to win this one, their going to have to stop giving up the big play, period. Tampa Bay has done a great job of keeping their team in it. They tried to work their trickery on the Falcons with the onside kick, but it failed with an illegal touch. It’s no doubt now the Buccaneers are for real, remember Josh Freeman has four come from behind wins in his career. Atlanta has to control the ball and has to make sure that they put up big time points, because Tampa can and will too.

With Jonathan Babineaux intercepting a Josh Freeman pass the Atlanta Falcons looked to capitalize, they did just that as Michael Palmer caught his very first touchdown in the NFL.

With Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White clearing out, Palmer ran underneath and squeezed it in for the touchdown. It was designed to make the Bucs defenders bite up on the talented receivers and forget about the little known Palmer.

The Falcons have had little problems scoring in the red-zone scoring a touchdown 3 out of the 4 times they were down there. It seemed though that the drive may stall with Roddy White appearing short to the naked eye, the referees ruled it to be a first down and the Bucs challenged and failed. From there the Falcons punched it in.

Falcons send blitz, Bucs score touchdown, simple no? A Mike Williams 58 yard touchdown has made today’s game all to close. Tampa Bay strike and strike quickly as they now have the lead set in their sites.

First place is on the line here and the Falcons defense has not stepped up. Remember the offseason talk about not letting up big plays? Well today they have. Remember the new and improved pass defense? Yea, me neither.

You have to give credit to the Bucs, they have played a very good game thus far, and have a great young quarterback who throws like the best of them. But this Falcons team has a lot of issues that many choose to neglect.

Josh Freeman has thrown 8 of 11 for 126 yards and Mike Williams has 3 receptions for 78 yards.

Heading into halftime let’s see if the Falcons can keep the lead as they drive down the field.

Both Roddy White and John Abraham are injured, oh crap.

First let’s deal with Abraham, it appears that he went down with a bit of a stinger as a team-mate ran into him as he was down. J.A. has been very productive this year already exceeding last year’s sack total. Today the Falcons have been less than stellar in pass-defense but they can’t blame it on the pass-rush.

Now, the bad news, Roddy White is going to the locker room to check on his knee as he was playing through some “pain.” Roddy said he was fine but the trainers want to check up on him. He walked off under his own power so don’t be overly concerned, but it isn’t anything to be particularly happy about, keep your eyes peeled.

As I write this Todd McClure also went down, crap, oh crap. Joe Hawley the Rookie out of UNLV came in for McClure and with that move the Falcons failed on fourth down.

The Atlanta Falcons are off to a hot start as “The Burner” has scored his second touchdown for the team going up 14-0 against the best the NFC has to offer.

Turner received a terrific block from Ovie Mughelli on the back side to open up the lane for the run. If it weren’t for the field being 100 yards I’m sure the Falcons would have loved to of run for more yards.

But with that great offensive display comes the negative, the Falcons defense. Something seems amiss with them, they just don’t seem to be able to contain Josh Freeman and his passing ability. For all the talk about an improved Falcons secondary it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Arrelious Benn caught a nicely thrown Josh Freeman throw to keep Tampa Bay in the game. The secondary is not flying, they are letting Morris and his team throw all over them.

Bad news Falcons fans, Roddy White went down with an injury Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a big first down catch. It appears the Roddy went down with some kind of leg injury to his knee, that’s bad news.

Roddy, who has been a beast in recent weeks has been an integral reason as to why they are 5-2. Being double-teamed, no problem. Being bumped at the line, no problem. Roddy White gets it done.

For the moment the Falcons are driving nicely down the field all the way from the 1 yard line. Matt Ryan almost got picked off, but still it seems to be Tampa Bay’s only chance of stopping the Falcons. A mix of run and pass has been the key to the short success for Atlanta, let’s see if they can continue it.

As I speak it looks like Roddy is back in and has movement in his leg. Good News.

Faced with a 4 and 2 situation Mike Smith knew exactly what to do, he was going for it. With that conversion the Falcons were on their way to open up proceedings with a touchdown to Michael Turner who ran off the right side on second-and goal.

On the drive Matt Ryan went four-for-five hitting a clutch pass to Tony Gonzalez for 15 Yards. Jason Snelling received a few completions, one off a screen play.

Playing against the best team in the NFC the Falcons have to play their best game, here are the offensive stats thus far.

Matt Ryan:
4-5 33 Yards

Michael Turner:
8 Rushes for 28 Yards and 1 Touchdown

Jason Snelling:
2 Receptions for 11 yards

Roddy White:
1 Reception for 7 yards

Tony Gonzalez:
1 Reception for 15 yards

Looking around the dome I am amazed that there are so many empty seats. Talk about your fair-weathered fans. The Bengals drove down the field taking some time off the clock, however it resulted in a touchdown keeping their chances alive.

Palmer has lit up the Falcons secondary throwing for 402 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dunta Robinson needs to get healthy…Dear God.

The Falcons word this year has to be resilience. After letting 22 consecutive points run up on the board in the 3rd quarter the Dirty Birds responded in the 4th to put the lead back out by 14 with 4 minutes left.

To say it’s been an easy game would be an utter lie. Atlanta has had to work hard for this game. Cincinnati is a good football team so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them get right back in it with a limited amount of time left on the clock.

Roddy White is just near his career high in yards at 201 for 11 receptions. Keep an eye on him as we near the end of the game.

Matt Ryan was injured on a play on Sunday as he was hit on his blind side. He came straight back into the game.

Hang around SBN Nation Atlanta for further updates on the injury.