Rumblings from the mind of a realistic fan.

[Ivan The Awesome]

The record is 1-3. It's awful I know. Even if you look at certain things we'd be 2-2, two ass whoopings and one close game and a dominant performance. 

 

But it's not like that. The reality of this team is that it's undisciplined. Every phase of the game is just no disciplined at all. The only person that's come out there and played like they want to win is the Punter...who wasn't here last year. This isn't even about Josh Norman. I'm looking at the players that left that had leadership and demanded respect at their positions while they were here. I'm looking at Charles Tillman, Jared Allen, Roman Harper. Last year, we didn't have a pass Rush until Allen was on the other side of Johnson, his prescence alone helped generate most of the attention, leaving the two hog mollies in the middle and whoever was across from Allen to feast.  Years past we always had a pass rush with 4 people....this year...Kony Ealy is a non factor and hasn't caught fire and CJ is old. The two behemoths in the middle can only do so much. 

 

We are seeing first hand what  happens when you don't generate a pass rush. Opposing teams offenses have more time to throw the ball, they have more time to get open, more time for big plays. Our CB's are good, it's our rush that's letting us down. It doesn't matter if we had Josh Norman in the back with us still, he would have been burnt toast yesterday. The Falcons, unlike the Panthers, ADAPT. Evolve. Change. They aren't stuck in the old ways that have worked in the past. Look at the game again if you can, but you see Julio Jones move around, this is why it wouldn't matter if we had Norman, Kyle Shanahan was moving his pieces around. He game planned. (gasp)

 

Once you have so many successful passes, that opens up the run as well. Then when the run is going well for you, that opens up a chance for a big play..which the falcons had a plethora of.   This team is missing a pass rush more than anything. Yes I understand the O-line is looking bad, but those are mental mistakes for the most part. The oline will be fine because they can figure it out. We had the same o-line last year and we went to the super bowl, the problem is that the Broncos have given the rest of the NFL the recipe to destroy that line. The tackles we have aren't good against speed rushers. Look at Freeny, he's not a Peppers type of Rusher. Look at Von Miller, again, not the type of guy these tackles are good against. I'm not even mentioning Griffen and Beasly, Ware, Marshall, Robinson and Barr. We need Tackles that are a bit more agile. Another thing that would and will help this team on Offense is if they step away from the Read Option for a while, Jonathan Stewart and Cam have that down to a science, the other guys don't. They aren't used to Cam ways at all. Step away from that part of the play book until Stewart returns. Shula did manage to change the plays a bit but it was only because Cam was out of the game. I don't understand why Shula can't just go ahead and give this part of the play book a try with Cam. Anderson looked like a MVP QB before those two interceptions and the Julio Jones dagger. We could have STILL won that game. That's insane, given all the inefficient play yesterday.  The defense makes that stop instead of letting Jones score, we're tied...It's that simple. But unfortunately, we're undisciplined. 

 

I don't know if all of you have noticed this but Shula changes the play calling when Anderson plays. Or it could have been the fact we were down by 2 scores and had under 4 minutes to catch up, I don't know. But I have noticed this trend when Cam isn't on the field. I don't know if it's the timing the play calling, the players themselves that change things up when there's a different Quarterback, I don't know, it could be Anderson himself that just see's the field differently and has his go to guys. The ball was spread around a lot more, the offense was more fluid. 

 

A lot of what is going wrong can be fixed. False starts, Taunting Penalties, blown coverages, not set players. All that, can be fixed by the next game. Which if you think about it, that's been our problem the whole year. Undisciplined football. Rivera needs to get up their asses for this. It's time to realize we're in a hole and it's time to get out there and play the football we've been playing the past three years. 

 

The things that can't be fixed right way are the pass rush, and the play calling. Even if we trade for someone like Jared Allen to generate pressure, i don't think lighting can strike twice and that person be a perfect fit like Allen was last year for this defensive unit. That person would have to catch up the verbiage and playbook in a hurry, which would take several games. 

 

Once a rush is established and this defense stops offenses, we have a chance to win close games or even blow out opponents. 

 

 

Bottom line, our deficiencies aren't the only problem, opposing teams have figured out how to get to Cam, mainly by upgrading their pass rush. Other teams have gotten better too. It's time to step up and elevate our play, we can't be complacent about last year. We're resting too much on our laurels from last years success. 

 

I'm not panicking yet, if we lose the next two games in blow outs, then I will panic, right now. I'm concerned about the mental state of the team. Losing always has a way to make you second guess yourself. It's time to bring back the dab....at least what it meant when we dabbed. It meant everyone was on point and had the same goal and same purpose. Winning. This team has been here before, they can over come. It's a matter of actually doing it. 

(If Cam is out next game, I'm not worried about that either. Anderson is a competent QB and he's beaten the bucks before. I'm more concerned about that defense. The pass rush. )

..if not, Gettleman will have to spend a lot of picks on Tackles and Ends next year. 

[juliosantos]

 i agree but disagree on our corners being good . our corners are terrible for some reason we cant stop the quick passes , idk if its mccdermotts scheme but in order to play soft coverage we need agressive corners that are good underneath and we need an above average pass rush to do so. look at 2013 we had a solid pass rush and we took away the underneath passes because munnerlyn and melvin white were agressive  underneath , 2015 same thing with norman he was able to shut them underneath but these corners cant . so what we can do is change up the soft scheme or get better cbs.

[truthjuice]

I agree with what you said. Another poster mentioned yesterday the coddling of younger players and not allowing the vets to be "in their face" and I think that plays a part in it too. Vet leadership is so important because it's not just in the lockerroom, it's on the field. 

I also agree with you about not panicking yet. Maybe yesterday was the wake up call we needed. We got beat by a less than stellar defense, we lost our franchise QB for at least a week or two and we were embarrassed. Shula did change the plan once Cam left because he did what people have been screaming for him to do: play to his strengths. I look for them to play like they have something to prove coming up. 

[*FreeFua*]

16 minutes ago, Ivan The Awesome said:

Yes I understand the O-line is looking bad, but those are mental mistakes for the most part. The oline will be fine because they can figure it out. We had the same o-line last year and we went to the super bowl, the problem is that the Broncos have given the rest of the NFL the recipe to destroy that line.

LOL

Ok then...

[Ivan The Awesome]

7 minutes ago, *FreeFua* said:

LOL

Ok then...

I love how your rebuttal is 'lol'. Not backing anything up at all. Wonderful. 

[*FreeFua*]

1 minute ago, Ivan The Awesome said:

I love how your rebuttal is 'lol'. Not backing anything up at all. Wonderful. 

"The oline will be fine because they can figure it out"

 

How does that even make sense? But if it makes you feel better Gettleman thinks the same thing and he's considered a genius around here!

[ickmule]

5 weeks from now we will know for sure what this team is all about. Honestly after yesterdays performance one would believe that any good QB will shred this defense to pieces. I predict 3-6 after the next 5 games as i think there are some deep rooted issues or lack of enough leaders in that locker room. Let's face it, we lost some high character veterans this off season. 

[Ivan The Awesome]

7 minutes ago, *FreeFua* said:

"The oline will be fine because they can figure it out"

 

How does that even make sense? But if it makes you feel better Gettleman thinks the same thing and he's considered a genius around here!

 

I'm starting to think you only honed in on one of the things I've said instead of the whole. This Offensive line has taken us to the super bowl. Even with injuries. It was the same line for the most part. Again, speedy pass rushers and the combination of long developing plays are the current problem. If you can't depict that from what I've written, you're on your own bud. I'm not explaining it any further for your mind to understand it.