Thoughts on the opening day win:
1. Holy hell, what did the Falcons do to that offensive line? The line was awful last year, but it week one, it was blowing holes in the Detroit defense left and right. Sam Baker is clearly an upgrade over the pu-pu platter of left tackles who played last year. Justin Blalock looked better in his sophomore season. Harvey Dahl is en route to becoming our dirty bastard, a guy who Falcons fans will love, but we'd hate him if he played for Tampa.
1a. Yeah, but it's the Lions.
2. Michael Turner is the truth! The Pro Football Prospectus was not high on his prospects because second-fiddle backs tend not to do especially well when they are signed to become starters. They did state a carve-out that the Falcons might have made this decision on scouting grounds as opposed to statistical grounds. After watching Turner's impossibly big thighs churn through the Lions, I can see what Thomas Dimitroff saw. The guy is a running muscle. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to tackle him with a head of steam.
2a. Yeah, but it's the Lions.
3. Not bad, Matt Ryan. Not bad at all. Ryan threw a couple dreadful passes in the second quarter that should have been intercepted, but for a rookie's first start under center, that was a good performance. The long touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins on Ryan's first NFL pass opened up Detroit's defense for the running game.
3a. Yeah, but it's the Lions.
4. The Falcons' corners are better than I had thought. They didn't get abused by Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams. Johnson's one long catch came on a crossing route on which our old friend Keith Brooking whiffed on a tackle and turned a medium gain into a long gain.
4a. Yeah, but it's Keith Brooking.
5. If it typically takes a receiver 3-4 years to become productive in the NFL, then this Roddy White-Michael Jenkins combo might be about ready to blossom.
4 comments:
I'll say this much for the secondary. They didn't play intimidated and they tackled well.
Michael, did you notice how they're moving Jamal Anderson into a DT role because he just hasn't grasped the position yet? It can't be a good thing and it's another X on the Rich McKay report card.
The prospectus bit about backup RBs moving on to starting roles was pretty good, but they also noted that it wasn't all doom & gloom for turner (there wasn't really a ton of available evidence to use). I'm hoping it was a scouting thing as well. We shall see.
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