The Falcons will have one less inactive player today than most teams. Why? Because there is STILL no announcement of someone to take Taylor Heinecke's place on the roster. They signed Nathan Peterman to the practice squad, generating laughs around the league, and they dropped Julien Davenport from the squad to make room for him. But there's still an open spot on the roster. The team wanted to be healthy for the opener. Not risking players in the rest of preseason does make sense after the losses they took between the joint practices and the game against Miami - potential #3 receiver Rondale Moore, third round rookie DE/edge Bralen Trice and DB prospect Harrison Hand were lost for the season, while safety/special teams ace DeMarcco Hellams is out for an extended time. So they shut everyone down for the last two preseason games and only played the prospects, getting the starters and key backups their last body of work by turning the last preseason practice into a scrimmage, simulating a game walkthrough. So the health side of it worked... the only other player not available for the Steelers opener is backup nickel corner Antonio Hamilton, Sr, who had a groin injury in practice on Thursday and was ruled OUT for the game. But will it work as far as preparations? The team thinks the two joint practices and scrimmage were enough, and it does make sense that the starters got more competitive snaps against other teams in those two sessions than they would have had playing a series in the first game, a quarter in the second and then a half in the last preseason game. Still... any Falcons fan can't help but think back to the last two seasons under Dan Quinn and how badly the team played in the first two months of those seasons. Other interesting twists: the team kept veteran DTs Grady Jarrett and David Onyemata out of practice Friday. Nothing too shocking there - even Mike Smith had made the "veteran rest day" a regular thing to help keep the older guys like Jonathan Babineaux and John Abraham fresh. But doing it before the opener? I think that's new. LT Jake Matthews wasn't held out entirely, but he was limited. My guess is that was intented just as much to get Storm Norton some reps as it was to rest Matthews. But the other "veteran rest" player who was limited is the eyebrow-raiser. Defensive lineman Ta'Quon Graham is only 25 and in his 4th season. I've been rooting hard for Graham pretty much his entire career here in Atlanta, so I'm wondering if the extra rest means he might be in line to be the mystery starter or for a large number of snaps even if he's not the official starter. The depth chart would indicate Zach Harrison as the unknown DL starter, but with the run-happy Arthur Smith as the opposing play caller, the roles are a lot more up for grabs. Back to CB... Hamilton is out, but surprise roster cut Kevin King is one of this week's two standard practice squad elevations. I still say I'm expecting him on the roster by mid-season. Or if not our roster, someone else's. This is a former second rounder (#33 overall) who decided to take time away from the game when he became a free agent, then had injury issues when he tried to return. Now he's back, healthy, and showing that he's in good playing shape. Considering how many teams need CB help, I'm stunned he's still here after being cut. He's simply too good to stay unsigned for too long.I'm hoping Atlanta puts him back on the roster after the game to fill the open roster spot, then brings Davenport back to the practice squad to fill that opening. The other standard elevation this week is WR Chris Blair, another one of the tough decisions at the final roster cuts. I'm also hoping that Blair will get his opportunities and get signed to the roster later this year. He ran solid routes, showed he could find the holes in zones, and "attacked" the ball to make the catch. And a last thought... traffic heading into Atlanta before the game is likely to be worse than usual, as the NASCAR playoffs start this weekend at the speedway just south of Atlanta. Falcons game starts at 1pm. The race starts at 3pm, but with all the pre-race festivities the incoming traffic should be getting heavy by 11:30am - exactly when traffic for the Falcons game should be heavy as well. An added bit of Pennsylvania irony... the Falcons open against the Steelers, and the race is the Quaker State 400.
Torgo it's time for Church ...... NFL style Looking forward to the start of the season.... Titans play the Bears... Go Titans Go Good luck for your Falcons today and Fields will start for Pittsburgh.
Alas, my fears did play out - Atlanta looked horribly unprepared. The defense actually looked fine. But the offense made it obvious that they hadn't played a snap in the preseason games. They turned the ball over when a shotgun snap hit the guy going in motion. They had another play where they initially lined up in a bunch formation with all five eligible receivers on the left side. That's an obvious illegal formation as no one is left to cover up the right tackle on the end of the line. So Kirk Cousins frantically rearranged things by moving Kyle Pitts over to the right. But Pitts still didn't get up to the line of scrimmage, lining up slightly in the backfield instead, and Cousins didn't catch that. You can't make those kinds of mistakes against a strong defense like Pittsburgh and expect to win. I get it that it's Cousins' very first game with the new team, and ditto for potential pass-catchers Mooney, Woerner, McCloud and Dwelley. But this is exactly why they needed more preseason work than just the two joint practices with the Dolphins and the scrimmage practice against each other. The coaches had three games to get these guys reps and chose to sit them out each time. The Falcons deserved to lose this one, and they lost. The media attention will no doubt be on the two interceptions. I suspect that one of them was a miscommunication between Cousins and the receiver. I have no idea what happened on the other one. The schedule doesn't get any easier the next two weeks, with games against the Eagles and the Chiefs. I'm still stoked for the season as a whole, but I'm now anticipating a 0-3 record as they head into the first run through the division.
Your problem on offense is not going to get better over time. Cousins is a statue back there. The ref told TJ Watt that he saw the replay of the offside penalty and apologized to TJ because he wasn’t offsides. That was a gift for you guys to get the TD because you didn’t earn it. It should have been 18-3 , Cousins is not going to make it through the season. Good thing you drafted Penix.
I disagree with Gids assessment (no ill intent meant). I strongly think it was a case of rust, not on the same page offensively, which Torgo addressed. It was a TJ Watt fully blown, fired up D that caused a bunch of problems... they were not ready. IMO, Cousins will adapt, O-Line needs to be supreme, and we will see what happens. If the Falcons can put up a 'W' in the next two games, all is well. But, what do I know? (nothing)
Teams look different every week, but a QB that is not mobile at all can’t all of a sudden become mobile.
Cousins did have a little bit of mobility - such as in the TD pass to Kyle Pitts, when he escaped the pocket to his left. I'm really not that concerned about that aspect, knowing that he's still limited from the ACL injury. If he doesn't get hurt again, his knee will continue to get healthier over the course of the season. If he does get hurt, we do have Penix. What is far more concerning is that Raheem Morris was here in those last two years under Dan Quinn, so he should know how badly the team played coming out of the gate both seasons. The shotgun snap hitting TE Ross Dwelley was just silly. That's a team still in preseason mode. That one and the illegal formation (not knowing where everyone should be, then Pitts not knowing he needed to step up to cover the RT) were true Football Follies material. If they are so out of sync that they can screw up that badly on stuff that simple, they're almost certainly having miscommunications on routes, blocking assignments, etc. That's going to kill drives again next week and the following week. One messed up play can stall a drive, even if it's not a turnover. Fixing the T.J. Watt strip sack thing should be straightforward - Atlanta needs to mix up the cadence so it isn't that easy for the edge rusher to lock in on the timing and jump the count. Hopefully that is also on the team's list of things to fix this week (right after figuring out how to line up correctly). Watt may have done them a big favor, as I'm guessing the center Dalman didn't know that he was becoming a human metronome with his rhythm. If Atlanta can get that fixed, it will help the RT McGary in a big way when they get into the divisional games in weeks 4-6. But... if they don't go way out of their way to get those basics fixed in a hurry, the next two games (Eagles and Chiefs) are going to be ugly.
TJ Watt said your center does some kind of head moving right when he is snapping the ball every time. When he moves TJ jumped and was never offside including the play he was called offside, that was a bad call and the ref even admitted it after seeing the replay
Exactly... that's why I say Watt did the Falcons a favor. The center Dalman had no clue he was tipping anyone off. Now the team should know all about it and be able to change it.
I probably wouldn't try to get him to break the habit all at once. As you said, it's hard, and in my view the team has a lot more on its plate in making sure they get communications down on blocking assignments, receivers running routes and making breaks on cue, and just getting effing lined up correctly. But it would be just as effective, perhaps even better, if he simply put in a wrinkle or two. For example, do the head move intentionally well before the snap, perhaps with Cousins throwing in a hard count to try to pull someone offsides. The next time, focus on thinking a three syllable word before snapping the ball... head move, think "butterscotch", snap. If he can just mix it up so that the actual timing is no more predictable than anyone else's snap, he'll be fine.
