Here's the situation going into the game: starting cornerback Casey Hayward just went on IR. Other starting cornerback A.J. Terrell is nursing a bad hamstring but thinks he's good to go. Backup corner Dee Alford is also dealing with a hamstring injury and is OUT. Darren Hall (fourth round draft pick last year) has only one career start. Nickel corner Isaiah Oliver is just back from IR but is ready to play. The only other corner on the roster is journeyman free agent Mike Ford, who started the year at nickel in Oliver's absence but lost the role to Alford. For additional depth, the team used a standard practice squad elevation to call up prospect Cornell Armstrong from the practice squad. On the second defensive series, Terrell re-injures his hamstring and is immediately ruled out for the rest of the game. For as yet unexplained reasons, the Falcons used Armstrong (the practice squad call-up) as his replacement instead of Ford. In spite of the lack of depth at the position, Ford did not play a single snap on defense the entire game. He played special teams (and was banged up in the fourth quarter on a punt return play, coming out of the game) but not defense. Dean Pees is big on versatility. It's almost impossible to imagine that Ford would be a backup ONLY at the slot corner position. But it's equally hard to imagine that the coaching staff would consider a guy fresh up from the practice squad to be a better option than the guy who has been with the team all season and has 50 NFL games of prior experience including 9 starts. But one way or the other, it happened. Cornell Armstrong was the choice to fill in at cornerback, with Mike Ford stuck on the sidelines. So... has the coaching staff lost faith in Ford? He had one absolutely horrid preseason game that made me question if he'd even be on the final roster. I had Alford pegged to make it with Ford as the odd man out. And Ford was indeed released at the roster cut deadline - but he was resigned immediately after the team shuffled the banged up players over to IR. The latest update from head coach Arthur Smith is that Alford is day-to-day while Terrell is week-to-week. So it's quite likely that the team will again have the Darren Hall - Cornell Armstrong - Isaiah Oliver trio at corner this weekend against the Panthers. If Ford isn't healthy enough to play OR if the coaches don't have enough faith in him to put him on the field on defense, it's time for some roster moves.
Some media pundits are clamoring that Mariota needs to take a backseat to Ridder. I guess Mariota has gone from hero to zero in one football game, because of the 18 pass attempts in a game where the Falcons trailed... I think thats on the coaches personally, not Marcus. The defense was overwhelmed mainly due to injury, but some moves, as you stated, Torgo are rightfully questionable. I guess, that would be squarely on Pees. Then on the other hand, the offensive play-calling, according to an article on, Falcons Wire, implied that the coaches have lost confidence in Mariota to throw down field... They were questioning that with London and Pitts healthy and playing. Guess my point is this... it was a bad game for not only the team, but the coaches on both sides of the ball need to take responsibility also and learn from their mistakes and move on. Im not sure putting Ridder in there now, when the Falcons are still in the hunt, makes much sense. There will/should come a time when its obvious and Ridder can get some PT, but I dont like or agree with the apparent panic button attitude after just one off game against a team of the caliber of the Bengals. Just my 0.02
Local media in the Atlanta area was a bit kinder. The beef from the local coverage wasn't that Mariota needs to take a back seat but rather that the fourth quarter was garbage time and that the coaches missed a perfect opportunity to get Ridder a bit of actual game experience. Head coach Arthur Smith addressed that one on Monday in typical Arthur Smith fashion, saying there wouldn't have been much point in putting Ridder in just to be the guy to hand the ball off. I absolutely loved that comment because at the same time he's also making it absolutely clear that the media should blame him rather than Mariota for the utter lack of production in the second half. My guess is that if the Falcons had managed to get one more drive later in the fourth quarter, we might indeed have seen Ridder. As it turned out, the final possession came with 14 minutes remaining - and based on how the team scored in the second quarter, it wasn't necessarily "garbage time" at that point. I get Smith not wanting to throw in the towel quite yet. But once the Bengals got the ball back, they were able to hang on to it for nearly 9 minutes and end the game. The inability to move the ball in the second half should be an alarm bell for Smith and offensive coordinator Dave Ragone. They've wanted to establish that Atlanta is a run-first team. They've done that. But now they're risking making Atlanta into a run-only team.
Exactly... Run first is good, but the defenses must be kept honest. Its all about in game adjustments.
The thing I really liked about living in the Atlanta metro area was that they always got to broadcast the prime games Sunday afternoon. In New Jersey you got stuck with the Giants at one and the Jets at four twenty five. In Florida you got three home teams, good luck with that. Seattle always plays at the late afternoon slot cutting out the game of the week. Atlanta always is The early game so you’re free to watch a good afternoon game before the Sunday night game. The Falcons most of the time have entertaining teams to watch.
