Never mind the final score. Atlanta's third and fourth stringers got demolished by the Jets' scrubs and lost the game. But the score at halftime was 16-3 in favor of Atlanta, and Atlanta truly had control on both sides of the ball while the mixed first/second units and the true second units were on the field. For me, one play from the first drive showcased the potential of Atlanta's offense. It wasn't the result of the play that grabbed me though, but rather the setup. On first down, the Falcons run the ball and gain four. Now put yourself in the role of the opposing defensive play-caller and think and move fast. It's second and six. Atlanta goes into their huddle with two running backs, two tight ends, and only one wide receiver. What personnel group do you put on the field? Once the offense breaks the huddle and lines up, you can probably still change the play call - but it will be too late to change the personnel on the field. You're locked in. So... going base defense and defending the run? Well, one of the two TEs is Parker Hesse, who sometimes lines up as a fullback. And you've got two running backs AND a running quarterback. Yeah, run defense personnel makes sense. But... ... the other tight end is Kyle Pitts, who lined up as a wide receiver a lot last season and had 1000+ yards receiving. He's Atlanta's true #1 receiving target. And one of the running backs is Cordarrelle Patterson, who was originally a receiver, frequently lines up at WR, wears a WR jersey number, and had over 500 yards receiving last season. The other running back, Damien Williams, is also a threat to catch passes on wheel routes out of the backfield, and Hesse sometimes splits out wide, lines up in the slot or goes in motion. He can also be a factor in the passing game, as he caught a touchdown pass just last week. You could very easily be facing a three-WR formation with Pitts and Patterson split out in addition to the one true WR (Khadarel Hodge), And you do NOT want to have a linebacker or safety with primary coverage duty on either Patterson or especially Pitts. You might even be facing an empty backfield situation, as Hesse could easily split out and Williams could line up in a slot. So... nickel or dime package instead? But then, Hodge is a solid blocker for a WR (he's also a special teams ace), and the main thing Kyle Pitts says he has been working on this offseason has been his blocking. Hesse is an old school mauler in the run game, and Williams is a solid blocker as well. They could easily line Patterson and Hodge as the WRs and either run Williams or have him seal the back side as Mariota takes off himself with Hesse as his lead blocker. That's the challenge that the Jets defensive coordinator faced on the second play of the game. When the Falcons broke the huddle, Kyle Pitts lined up split off to the left, with Cordarrelle Patterson in the slot just inside of him. Parker Hesse was at tight end on that same side, just behind the line of scrimmage. Khadarel Hodge was split out wide by himself on the right side. Patterson goes in motion before the snap, crossing over to the right side of the line. Damien Williams lined up at running back behind Mariota. So it's a single back, 3-WR formation after all. At the snap, Mariota fakes the handoff to WIlliams, freezing the DBs for just a moment. And then he launches the deep pass to Pitts, who had blown past his coverage. But if that mismatch wasn't there, Williams had dropped out into the flat on the right side after the fake handoff, and Hodge and Patterson had drawn the defense away. A simple outlet pass would have had Williams in open space with the ball in his hands - a dream situation for any running back. Williams did look back for the pass, so that option was certainly part of the play call. We saw last week that with Mariota and Ridder, any pass play can suddenly become a run. Between them the Atlanta QBs had 82 yards rushing and a touchdown against Detroit - on nine carries. And with Kyle Pitts and Cordarrelle Patterson on board, a called run play is just one audible away from changing formations and becoming a pass.
Very nice post... descriptive and interesting to read. Do you attribute this to Arthur Smith and/or Dave Ragone and with the offensive personal (especially Patterson), do you think there might be a lot more of play 'trickeration' from the Falcons this season?
The personal allows for these kind of plays. Atlanta would be smart to run that formation a lot, it’s going to be hard to defend.
It's a combination of Smith and GM Terry Fontenot and the front office. Adding that kind of versatility was a big part of the roster development plan from the outset when the new regime came in last year. Pitts was their very first draft pick, Patterson was a free agent signing and their top priority to re-sign for this year. They drafted Avery Williams in the middle rounds (and talked to him last year about making the switch to offense for this season), then signed TE prospect Parker Hesse just a few days after Tennessee released him at the start of last year's OTAs. One article said that the team even planned to move on from Matt Ryan this year. I'm not buying that they planned to move Ryan this spring, though a trade at the start of camp or before the trade deadline would have made sense for the plans of a cap-strapped rebuilding team. Either way, it's quite likely that they had eyes on signing Mariota long before they traded Ryan. With Arthur Smith as head coach, Mariota would certainly have been an upgrade over Josh Rosen as the backup QB until whenever Ryan did get moved, and after that he'd be a suitable caretaker for the offense for the rest of this season and potentially 2023 until the next QB was ready to take the reins. So I will concede that it's quite possible the running QB was also part of the plan all along. (I'm not convinced, but I concede that it's entirely possible.) As for trickeration, I'm not expecting much stuff like double reverses, flea flickers, halfback passes, etc. Maybe some jet sweeps and definitely a lot of QB runs, but nothing too crazy otherwise. But as @gidion72 pointed out, just the personnel can make things tricky. If you have two true WRs plus Kyle Pitts on the field, right away it's going to be hard to stack eight in the box the way teams used to defend Michael Turner. That alone will help the run game, and the bruisers in the RB group (Tyler Allgeier, Qadree Ollison, prospect Caleb Huntley) would love to pound the inside run all day long against nickel or dime packages. If you do focus on the run, Mariota could change the entire formation at the line, not just the play call. One quick audible and you suddenly have four guys who are all #3 WR-caliber or better receivers splitting out wide for pass routes. One thing I do expect to see is something kind of like RPO before RPO became the flavor of the week. Falcons fans have seen the "baby steps" version of it before. In Matt Ryan's first three years, a staple of Atlanta's offense was a rollout pass matched with an inside run by Michael Turner. It wasn't a read-option after the snap. Ryan would call one in the huddle, read the defense at the line, and then audible whether to stay with that play or switch to the other play. The audible wasn't even a play call - it was simply a switch-or-stay indicator. And to help keep it effective, if they went with the pass he would always fake the handoff to Turner before rolling out. If he handed off to Turner, he would continue to roll out and do his best to look like he still had the ball while someone ran a pass route to help draw the defense to that side. I anticipate a more advanced version this year. If anyone's in the backfield, Mariota will have the option to hand off. I expect a lot of fake handoffs with Mariota then rolling out. And at that point he'll make the decision on the spot whether to pass the ball or just keep running. I'm guessing the handoff portion will be true RPO rather than an audible, but it will likely be decided by Mariota reading the defense at the line rather than read-option after the snap. It could be as simple as counting defenders... eight in the box, roll out and pass (or audible to a regular pass play if it's base defense personnel). Seven in the box, roll out, plan to run but look for the pass if the cornerback leaves the receiver to come after you. Six in the box, hand off and let the RB make the inside or off-tackle run.
