Harry Douglas was listed as full participation in practice on Wed and Thursday but was limited on Friday. He's listed as "Questionable" for the game. Everyone else should be good to go - Roddy has been back in practice (limited Wed/Thur but full participation Friday) and has said he's playing. The others listed on the injury report are Hester, Shembo, and Antone Smith, but all were full participants for Thursday and Friday. The Falcons are typically not so good on the road, and they're now hitting their longest stretch away from the Dome. Only one of the next seven games is a true home game. The main culprit is that we lost a true home game as part of the league's efforts to showcase games internationally. The game in London against Detroit counts as a Falcons "home" game, leaving us with only seven games here at the Dome. A few questions to keep an eye on over the next few weeks: #1 - with Kroy Biermann getting off to a slow start, will the team cut back his snaps and get some of the younger players more playing time? Real Househusband played 125 of 148 defensive snaps over the first two games. He still played 39 of 60 snaps last Thursday, with much of the non-participation coming later in the blowout game. For a starting outside linebacker, he has relatively little to show for his high participation - no sacks, one QB hit, seven solo tackles and eight assists. PFF currently has him with a cumulative grade of -6.6, the worst score of our defense. The alternatives include Massaquoi and Maponga, who each had a sack against Tampa. Both have been playing less than half of defensive snaps, with Maponga only seeing three snaps in the opener against the Saints. #2 - with Jake Matthews back at left tackle, that leaves Holmes and Carimi with just one remaining starting tackle spot between them. When Matthews first went down, the coaching staff immediately turned to Carimi to fill in at LT, even though he had never played the position (and probably hadn't even practiced there) as a pro. He got an awful grade from PFF for that game, which was understandable for the circumstances. But given a week to PRACTICE at the position, he played quite well in week two, getting a positive grade. Meanwhile, Holmes has been almost acceptable in pass protection (no sacks charged to him, but 1 QB hit and seven QB hurries) but has struggled badly in the run game, getting beaten badly around the edge on plays that would have resulted in sacks had the call been a pass rather than a handoff. Yet Holmes remained the RT for last week's game, while Carimi took the swing tackle role. Mike Tice has worked Carimi in for a series here or there at RT plus worked him as the extra tackle in the "heavy" package. If he continues to play well and Holmes continues to struggle, we might see more of Carimi. #3 - more Shembo? The coaching staff has been working the rookie linebacker in for a significant portion of the team's defensive snaps, mostly in place of Joplo Bartu. He's learning quickly and playing well, and seems to be working his way towards more playing time. A follow-up question is what to do with Bartu if and when Shembo takes over as the starter. One obvious possibility would be to kick him over to the outside in the base 3-4, perhaps in place of Biermann.
I'd be happy to see ANY offensive lineman. From rotoworld: Falcons left guard Justin Blalock exited the game against the Vikings with a back injury; right tackle Lamar Holmes left with a foot injury, and center Joe Hawley was carted off with a knee injury. Tight end Levine Toilolo had to play right tackle to finish the game. We?ll have to see just how severe these injuries are, but this is not good news for the Falcons. And of course Sam Glass Baker is already done. And Jake Matthews was hurt earlier in the year, and may be less that 100%.
I've been saying all along kroy was overated. I think that's why td did not go after a true pass rusher, because he thaught kroy would take his game to the next level this year. TD seems to do a decent job on the offensive side of the ball, but he strikes out way to much, picking defensive players.
From what I have seen of Biermann, he simply isn't the same now as he was before his injury. I don't know if it's a true physical limitation or if he's just a bit slower in reacting and taking off. Hopefully for his sake it comes together quickly for him. Otherwise, this might be the end of his Falcons career - he's a free agent after this season.
Torgo, did you here Brian Billick on the radio today? He said that the falcons front office (TD) should be held accountable for the falcons poor defense. He also said that out of all the teams in the league our defense has the least amount of talent on it. He nailed it. Some people were saying we should fire Nolan, but he has to use the players drafted for him, not his fault. Although I do think he needs to bliz more.
I didn't hear Billick this morning, but I certainly agree. In particular, a whole lot of last season falls directly on Dimitroff. The huge mistake he made was attempting to turn over too much of the roster at once. We had already ditched Ray Edwards in mid-2012. The Falcons then proceeded to say adios to Michael Turner, John Abraham, Dunta Robinson, Brent Grimes, Tyson Clabo, Todd McClure, Mike Peterson, Michael Palmer, Lawrence Sidbury, Chris Owens, Will Svitek, Vance Walker, Luke McCown, Chris Hope, and others. Including Edwards, that's seven starters and at least six critical backups, plus quite a few other depth players. You simply can't find quality replacements for that many people in one offseason. And heading into this season, in addition to losing Tony Gonzalez, Jason Snelling and Peria Jerry, we also chose to say farewell to Stephen Nicholas, Thomas Decoud, Akeem Dent, Garrett Reynolds, Dominique Davis, Dominique Franks, Chase Coffman and others. Generally speaking, I really like the group of free agents and rookie prospects that we have added this year. Compare Asamoah to Garrett Reynolds, Devin Hester to Kevin Cone, or Josh Wilson and Javier Arenas to Dominique Franks and we've clearly had some upgrades. But it's going to take a while for the youngsters to get it together. Joplo Bartu and Paul Worrilow were undrafted rookies last year. Expecting them to play like All Pro studs in year two is unrealistic. Ditto for rookies Shembo and Hageman. I do believe that Mike Nolan will be on the hot seat if things don't turn around soon. The front office and scouts work hand in hand with the coaching staff to bring in players to fit the criteria of the coaching staff. Nolan has had a hand in that process for three seasons now. If you look at the roster, only six players on defense were with the team when Nolan arrived - Babineaux, Biermann, Moore, Peters, Weatherspoon, and Cliff Matthews. Babs, Peters, and Moore were all resigned by the team under Nolan, leaving Biermann, Weatherspoon and Matthews as the only remaining fully "inherited" players. So he had a large role in creating our current defensive roster. He'll be one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes. And if you're listening to radio and TV, you're probably already hearing Koetter's name mentioned as a potential candidate for the head coaching job in Oakland next year. Obviously there will be more vacancies, and he will be a candidate for several of them. We may be looking at another big turnover in our coaching staff for next season.
