That Atlanta Offense (American Spelling!) How do We Stop It?

A few of you voted disagree with a previous post of mine (that's cool). Let me set the record straight. You cannot help but have anything but admiration for a team that has by anyone's standards been one of the greatest teams to ever play professional sports in the modern era. They are the Green Bay Packers of old, and as a matter of fact, they have equaled the old Packers in legendary status. They have at least a 50% chance of winning this SB, which would be incredible...5 for heaven's sake.

That said, the Falcons are damn good. They don't have your defense, but they are not light years behind the Pats in defense either, and their offense has become white-hot at the right time. That's not to say they can't be defended against, but Dan Quinn and Mike Shanahan aren't Mike Tomlin or Mike McCarthy either, both of whom got completely outcoached.

That's why I'm looking forward to a great game.

SVN said:

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Fair but we also have to take into account our defense in those seasons.

JMC00 said:

douchebag and idiot on 98.5 we're just spouting about how the Falcons offense played against 7 of the top 10 passing defenses, "unlike how the Pats defense didn't play a top offense"

Broncos
Seahawks 2x
Bucs 2x
Cardinals
Chiefs
Rams

5-3

Patriots played 8 of the top 11 pass defenses
Broncos
Texans 2x
Cardinals
Bills 2x
Seahawks
Ravens
Rams
Bengals

Pats were
8-2.

and one of those losses was with the 3rd string rookie QB playing with a injured thumb that needed surgery days after the game

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I have a question: why the **** do you continue to listen to them? Does your car radio not play music?

Looks like this may be the key :

"We stopped the run (in the first matchup)," McCoy added. "That's all we did. Once we did that, everything changed."

Atlanta has been held below 80 yards rushing in four games this season. It lost three of them.

The Patriots, meanwhile, are 8-0 when holding opponents below 80 yards rushing. Since 2012, they are 26-0 when teams do not top the 80-yard mark on the ground.

How can New England Patriots slow Atlanta Falcons offense? 'Stop the run,' says one Pro Bowler

Thankfully we have a very good run defense.

What is it that made Matt Ryan 1-5 in the playoffs prior? They have always had a good offense. I mean they had julio and tony gonzalez. I would be interested to see what other teams did to rattle him.

RIpats88 said:

What is it that made Matt Ryan 1-5 in the playoffs prior? They have always had a good offense. I mean they had julio and tony gonzalez. I would be interested to see what other teams did to rattle him.

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1 n 4. A couple of those weren't his fault necessarily. The d liked to give up points late in games. Mostly when it was his fault it was getting consistent pressure that got him. I think he's a little more used to it by now as in it won't rattle him like it did back then but consistent pressure effs up any qb

Throwing this out for those (like Girardi) who are using the 2011 Kyle Shanahan game against the Patriots. We went to the SB that year but the defense was awful.

I'll throw out the raw stats (though they clearly favor 2016 D over 2011 D) due to the "bad opposition" argument.

So looking at the DVOA which attempts to take schedule into effect :

2011 D, 30th overall, 28th weighted overall (weighted means later games have more influence), 28th vs. pass, 25th vs. run.
2016 D, 16th overall, 11th weighted overall, 23rd vs. pass, 4th vs. run.

FWIW, raw stats :

2011 Pats D was 29th in YPA, 24th in YPC. SB but bad D. This year, 8th in YPA and YPC.

The other KS game was a 2009 game, the Welker ACL game that was meaningless, the final game of the year.

Shanahan may smoke us but those two prior games mean nothing.

TheRazorsEdge said:

Fair but we also have to take into account our defense in those seasons.

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I was just about to say that. Giving up 27 points was a good day for the 2011 defense.

Also I doubt that his schemes have stayed stale since 2011 so it's pointless to base anything on that anyway.