Not sure it's Ryan. Teams have figured out any WR we have outside of Julio cannot create separation. Keep 8 in the box to stop the run game, Shade a safety toward Julio's side, win. Didn't see one play where Ryan missed the window or made the wrong read, he's just throwing into stupid tight windows.
The challenge on the 4th down spot was terrible too. Like what the fuck are you thinking there. The decision to kick a fg was so mike smith it isn't even funny.
Our defense is exactly what we thought it was (bad), Ryan has been bad all season, our WRs are terrible other than JJ who is great, Bryant has been bad, Freeman has been brought back to Earth.
How in the hell does anyone that is paid millions to coach football decide to kick a field goal with our defense(or any defense)? Also props to Dan Quinn for letting his emotions waste a Timeout
Suffice to say the Dan Quinn honeymoon is over. Those two terrible 4th quarter decisions looked about as inept as something Mike Smith would have done. You have Julio Jones, and the leagues top running back this season, surely there were some options there at the goal line. And relying on this defense to get a stop, even against Blaine Gabbert, is foolish.
Maybe, but it beats being like 3/4 of the rest of the league and not having anyone. If they put together a very good defense Ryan could be enough. He isnt enough to carry a team. I liked the idea somone mentioned on the page before, go two minute offense the entire game.
the offense struggling so much is concerning to me, when they aren't able to carry us we are in trouble
Honestly comes at a good time. Falcons had like 4 guys out for this game and the offense needs to fucking work on being able to gel again.
looks like grimes had a lot of tackles for the dolphins today, while sammy watkins had a lot of catches. way to make grimes his bitch.
So I finally found an article that took a look at Quin's full potato decision from a statistical standpoint. Saw an article like this years ago that showed via stats how stupid it was to do things like punt from midfield, punt on 4th and a foot in most situations and also things like this. I was hoping it'd gain traction but still hasn't. Link is below but the cliffs are that going for it would've meant a 53% chance for the Falcons to win the game. Kicking the field goal led to a 17% chance to win. Guy paid millions to make this decision willingly chose the option that was 3x less likely to result in success. It is unbelievable to me that so many teams in the NFL don't have a nerdy moneyball guy on the sideline giving advice in situations like this. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/11/8/9694220/falcons-49ers-dan-quinn-field-goal-why-why-WHY
I'm not sure. The radio guys won't shut up about it but they haven't provided any quotes. But we're still a year ahead of schedule so 6-3 doesn't have me as down as some others.
Yeah but who's to say he won't make the same decision a year or two down the road, in a playoff game?
I think Quinn is still smarter than Mike Smith and might have the ability to learn to not do it again in a similar situation.
Quinn said the following: “I chose to kick it there,” Quinn said. “Thought we were getting the stops defensively, we’d get the kick, get stops, use our timeouts and then go attack on offense. We’re a really good two minute team on offense. So, that was the reasoning for it. We didn’t stop them on the third down, they converted. Really that’s where the game took place, so I wanted to make sure I explained our thinking going into that one.” What's so frustrating about this is that it just shows a general lack of understanding of probability as it relates to football. No sense in that in 2015, the statistics are readily available. This decision made the Falcons 3x less likely to win than going for it. You want to have faith in your D? Fine, then going for it is still the better option. Best case, you take the lead and count on them to close out the game. Worst case, you give the opposing team the ball on the 1 and ask your D to make a stop or an even bigger play.
I look at it this way. In a vacuum, which of the 2 choices would you rather have? 2 minutes to play, down by 1 and the opposing team has a fresh set of downs on their 20 OR 2 minutes to play, down by 4 and the opposing team has the ball backed up at their own 1. Now, what would your answer be if I said the 2nd choice also came with a coin flip at the beginning and if it's heads, you'd actually have a 3 point lead and the opposition would have he ball at the 20. If tails, the ball at the 1 down by 4 scenario happens.
It's most frustrating to me because it's not a rational decision based on win probability or any data whatsoever. It's a reactionary decision made based on the fact that that's how it's "always been done" dating back 40 years to when it was a completely different game. That's also part of the reason there usually isn't a ton of backlash on these dumbass decisions, because the guys on TV talking about it played 40 years ago when that may have actually been the right call. Head coaches make entirely too much money to make decisions that aren't based on up to date data. This is basically like me as an engineer wanting Nike to make a new driver out of wood instead of composites because that's how they always did it back in the day.
Rookie head coach mistakes are going to happen. I think we just still need so much on defense. I also think Matt Ryan needs to get his head out of his ass.
Couldn't agree more. If we are a real playoff team, no reason a game against a 2-6 team with backup QB, no WRs and basically 4th string RB should come down to a last minute decision. It was a dumb decision, but the first 58 minutes were a bigger problem.
I'm really starting to think that a lot of Ryan's woes are due to Shanahan. I think he's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole now. Once teams got tape of the Falcons, Roddy White basically said that it's incredibly easy to scheme for. Ryan looks so much better when he's reading the defense and calling audibles in the no-huddle.
I don't think people quite understand how bad it looks on a defense to lose to a team QB'd by Blaine fucking Gabbert. Vic as a DE at 8th overall still sucks all the dicks but hopefully he will progress. We need more pass rush, MLB, and a S. I'm trying not to really get after Ryan here, but his 2-3 series a game that he throws a wtf pick in the redzone is really chapping my ass.
Not sure how Shanahan's WCO works, but have seen several people on TheFalcoholic say that it's forcing Ryan to progress through his reads way too mechanically and not allowing him to read defenses pre-snap.
Totally agree on Beasley. I swear, seems like every 1st and 2nd round pick we've had the last 5-6 years with the exception of Julio and Jake have had the same things said about them. "unfinished" "lots of room to improve" "great raw skills but hasn't translated yet" etc etc. I'm sick of drafting projects instead of polished products because we've proven we can't develop players.
Exactly. That's why I wasn't all that happy. I like Vic, but at 8th overall he's not a guy that you plug in and he just makes a difference. Maybe I'm expecting too much at 8, idk. I think we should have taken another player(idk who at 8, maybe another OT) and then gone with a DE in 2nd. Shit, Randy Gregory has looked good and the Cowboys also got La'el Collins starting already on the OL(random thought). What are we thinking this early about next year's draft? I think another WR is probably going to be a necessity. We could use another OG and OT. But we need MLB, pass rush, two S's because willy Mo is completely unreliable and seemingly always hurt. We need a lot man and I don't like trying to buy it in FA either. Who are we losing after this season? Where can I find this? Fran Tarkenton do you know a site where I can see our cap space for next year and our FA's? I feel like you've posted it itt before.
I am torn between being happy this team has confidence moving forward from winning some games and wishing our record was terrible so Quinn would have some high draft picks. Wish Quinn would bully Ryan into restructuring his deal to give us more cap room.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/atlanta-falcons/cap/ Anyone want to take a stab at who we release to get money back on? We have just under $9mm in space now.
Won't happen but I wouldn't mind getting rid of Solial and/or Jackson. We need to generate a pass rush and those guys are "run stuffers". I quote that because I don't think our run D is anywhere near as good as current stats show, I just think we haven't played many teams with a decent ground game and healthy RBs. Sort of like how I don't think we are a 6-3 team but have benefitted from a weak schedule