Falcons Beat Eagles With Dominating Ball Control Attack

The Eagles organization was out-played and out-coached today by the Atlanta Falcons. There’s no other way to explain what Atlanta did to Andy Reid and his ball club.  This was a total domination by the Falcons.  They controlled the football for nearly the entire first half and converted third down after third down.

“That was an embarrassing performance”, Reid said afterward. “We obviously didn’t start fast enough. We didn’t get off of the field on third downs early. We’ve got to be able to do that and then they got some big plays on us. We did not have big plays offensively. We started slow again, at least through the first few series there. I’m stating the obvious [that] we need to get better. I need to do a better job.”

The Falcons came into the game with the idea of controlling the game with a dominating ball control attack.  They used the bunch formation to successfully attack the Eagles secondary.  They used the bunch formation on four of the first five third down situations to keep the ball for nearly all of the first quarter.

The Eagles ran only four plays in the first quarter as the Falcons built themselves a 14-0 lead.

It took the Falcons 16 plays to move the ball from their twenty-yard line, 80-yards for the first touchdown of the game.

On the second offensive play of the game for the Falcons, Matt Ryan hit Eagles rookie defensive tackle Fletcher Cox right in the hands, but he dropped the ball.  Looking back, it was the Birds’ best chance of stopping the Atlanta offense in the first half of the game.

On the first third down play on the first drive of the game, Atlanta came out in a bunch formation and somebody left Falcons wide receiver Drew Davis wide open on their left flat.  Safety Nate Allen came over to make the tackle, but it was well after Davis had picked up the first down.

On the second third down play on the first drive, defensive end Jason Babin was caught holding Falcons running back Jacquizz Rodgers.  The Birds were blitzing some of their defensive backs, so they had Babin in coverage on the play.

The Falcons got into the bunch formation again for the third third down play.  Atlanta’s number one receiver, Roddy White simply went downfield about fifteen yards and hooked up.  Ryan put the ball on his numbers as the Eagles defensive backs looked on.

Birds cornerback Nmandi Asomugha dove to try and knock the ball down, but to no avail.

The fourth third down situation was a third and one.  This time the Falcons handed the ball off to Michael Turner and he gained the yard to keep the drive going.

The fifth third down situation occurred with the ball on the Eagles fifteen yard line.  Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan fooled Kurt Coleman and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie by faking a quick screen.  Coleman and Rodgers-Cromartie left wide receiver Drew Davis.  He was running all by himself in the end zone.  He ran a fade route into the end zone and nobody covered him.

Ryan hit him in stride and the only thing in question was whether he got his feet down.  He got them down by dragging his right foot when he caught the football.  Falcons had themselves a 7-0 lead.

Things got worse for the Birds when the offense went three plays and out.

Michael Vick threw a pass to Brent Celek which should have been caught, but wasn’t placed very well.  On the next play, LeSean McCoy tried to run outside to his left, but saw no room.  He brought back to his right and lost a yard on the play.  Vick was sacked on the next play and the Birds had to punt the ball back to the Falcons.

Atlanta put together another scoring drive.  They had the ball for all but 1:52 seconds of the first quarter.

Give me a call me tonight on 94WIP.  I’ll be from 10pm to 2am and I’ll be talking about this game.