Deep coverage issues, penalties, and Falcon's ability to captialize on mistakes with TDs made for a long day in Atlanta (1 Viewer)

[Taker597]

37 points... It's pretty bad.

There are some bright spots, and just bewildering errors that lead to a touchdown laden day in Atlanta with approximately 8 lead changes. So, lets just dig into this game with a look at all 11 penalties for 120 yards. Gonna include the offensive ones as well.

• 1st & 10 at ATL 37
  (11:16 - 2nd) D.Brees pass short right to T.Ginn pushed ob at ATL 20 for 17 yards (D.Trufant). PENALTY on NO-B.Watson, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at ATL 35.

1st down called back, but still manage to get 3 points out of the drive.

• 2nd & Goal at ATL 4
  (4:25 - 2nd) (Shotgun) D.Brees pass incomplete short middle. PENALTY on NO-J.LeRibeus, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at ATL 4 - No Play.
• 2nd & Goal at ATL 14
  (4:25 - 2nd) (Shotgun) PENALTY on NO-T.Armstead, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at ATL 14 - No Play.

Back to Back penaltyies No 1st down called back, but instantly changes into a 3 point FG try. Something down and distance in the goal line area should be an automatic, but that is far from the case in the NFL where penalties do hamper offenses on a consistent basis.

• 3rd & 10 at NO 44
  (1:52 - 2nd) (Shotgun) PENALTY on NO-J.LeRibeus, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at NO 44 - No Play.

Another penalty for the back up guard. Losing our 6th man last year is proving to be sore spot, but I feel that LeRibeus did redeemed himself towards the end of the game. This set of down was dead in the waters as example of this 3rd down conversion rate from 2017 that I happened to goggle. A 24% to 15% drop in conversion rate.

• 2nd & 9 at 50
  (12:34 - 3rd) M.Ryan pass incomplete deep middle to C.Ridley. PENALTY on NO-K.Crawley, Defensive Pass Interference, 45 yards, enforced at 50 - No Play.

This is a back breaker and unnecessary , but it wasn't particularly the end of the world. The only thing worse was the play selection that followed it 2 plays of rushing 3 that later turned into 7 points. If Allen was in his right mind... After being very fortunate to getting a 4 yard loss by the infamous AJ Klein that set them up for a 2nd and Goal on the 9 yard line. This drive should of ended up 1st down by penalty and a field goal at best, but the defense woes snowballing before his eyes made him call some very desperate and bad plays to possible force an interception. Should of worked on getting pressure on Ryan as he had 5 seconds for him to find an open receiver for the score while only contesting a 3 man rush. I can say that penalty gave them 3 easy points, but Allen gave them a much easier 4 more. Here is both plays back to back... Tell me which one is uglier?

• 2nd & 10 at NO 25
  (11:50 - 3rd) A.Kamara left end to NO 33 for 8 yards (D.Riley). PENALTY on NO-R.Ramczyk, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at NO 31.

Offensive series sunken by penalties. It happens. Just too much in this game

• 4th & 10 at NO 25
  (10:01 - 3rd) T.Morstead punts 49 yards to ATL 26, Center-Z.Wood. J.Hardy to ATL 32 for 6 yards (C.Robertson). PENALTY on NO-J.Hardee, Face Mask (15 Yards), 15 yards, enforced at ATL 32. Penalty on NO-Z.Wood, Offensive Holding, declined.

The first of two Special teams penalties, but unlike the latter. This penalty didn't follow up with any points. In fact, it was followed up with a Falcon blocked punt. Yet, the special team unit needs to be more discipline and cut down on bad penalties. We were lucky that Falcon couldn't take advantage of the shorter field and we where able to turn it around to get a solid touchdown.



#NeverPunt

• 1st & Goal at ATL 6
  (6:39 - 3rd) (Shotgun) PENALTY on NO-J.Hill, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at ATL 6 - No Play.

Not much to say. Followed up with a crazy TD play

• 3rd & 4 at NO 9
  (14:19 - 4th) (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass incomplete short right to M.Sanu. PENALTY on NO-P.Williams, Defensive Pass Interference, 4 yards, enforced at NO 9 - No Play.

We can argue if this call was bad. I'm in the camp that PJ made a good play, but due to the nature of the NFL rule book. It's a judgement call that gave Atlanta a 1st down by penalty and turn what should of been a field goal into a touchdown. It gave me eerie flashbacks of that uncatchable pass that was called as a Pass Interference on Craig Robertson in the closing moments of the season opener against the Oakland Raiders. I been a huge advocate of these calls being challenge-able or atleast make spot calls like these be required to be reviewed by the booth. A 17 billion dollar industry can pay to get the right calls.

• 1st & 10 at ATL 25
  (9:53 - 4th) M.Ryan pass short middle to T.Coleman to ATL 27 for 2 yards (D.Davis). PENALTY on NO-J.Bromley, Illegal Use of Hands, 5 yards, enforced at ATL 25 - No Play.

Pretty easy call. Nothing much there.

• 4th & 9 at NO 11
  (7:04 - 4th) M.Bryant 29 yard field goal is GOOD, NULLIFIED by Penalty, Center-J.Harris, Holder-M.Bosher. PENALTY on NO-D.Onyemata, Unnecessary Roughness, 6 yards, enforced at NO 11 - No Play.

Horrendous and unacceptable. This would be 3rd redzone mishap that falls directly on coaches, players, and officiating. What should be 9 points turn into 21 points due to unfathomable mistakes. An easy 12 points in the redzone is what honestly keep ATL alive and we are a much better defense than the box score would convey.

11 Penalties for 120 yards that yield 4 1st downs with 2 of those being redzone first downs.

Lets look at Ridley and Julio bombs that literally saved Ryan's arse.





We have to get better at defending the deep throw. These deep keeping breaking these games wide open. PJ Williams got simply made a fool. 133 yards given up on two huge plays on top of all the redzone mishaps made for 37 point mountain. I hope the team can clean up these mistakes and fix it. We need to get better a pressing. Marcus Williams gonna needs to stop being superman and go back to being a deep safety. If we can cut down on the deep ball issues and insert better coverages. We have a good unit on defense.

2 big plays, 2 redzone penalties, and 1 god awful play call in the redzone nearly sunk us. A game that honestly that should be 30 - 25/18 or even less.

We are playing sloopy and undisciplined on the defense secondary with a scheme that happens to leave us out to dry more often than not.

 

[Taker597]

Ugh, I hate NFL youtube.

 

[Taker597]

Bump.

 

[BiloxiSaint1]

Horrendous and unacceptable. This would be 3rd redzone mishap that falls directly on coaches, players, and officiating. What should be 9 points turn into 21 points due to unfathomable mistakes. An easy 12 points in the redzone is what honestly keep ATL alive and we are a much better defense than the box score would convey.

Coach Payton said this evening on WWL radio that the NFL notified him the Onyemata call was a bad call that should not have been a penalty.

 

[Walter White]

Coach Payton said this evening on WWL radio that the NFL notified him the Onyemata call was a bad call that should not have been a penalty.

Yeah that was terrible.

 

[Taker597]

Coach Payton said this evening on WWL radio that the NFL notified him the Onyemata call was a bad call that should not have been a penalty.

Wow, I thought the new leaping rule wasn't what called on the field. I thought it was holding down the snapper not no contact.

 

[bayoumilitia]

As always Taker, helluva post.

I saw the exact same things that you described and broke down for everyone.

Of course the main takeaway is what you said, “undisciplined” football can cost you games and almost have the last 2 weeks and did in week 1.

Some people are thinking that another All-Pro CB is gonna show up at our doorstep but the reality is just about every team has similar issues at certain positions.

This is what makes the NFL so competitive. Very few front offices and coaching staffs can utilize their cap and fill all the teams needs and allow that team to compete for championships. With limited game day rosters the difference between talent on most teams is razor thin and unless you strike gold with a young QB (Wentz) or a savy vet (Fitz) teams can’t afford to pay all their offensive and defensive playmakers.

Therefore to win games in this league, as you astutely pointed out you can’t repeatedly make mistakes in any of the 3 phases. Especially with penalties and turnovers. You also need coaches that can match their play calling with the level of talent of their personnel.

That’s the biggest part that the Saints need to fix. You can clean up penalties, and create a couple of more possessions but we have to stop these 40+ yard passing plays. No, we don’t need Revis Island or Primetime accross from Latt. We have the personnel we have, DA needs to adjust and as you said quit asking our players (like Williams) to be some superhero and just play FS.

 

[Domeination]

Our scheme is terrible, but I have no faith in Payton and Allen to change it. Why are we even talking about this? If they had any defensive brains, they would never have installed this scheme. Payton is an offensive genius and a defensive fool.

 

[Stalwart385]

Nice post. Agree about reviewing PI and RTP. At least in the last 2 minutes at minimum. Problem is the rules are written to where you can call pretty much anything. If they can catch some egregious ones it will be for the best though.

For the videos, I found it best to right click and copy the link at the time you stamped. Wasn't too bad that way.

 

[saintmike23]

Coach Payton said this evening on WWL radio that the NFL notified him the Onyemata call was a bad call that should not have been a penalty.

That’s a 5 point bonus for Atlanta. The PI call was also +5. You can maybe say the ref saw Williams’ arm around the receiver but he didn’t impede his ability to make the catch using the arm.

Either way I’ll give the defense those two stops and say they stopped Atlanta on their last drive. So it wasn’t as bad as the score says for the D.

Anyway, That’s more yards for Brees and receivers in overtime. Got to see the Drew Brees special. Drew Brees spin move! Michael Thomas making big plays. And more material to taunt Falcons fans.