The injuries cannot be overstated enough (1 Viewer)

[SystemShock]

The pass rush wasn't awesome last night, but it was decent. It was also decent against the Giants. The pass rush was way down the list of issues against the Falcons.

Over 2/3s of Ryan's yards came on dump offs.

But they had a RB who had 112 yards BEFORE contact. That's just unheard of, especially since it wasn't padded by a single 80 yard run or something.

That's what jumps out at me. Surely there are many injuries in the backfield, but taking 217 yds rushing like that, with 112 of them virtually uncontested, that has nothing to do with CBs. Slow as molasses LB (Laurinitis) and SF (Harper) who can't shed a tackle, sure, but those 2 are healthy. And no one can tell me that Davison is going would remediate that gashing in the running game.

 

[MSUSousaphone]

Davison by himself.....meh. Maybe not.

But Davison and Rankins, possibly. I won't say Ellerbe this time because we probably shouldn't count on him for the future.....KV. You just listed Harper as a huge liability. KV would have helped. Kik could have played WITH his injury and probably had done better than Kruger.

And did the fact that we were playing our #6, 7, and 8 CBs NOT factor into the RBs gashing us? That's a pretty short sighted comment. Anyone see how far back Byrd was playing? I wonder if he would have been playing so far back if it were Breaux, Williams, and Swann out there. Probably not. In fact, we probably were playing a lot of people further from the LoS to keep the play in front of us. Sure. In hind sight that destroyed us. But put people up closer to the LoS and the narrative today may have been "How did we let Julio break the single game receiving yards record against us?"

It all factors in, guys. You simply can't be missing this many players and look good. No team can.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

On a note related to Ellerbe. I truly believe that his injury issues might be tied to his contract situation. The team is moving forward and I'm not sure Ellerbe has ever been anything more than a stop gap player. What has me thinking this is that Ellerbe’s contract voids out if he plays less than 80 percent of snaps, which would turn into $3.2 million in savings.

 

[SystemShock]

Davison by himself.....meh. Maybe not.

But Davison and Rankins, possibly.

You keep on bringing Rankins as if he was a bona fide starter, and he very well could turn out to be a bona fide starter in the future, but the fact is, he still has not played a single down in the NFL.

I won't say Ellerbe this time because we probably shouldn't count on him for the future

Good.

And did the fact that we were playing our #6, 7, and 8 CBs NOT factor into the RBs gashing us? That's a pretty short sighted comment.
Anyone see how far back Byrd was playing? I wonder if he would have been playing so far back if it were Breaux, Williams, and Swann out there.

So, the Falcons gained 112 yards from the line of scrimmage before they were even touched. Please tell me, who lines up on the line of scrimmage? CB's? I don't think so.

As for Byrd, Byrd is a FS. Normally, in front of him, you got 4 linemen, 3 LBs, and 1 SS. Are you really going to sit there and tell me, the Falcons gained 112 uncontested rushing yards because the FS was lined up far away from the LoS? The FS? I'm gonna put on my Captain Obvious cape on, and say that, when you FS is the one generally stopping the run, you got issues.

You keep on bringing Breaux and Swann as if they were Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson. Last year, sure, Breaux did very well all things considered, but still the passing defense was 31st in the league, allowing 4500+ yds passing. Swann was average, at best, and only played 7 games. The eyeball test tells me Sterling Moore is a better corner than Swann. PJ has played a grand total of 1 1/2 games in the NFL.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

And did the fact that we were playing our #6, 7, and 8 CBs NOT factor into the RBs gashing us? That's a pretty short sighted comment. Anyone see how far back Byrd was playing? I wonder if he would have been playing so far back if it were Breaux, Williams, and Swann out there. Probably not. In fact, we probably were playing a lot of people further from the LoS to keep the play in front of us. Sure. In hind sight that destroyed us. But put people up closer to the LoS and the narrative today may have been "How did we let Julio break the single game receiving yards record against us?"

Byrd has been playing a lot of single high safety since he got here, regardless of CB personnel. That's by design, to take advantage of his speed, ball-hawking and general ability to make plays on the ball (no, really.... stop laughing, you guys...I'm serious!)

Ironically the Cover 1 usually means more guys in the box to stop the run. Oops.

It's been part of our overall effort to copycat the Seattle D and their concepts... *giggle*
Fortunately, Byrd is a great open field tackler so he can really clean up any misses by the underneath guys....... *BWAA HA HAHAHA*!!

 

[Devildog]

Ellerbe is dead weight.

 

[diehardfan]

Ellerbe is dead weight.

Blessed to see another day.

 

[Goatman Saint]

Worst part I see is that because of injuries linebackers are either having to rush to get pressure or are off the field to put more men in the backfield because of CB injuries. Unfortunately it allows for offensive lineman to double Jordan and Fairley because at this point there is no reason to give any great attention to anyone else. Hopefully when Rankins gets back then he will at least be able to tie up his guy allowing one of the others to do something. Yes the running back yardage is a fault of the defense, but there's simply a huge lack of manpower


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