Despite last week’s loss in New Orleans, the Falcons have to feel pretty good about things right now. Picked by almost everyone to be one of the league’s worst teams, they find themselves in the middle of the race for the playoffs in mid-December. That’s no small feat for a team with youngsters littering the depth chart on both sides of the ball.
They’ve made it this far despite that youth. But things are about to get a lot tougher this weekend, when Atlanta’s arch-nemesis, the 9-4 Tampa Bay Bucs, come to town. Beating the Bucs would show just how far Atlanta has come since the Bucs handled them in Week 2. But losing could put a sizable dent into the Falcons’ playoff dreams.
WIN UP FRONT
It’s not like the Bucs have a wealth of playmakers on either side of the ball. But they beat you in the trenches by controlling games at the line of scrimmage. The Bucs did exactly that in their 24-9 victory over Atlanta in Week 2. That game may seem like distant history now, but it still provides the Falcons with an example of what Tampa can do if they can dominate on the lines. Want proof? Just look at the box score. Michael Turner rushed for just 42 yards, a season low. Meanwhile, the typically unflappable Matt Ryan threw two interceptions against the vaunted “Tampa 2” defense and had to deal with constant pressure from the Bucs’ front seven, which tallied four sacks on the day.
There is a little good news in this area. Starting defensive tackles Chris Hovan and Jovan Haye are both banged up, and their status for Sunday is uncertain.
If the Falcons want a different result this time around against Tampa, then things must change in this area. And we all know what Matt Ryan and Turner can do when given just a little bit of space and time to work with.
FIGHT BACK
Like it or not, the Falcons will be facing serious adversity at some point on Sunday. The Bucs team that showed up for Monday’s debacle against the Panthers is certainly not the Tampa team that we’ll see at The Dome. They’ll be an angry and motivated bunch this weekend which is looking to prove itself. And they are just too good to get taken behind the woodshed two weeks in a row.
Jon Gruden will have his team ready to play on both sides of the ball, so don’t lose your head if they get off to a good start. If the past is any indication, the birds should be fine, as they have responded positively every time this year when backed into a corner. But now they’re in the thick of the playoff race with the season winding down, putting them in a position that many players on this young team have never been in before. If this young group can band together once again and fight back against the favored Bucs then we will have a good game on our hands. If not, it could be a repeat of Week 2.
CASH IN
If the Falcons want to play into the postseason, they need to start treating these final three games as postseason games themselves. Lose just one of these final three, and they’re leaving their fate in the hands of others. If they win out, they just need one loss from Dallas (a strong possibility based on their murderous remaining schedule) to put themselves in position to control their destiny.
So what does that mean? For starters, it’s time to stop leaving points on the board. As good as the Atlanta offense has been this season, they have botched a staggering amount of opportunities to score. Whether it be turnovers, a play for negative yardage, dropped passes, or just not making plays, this team has squandered an abundance of chances to get the ball in the end zone.
This was actually a trend that started in Tampa in the Sept. 14 loss. The Falcons twice drove inside the Bucs’ 10-yard line, and came out of it with three chip-shot field goals from Jason Elam. Atlanta nearly lost a game against the Bears several weeks later, a game which they dominated but couldn’t finish off drives. Elam was called on six times to kick a field goal, making five of them, including the game-winner as time expired. Then there was the win in San Diego a few weeks ago. Atlanta turned the ball over three times to kill drives in that game, and the Chargers scored all of their points off of those giveaways. If the Falcons make this kind of thing a habit this week, they’ll surely be suffering their second consecutive defeat.
Bagriansky can be reached at jbagriansky@scoreatl.com.
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