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 It is amusing to me that many of the comments I receive are urging me to post more often. I really would like to accede to their wishes, but unfortunately I have to spend an infinite amount of time filtering through and deleting the plethora of spam artists advertising their cheesy products on my site. Could someone explain why spam artists waste their time hitting on small blogs such as mine?  Seriously, I am contemplating shutting down the comments page, but that would imply the infidels have won.

 Moving on, I was delighted my Falcons proved me wrong in defeating New Orleans, the Super Bowl Champions, in their own backyard. That is the first time Atlanta has won in New Orleans since 2002. It wasn’t pretty but a win is a win. The Saints kicker was given an opportunity to claim victory for his team in overtime but he pulled his kick wide from 27 yards giving the Falcons the opportunity to launch an attack in attempt to win the game.

Utilizing their running backs, Turner and Smelling, the Falcons relentlessly and methodically moved the ball downfield until they were in field goal range. Despite a couple of false starts, Bryant kicked the ball through the middle of the uprights to secure a well deserved win for the Falcons 27-24.

 This game resembled two heavyweight prizefighters going toe to toe with no quarter given or taken. Coach Mike Smith compiled a game plan on the basis of attack is the best form of defense against an imaginative Saints team. He also revealed considerable moral fiber by giving the green light to his team orchestrating several plays on fourth down. A crucial element in Atlanta’s win was the 46 minutes they had possession of the football compared to only 27 minutes for the Saints. Quite simply, if you have possession the other team cannot score.

 However on limited scraps, Drew Brees managed to throw for 365 yards and touch downs. He threw one pass to Lance Moore for an 80 yard touch down which set alarm bells off in my head. But generally speaking the much maligned Falcons defense bent but did not break and executed two sacks on the Saints quarter back. More significantly, Brees threw two interceptions, and statistically a team that has two or more turnovers in a game loses 85% of the time in the NFL.

 Tony Gonzalez played a great game with 8 receptions for 110 yards and scoring a touch down in the process. It was bit of a mystery why the Saints assigned a rookie to cover a 14 year veteran heading for the Hall of Fame. Roddy White added 69 receiving yards with a 22 yard touch down the highlight of a good day’s work for him. Matt Ryan delivered a sound game controlling his offense very effectively. However, his attempts to find Harry Douglas with a deep ball downfield were not very successful and that is an area which the coaches should address if Ryan is to acquire all the weapons that a successful quarter back in this league needs.

 Michael Turner had a solid game  with 114 rushing yards from 30 attempts, but  there is a tendency to use him as a battering ram aimed at the middle of the opposition’s defensive line where invariably very little yardage is gained. Again, the offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey needs to study film, change his mindset and introduce a little more creativity in the rushing game.

 Nevertheless the comparison in rushing yards achieved by the two teams is an eye opener. The Falcons ran the football for 202 yard while the Saints could only achieve 43 yards. Ryan passed for 215 yards which indicates quite rightly that the passing and rushing elements of the offense were well balanced. The offensive line provided reasonable protection for Ryan, but my game ball must go to the defensive line for limiting New Orleans to just 43 yards. Yes, Brees passed for over 350 yards but passing was very often his only option and not necessarily his game plan.

We are now two weeks into the NFL season and my beloved Atlanta Falcons have won one and lost one. The opening game was away to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the talking heads made the Falcons slight favorites to win a tight game. This prognosis was made on the basis that the Steelers first choice quarter back, big Ben Roethlisburger was suspended for four games for not keeping little Ben in his pants during a night out in a one horse town called Milledgeville in South Georgia.

This is the Falcons’ quarter back Matt Ryan’s third season and big things are expected of him. Several NFL experts expect him to join the elite fraternity comprising Peyton Manning. Drew Brees, Tom Brady. Following the Falcons’ 14-9 overtime loss to the Steelers I am not convinced that he should be mentioned in the same stratosphere as those guys. Yes, he threw for 252 yards, but over 44 attempts which produced an average of 5.7 yards per throw with one interception.  In essence Ryan is most comfortable when making 20 yard throws to his receivers. It no longer appears that he can throw the long ball successfully downfield.

It is difficult to tell how much is Ryan’s timidity, the offensive co-coordinator’s play-calling, or the game plans and offense design. Ryan is looking for Gonzalez and White exclusively and not going through progressions. No downfield throws, no crossing patterns, no patterns and very few fly patterns. Talking about Gonzalez, the first half of the game was dominated by the offense attempting to complete Gonzalez 1000^th reception. Finally he caught the damn ball to achieve his goal. He promptly ran off the field to place the game ball in his trophy cabinet and posed for photographs until his coach reminded him he had a game to play.

 The Falcons offense is structured around a running game, but unfortunately we only managed 58 rushing yards against the Steelers’s much vaunted defense. Michael Turner managed only 42 yards from 19 carries. Turner revealed no burst, no breakaway speed, failed to bounce it to the outside, couldn’t run anybody over, went down on first contact, and generally played as if auditioning for a spot on Dancing with the Stars.

 It would help if the receivers could create separation with the defense. I don’t know if it’s the play calling or the route running but every receiver was covered like a blanket and never achieved any significant yardage after the catch. The defense played well generally but one has to take into consideration that the Steelers were fielding a third-string quarter back. It was also disturbing the way the Steelers running back was allowed to make a 50 yard run into the end zone for the winning touch down by scampering around the side of our defensive line which was sucked in by the Steelers offensive line.

 Questions: was the Falcons’ running game anemic or were they up against one of the best defenses in the league? Can the downfield component of the Falcons’ offense be rediscovered?

 The Falcons next opponent in Week 2 was the Arizona Cardinals who experienced significant personnel changes in the off season. Their star quarter back Kurt Warner retired, one of their top receivers, Bolden, signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Ravens and their top receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, had not trained properly for six weeks and was a little ring rusty.

 The Falcons scored an early touch down in this game only to be pulled back by a Tim Hightower score for the Cardinals. He ran 80 yards by evading the defensive line in a similar way to the touch down scored against the Falcons the previous week by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fortunately, the Cardinals didn’t threaten to score for the remainder of the game and the Falcons ran out comfortable winners 41-7.

 The Falcons running game came alive in this game achieving a grand total of 221 yards (compared to 58 yards the previous week.) Michael “twinkle toes” Turner ran for 75 yards on 9 carries before leaving the field with a groin injury. Jason Snelling picked up the chalice and ran for 129 yards and had a credible 57 yards in receiving; scoring 3 touch downs in the process. While Snelling was performing an improbable imitation of Barry Sanders, the former running back of the Detroit Lions, the Cardinals defensive line and secondary had more holes than my Auntie Beattie’s hair net.

 Ryan’s passing output showed more variation in this game passing for 225 yards. He used a total of 6 receivers at appropriate times in the game: Roddy White, Brian Finneran, Ovie Mughelli, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Snelling and Harry Douglas. Douglas provided some threat downfield and Gonzalez was used mainly as a decoy. Significantly, Ryan’s successful pass attempts, including touch downs were all in the range of 20 yards.

 Question: was Michael Turner just terrible against Steelers and lights out against the Cardinals? To put in perspective, the Steelers shut down the Titans’ running game, restricting them to 46 yards. Chris Johnson, one of the best running backs in the league only managed 34 yards on 16 carries which leads me to the conclusion that the Steelers have one if not the best defense in the league.

 The contrasting results in the first two games send out mixed messages and it is too early to predict where the Falcons stand with regard to the elite teams in the league. In Week 3 the Falcons visit division rivals and Super Bowl Champions New Orleans. The Saints are not quite firing on all cylinders and have lost Reggie Bush for six weeks with a broken leg. The Falcons will have to play the rest of the season without Jerius Norwood or tore his ACL catching the kick off ball. Hopefully Turner is fit enough to play and we can hit them with the Turner/Snelling tandem. Drew Brees struggled a little on the west coast in Monday night’s matchup with San Francisco, but he is a different proposition in a dome.

 I just hope the Falcons give a good account of themselves, but I’m expecting the Saints to win a close encounter. Go Falcons.