Back at School, getting ready for my finals and then headed back to Atlanta for the rest of the year. I don't agree with how the school gives us time off for Thanksgiving and then we have to come back to for finals then traverse back to our homes. Why not just give us finals before Thanksgiving and let us stay home for an extra week. Granted we don't have to go home for Thanksgiving so I guess its not really the schools fault. Any way with that being said. HEY YALL, thanks for coming back for another week of the Dirty Bird Blogging on the one and only WeDatNation. I’m going to try to keep this short because I have to get back to this Biology study guide. Last week the Vikings came into the Georgia Dome looking to upset the Atlanta Falcons, who have gotten on a roll winning 5 of the last 6 games. Can the Vikings play spoiler for the Falcons and their post season hopes. Let’s get into that RECAP!!!!
Recap
We are going to pick things up on Atlanta's second possession of the game. After both teams go 3 and out and exchange punts Atlanta gets the ball on on their own 20 looking to drive down the field. 1st and 10 Michael Turner finds running room behind the left guard and takes the ball for about 10 yards and a FIRST DOWN! Next play its Turner again for 1 yard but add on 15 for the face make on the NFLs very own "Rhinestone Cowboy" Jared Allen. AYE ALLEN THIS IS THE NFL NOT THE RODEO! WATCH THOSE HANDS WHEN YOU TRYING TO WRANGLE UP MY RUNNING BACK! 3 plays later it’s Turner off the left side again for 10 more yards and Atlanta is marching down deep into Vikings territory. 3 plays later Atlanta is pushed out of the Red Zone after Joe Hawley is flagged for holding. 1st and 20 from the 28, Jason Snelling tries the left side and picks up 1 yard to the 27. 2nd and 19, Ryan finds Harry Douglas on a short drag route... He stiff arms one guy.... makes another miss... next thing you know he is High Stepping at the 10... The 5... TOUCHDOWN HARRY HD DOUGLAS!!!! (7-0)
Moving right along into the 2nd Quarter of action, Atlanta has the ball on the 32 yard line. From watching this game, apparently Atlanta saw something during the week on the film that they absolutely loved about the left side of the Vikings defense because they ran at the right side the entire game. First and 10, Turner picks up 3 yards off the left side. 2nd 7 its Jacquizz Rodgers off the left side for a gain of 8 and a First down, down to the 43 yard line. 1st and 10, everybody is doing it so, Why not it’s Jason Snelling off the left side for 3 yards. Two plays later The Burner, again takes the ball for 2 yards off the left side and it kicks Atlanta into its no huddle attack. Matt Ryan drops back and hit all pro tight end Tony Gonzalez for a 9 yard gain. 3rd and 4 Matt Ryan completes a pass to Harry Douglas for 18 yards down to the Minnesota 22. Two plays later Ryan and Gonzalez picks up another 18 yards. On the Next play Ryan Fires a pass to Roddy White into the end zone and Roddy does an amazing job tapping his feet in the back of the end zone for the 6 yard TOUCHDOWN!!! Atlanta also adds a 37 yard field goal to make the score (17-0) at the half.
On Minnesota's second possession of the half, the Vikings get things rolling. 1st and 10, Christian Ponder Finds
Adrian, Toby Gerhart for the 8 yard completion, 2nd and 8 Gerhart rips off a 12 yard gain right up the middle of the league’s second ranked rush defense. Two plays later, there is a Shiancoe sighting in the GA Dome, good news for the Vikings, bad news for the Falcons. its a 14 yard gain down at the 46 yard line and the Vikings are marching!!! A few plays later Lawrence Sidbury has enough and SACKS Ponder for a loss of 13 yards at the ATL 34 yard line. Unfortunately for the Falcons, Percy Harvin plays for the Vikings and he picks up 13 yards on second and 23. 3rd and 10 Harvin and Ponder makes another connection this time for 20 yards down to the 1 yard line and from there Toby Gerhart finds the end zone on the 1 yard TD run. Touchdown Vikings. A 14 play, 93 yard drive that chewed almost 8 minutes off the clock. I'm not a homer, I must say that was a well orchestrated drive by a Rookie QB down by 17 on the road missing one of the best running backs in the NFL. (17-7)
The Vikings forces an Atlanta punt and they get the on the 20. Atlanta Forces a 3 and out but then strange things start to happen in the GA dome. Ok well not that strange, While Punt Returner Eric Weems is motioning to the team to stay away from the ball, in an effort of trying to get out of the way Dominique Franks gets a little too close and is accidentally touched by the football and it is recovered by the Vikings. LUCKY BREAK!!! 1st and 10 Ponder misfires a pass toward ex-Falcon Michael Jenkins. 2nd and 15 Percy Harvin takes the handoff up the middle for 2 yards. 3rd and 13 finds Gerhart on the screen, for 6 yards. BUT WAIT it’s a Flag on the play.... A CHALLENGE FLAG, on first glance Gerhart made an amazing catch but after the review the he caught it of a bounce INCOMPLETE!!! 4th and 14 Just when you think The Falcons have made a great defensive stand... Ponder Goes DEEEEEEP for Percy Harvin who is covered by Curtis Lofton and Harvin just out runs the middle line backer for the 39 yard touchdown on 4th down... (17-14)
A couple punts later, Atlanta has the ball on 27. Turner takes the ball off the.... You guessed it left side for 5 yards. Second and 5 Ryan, finds Gonzalez for 6 yards to keep the ball marching down the field. Next play Ryan finds Roddy White, who turned in a wonderful game, for 26 yards. Two plays later it’s Roddy again for 23 yards more yards to the Minnesota 7 yard line. Two plays later Matt Ryan finds tight end MICHAEL PALMER... Who? I said MICHAEL PALMER for the 3 yard TOUCHDOWN. (24-14) On the ensuing kickoff Percy Harvin fields the kick off and Finds a HOLE... AND HE IS OFF TO THE RACES HE COULD GO ALL THE WAY...... BUT HE DOESN'T, Harvin is tackled form behind at the 3 yard line by Chris Owens. One of the best plays of his career in my opinion chasing down some one as fast as Harvin is a big deal. It was either a great angle by Owens or he is a lot faster than I thought. The 104 yard return is the longest play in NFL history that did not go for a touchdown, but the defense has their backs up against the wall.
1st and 10 from the 3 Christian Ponder is SACKED by Chris Owens. 2nd and 5, Percy Harvin tries the right side and gains 3 yards before being tackled by Thomas Decoud ... 3rd and 2, Harvin shoots up the middle for a gain of 1.... Here it is 4th and 1 a stop ends it and Touchdown puts the Vikings back into the ball game... Christian Ponder turns and hands the ball to Toby Gerhart up the middle. but like someone shot Sean Weatherspoon out of a rocket launcher SPOON is in to backfield and Gerhart is on the ground 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. ... BALL GAME ATLANTA WINS 24-14!!!
Offense
Well what can I say? The offense did what it had to do to win the game. Not really much more I can say about that, except I did have a problem with the way they ran the ball or lack thereof. I noted in the recap that they ran left a lot in this game and now I’m sitting looking at the rush yards they accumulated and while the number of yards they got aren't all that great. Atlanta, a run first offense, only racked up 89 yards on the ground. You read right I said ATLANTA not Michael Turner, The team rushed the ball for just 89 yards and 0 touchdowns, however the good news is the team averaged 3.1 yards per carry on 29 carries which isn't great but its not bad. Over the years I guess I have just been spoiled buy the big yards racked up by our all pro running back.
However, again Matt Ryan turned in a great game throwing for 262 yards and only misfiring on 7 of his 34 passes. I love being right and I’m going to bang my drum as long as I’m right. I have gone on record saying that Ryan is a 25-35 throw per game QB and in each of the last two games he has not thrown more than 35 passes. Don't think his number of attempts are doing anything but helping the Falcons, Matt threw for 3 Touchdowns to three different receivers none of them named Julio Jones, who was held without a catch in this game.
Offensive Notables and Player of The Week
Jacquizz Rodgers is keeping his productive rookie season going with 3 carries and 19 yards, which doesn't seem like much but for a 5th round sleeper sharing time with Turner and Snelling he is making the best out of his chances, but like many Falcons fans I'm waiting on him to get into end zone for the first time this season. Roddy White appears to be getting on a roll late this season turning in his second 100+ yard performance in as many weeks, bringing his season totals to 64 receptions 830 yards and 4 touchdowns. Roddy is 6 receptions away from a career milestone 500 receptions. Tony G is being just as consistent as he has ever been with 9 catches for 69 yards. Harry Douglas, who has found a groove after his breakout game of the season against New Orleans, had just two catches but for 45 yards and the first TD of the game.
Player of the Week: Matt Ryan 27 of 34 for 262 and 3 Touchdowns and a rating of 128.2. One thing you want from you QB is for him to be efficient and not make mistakes and he is doing just that.
Defense
I do, however, have a problem with the defense and letting the Vikings back into the game after the offense had seemingly all but blown the lead wide open. For the second straight week the defense has let a Rookie QB come into the game and make them look really bad. After the offense had managed a 17 point lead the defense suddenly couldn't keep the Vikings out of the end zone and that is not something you want to do when your team is trying to make a post season push. The Falcons defense also allowed a fourth down conversion of 13 yards when they left Curtis Lofton of all people covering one of the fastest players in NFL. Taking nothing away from Lofton who worked really hard to become an every down LB, but that's not who you want deep covering Percy Harvin , so from my professional experience I don't think that's how the defense was drawn up.
On a good note the Falcons did hold the Vikings to a poor 3rd down efficiency 4 of 13 to be exact and they did come through in the clutch when the game as potentially on the line Spoon did make a key tackle to turn Minnesota away at the 1 yard line on fourth down. Believe it or not that wasn't even the best tackle of the day. The tackle was made on special teams when it appeared Harvin was taking a kick off back to the house and he is chased down and brought down at the 3 yard line by Chris Owens. I said this earlier but that was the longest play in NFL history that didn't go for a touchdown and then on the next play of the game Chris Owens adds to his day by Sacking Ponder and pushing them back which essentially set up the play for Spoon to make the tackle on 4th down.
Defensive Notables and Player of the Week
Again for the one millionth time this season Sean Weatherspoon and Curtis Lofton led the team in tackles, Spoon with 10 tackles and 1 sack and Curtis Lofton had 9 tackles and 1 pass deflection. Also an unsung hero on the defense this in this game is Lawrence Sidbury who registered his first multi-sack game of his career. Early in the game Brent Grimes left the game with a bad knee, the same knee that slowed him in practice last week and how required surgery which he had on Thursday. James Sanders had 8 tackles this game which I believe is his highest total in his short time with the Falcons. The Defense, held the Vikings to 64 combined yards rushing the football and have yet to allow a team to have a single rusher post a 100 yard rushing game all season, but on the other hand Christian Ponder, a rookie, did have a 103.1 NFL rating after this game and completed 17 or 25 passes and in my eyes that is unacceptable from the NFLs 9th ranked defense. Hopefully next week against Houston they can put together a better effort against the 3rd string rookie quarterback.
Chris Owens-5 tackles 4 solo 1 tackle and 1 sack... I was really stuck between Owens and Sidbury so SURPRISE!!!
Player of the Week: Lawrence Sidbury- 2 tackles 2 sacks 1 tackle for loss and 2 QB hits. Sidbury had his best game of his career and is not tied with the team lead in sacks with 4 on the season. No way I was going to let him go with his moment in the lime light, and If Owens didn't make that huge tackle on the Kickoff return Sid would have been the player of the Week all by himself.
Preview
Time for the Falcons to leave the comfort of the GA Dome for the first time since going to Indianapolis three weeks ago. This time they are headed to Houston to face the Texans without their first or second string QB. Lucky break for Atlanta right? WRONG the Falcons are going to face the 3rd best rushing offense in the NFL with Foster leading the way, even with the 2nd best rushing defense in the NFL the Falcons will still have a lot on their plate. Speaking of defense the Texans boast the 2nd ranked pass defense and the 4th best against the run, so In my opinion, if the Falcons want to escape Texas with a win the defense is going to have to come and play lights out against the 3rd string Rookie QB. T.J. Yates (a GA native) and one of the new premier backs in the NFL.
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