Honestly I think the Falcons played very nervously today, especially Matt Ryan since it was his first playoff victory. I expect them to play much better next week against the 49ers.
Also YTP, the Falcons should focus on Crabtree rather than Vernon Davis, because if they tackle as poorly as they did today, Crabtree will have a field day.
I think this is fair if you only look at the second half. They were almost flawless in the first half (interception + a couple plays to Miller the TE) but played terribly in the 3rd/4th quarters. I can't imagine the feeling Tony Gonzalez must have had on the sidelines towards the end of the game.
Honestly, I don't think Raven's have a shot if were being realistic. 90% of Flacco's yards were from heaving the ball down the field to the right sideline and hoping a reciever caught it, no way Bellicheck will let that happen again. If Ray Rice gets going though, then who knows.
But the Pats offense is just too damn good lol.
You can't coach defenses to defend those kinds of passes. That second touchdown to TS, when Champ was neck and neck defending him and he just kind of stopped and caught the ball - you can't defend that! Sure, I guess you can have the safeties play extra deep, but the tight ends/Ray would probably just light them up if they did that. If this is what Flacco
can do, Belichick has to make sure to get him off his rhythm early and hope that he reverts to 200 yards/game Flacco. He's got his work cut out for him.
So, is Atlanta's defense bad, or is Seattle's offense just that good?
Since I was at the game I'm not sure how much they discussed it on TV, but Abraham (the Falcons' best and only pass rusher) missed the second half and the end of the first half. This allowed Wilson to get a
ton of time in the pocket (often 5-6 seconds at LEAST, several instances of 10+ seconds). The secondary, Atlanta's strength, can't cover guys for that long! There was literally one play where one of the Seahawks WR ran a go pattern 50+ yards upfield, then turned around and ran back about 20 yards and caught a pass from Wilson about 10 seconds after the play started. Whenever we blitzed, Wilson did a fantastic job of reading it and throwing it to the hot route, and usually the linebacker we sent was the guy that'd normally cover #86 Miller who proceeded to get like 150 yards on us.
Don't mean to make this sound rant-y or anything, but by the middle of the fourth quarter I was cursing Mike Nolan's name for everyone to hear. He called a fantastic first 1.5 quarters, and did terribly from then out. Atlanta's defense was definitely bad this game (as if the 500 yards didn't indicate that).
