NFC Championship Afterword: Falcons vs 49ers

Frank Gore was very effective once San Francisco's read-option got going
and Atlanta could not stop him. Photo credit to The Arizona Daily Star.

It always seems to be the same story with these Falcons: get out to an early lead, turn ultra conservative, and trust Matt Ryan and/or Matt Bryant to pull off the win after you give up the lead.

Yesterday followed that script to a T. The biggest difference was that Matt Ryan was slammed during their final drive and hurt something in his left chest or shoulder. It wasn’t his throwing arm, but it seemed to be bothering him pretty severely. He couldn’t open up to put much behind his throws, which may have led him to panic on a 4^th down play inside the red zone. I think it also was the reason for the bizarre play call not to throw up a Hail Mary into the end zone and instead throw over the middle to Julio Jones and pray he could do something as time expired.

The better team won. The Falcons deserved to win for about 40 minutes of that game, but conservative offense and prevent defense betrayed them. Colin Kaepernick took full advantage as the Falcons lack of aggressiveness on defense completely nullified any effects of a very loud home crowd.

Once Kaepernick was able to make some plays throwing the ball down the field, it opened things up for the read-option and the Falcons were doomed. Frank Gore ran for 90 yards and a couple of scores, mostly out of the read-option. LaMichael James added another 34 yards on the ground with a score of his own out of the same set.

Neither Jacquizz Rodgers nor Michael Turner reached James’s rushing yards mark in the game.

As I expected, Julio Jones and Roddy White were just too much for the 49ers’ secondary to handle. They are very physical, and Jones in particular made some pretty impressive catches. They also have more speed than a lot of defenses are aware of. When you throw Tony Gonzalez into that mix, this is probably the best receiving corps in football, followed closely by teams like Baltimore and New Orleans.

For Atlanta, their season ends in disappointment, but they finally won a playoff game with Matt Ryan under center. If Atlanta can remain competitive in the NFC South, there will be plenty more over the next several years. One of the biggest hurdles facing them will be replacing Tony Gonzalez if he does in fact retire. Yesterday he said their loss to San Francisco was “probably” his last game. “I’ve been very blessed. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great ride, an unbelievable ride. I have no regrets,” he said.

San Francisco, meanwhile, advances to their franchise’s sixth Super Bowl. They are 5-0, putting them one short of Pittsburgh’s record for most Super Bowl victories. They will play as the home team in New Orleans on February 3.

Check back with my blog daily over the next two weeks, especially next week when the focus will be fully on Super Bowl XLVII. For updates on when new blog posts are published, ‘like’ my page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @cpuffnfl.

NFC Championship Preview: Falcons vs 49ers

Sunday, January 20, 2013

3:00pm – FOX

San Francisco 49ers @ Atlanta Falcons

The 49ers return for a second straight year as they tie Dallas for the most
NFC Championship Game appearances, with 14. This is Atlanta's third
appearance and their first since January 2005.

I did not have an easy time coming up with my predictions for either of Sunday’s games, but this one was definitely the tougher of the two.

San Francisco, of course, has had a fantastic season. Alex Smith played great football early in the season, and when Colin Kaepernick took over, he impressed right away. As bad as I feel for Smith, Kaepernick earned the right to continue starting for the 49ers and he has continued to play great in big games.

Not only has Kaepernick shown an ability to win big games, he’s shown that he can do it regardless of the venue. The Georgia Dome, however, may be the loudest venue in the NFL – no offense to the Superdome or to CenturyLink Field.

I think being at home played a fairly significant role in Kaepernick overcoming an early pick-6 and leading San Francisco to victory last week. I’m not ready to bet on him having as big of a game against Atlanta.

The Falcons have been wanting for a postseason win for several years now, and they finally got one by holding off the Seahawks last week. I think Matt Ryan will benefit a great deal from that confidence boost.

The 49ers dealt with Green Bay’s massive receiving corps quite nicely. They likely won’t get beat too badly by Roddy White or Julio Jones, but I don’t know that they can compete with White and Jones on a physical level.

The one thing that makes me real nervous about this pick is the questionable status of John Abraham, who was severely limited against Seattle with an ankle injury and might not be active at all tomorrow.

Still, I think the home field advantage, a confident Matt Ryan and a defense that is much better than Green Bay’s will be enough to send Atlanta to their franchise’s second Super Bowl appearance.

Puff’s Pick:

San Francisco 49ers – 20

Atlanta Falcons – 31

MVP: Matt Ryan


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Divisional Round Afterword: Falcons vs Seahawks

Julio Jones intercepted Russell Wilson's Hail Mary attempt as time ran out,
clinching Atlanta's first playoff win since January 2005. Photo credit to AL.com.

Here is the snap, Matt Bryant with the kick, and it is NO GOOD!! But wait, a timeout was taken by Seattle! And Pete Carroll wants to know who called for the timeout.

Video clearly showed Carroll asking for the timeout just before Atlanta’s snap, but what most people don’t know is the actual reason Carroll was upset. Before the game, officials told the coaches that they would not allow practice kicks in a situation like that. Carroll made it clear during his post-game press conference that he was displeased that Bryant was allowed to take that practice kick after the timeout was called. In my opinion, though, it was Carroll’s own fault for waiting until the last moment to ask for the timeout.

Bryant had a second chance to kick the game-winner, and he made it to clinch Atlanta’s first postseason win with Mike Smith and Matt Ryan. It was also Tony Gonzalez’s first postseason win in his career, which is expected to end after this season.

Matt Ryan played a very good game overall, though it was far from perfect. He threw two interceptions, but the first one appeared to be at least partly the fault of Tony Gonzalez. The second looked identical to an interception Robert Griffin III threw down the left sideline during last week’s playoff game against Seattle.

Russell Wilson had many more passing yards than Ryan, but that was mostly because of soft defensive play during the second half by Atlanta, who had a 20-0 lead at halftime. Wilson had to throw a lot because Marshawn Lynch was held to just 46 yards on 16 carries.

Atlanta, meanwhile, had the dominant ground game on Sunday. Michael Turner ran for 98 yards on 14 carries while Jacquizz Rodgers had 64 yards on 10 touches.

Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and Jason Snelling each had touchdown receptions for Atlanta. Julio Jones was a big part of the passing game, with six receptions, but his only touch in the end zone was a game-ending interception when he came in to defend a Hail Mary attempt by Russell Wilson, who already had a game-winning interception this season. This one, however, was ruled correctly and Seattle’s impressive season came to an end.

Atlanta is the only team advancing to the conference championships this season that was not in this round last year. Atlanta will host San Francisco Sunday at 3:00 p.m. on FOX for the NFC Championship.

Pre-Season Week 1 Look-back

I know we already had the Hall of Fame game, but I have never truly considered it a pre-season game, more like a pre- pre-season game. We finally got our fill with a full slate of NFL action this past weekend (Thursday-Monday), and it was very fulfilling, for me at least.

We got things kicked off with six games on Thursday, beginning with Robert Griffin III’s debut as the Redskins visited Buffalo (quick side note, I think the best thing the Redskins could have done and didn’t, when Nike took over uniform production, would have been to use it as an opportunity to put the classic ‘R’ back on their helmets). RGIII didn’t disappoint and made the most of his limited action, throwing the only touchdown of the game for either side while taking 14 snaps over three drives.

Baltimore beat Atlanta handily, but not before Julio Jones made all fantasy football players aware of his potential (6 catches, 100+ yards and a TD in just a quarter of playing time). The Patriots narrowly beat the Hall of Fame Game winners, the Saints, 7-6 as Brady wasn’t protected well and Brees just went 1-4 in his short outing.

Philly and Pittsburgh played a close one, with the Eagles taking a 24-23 victory at home. Green Bay struggled a bit against San Diego, losing 21-13. The Chargers had their own bad news, however, as Ryan Matthews went down with an injury that could keep him out past the season opener.

And, of course, Peyton Manning made his return to the field. He looked good, not great, but very solid as he only played in one drive, and drove the length of the field before a tipped pass was picked off near the goal line. Denver’s backups got the job done, though, and they handily beat the Bears in Chicago, 31-3.

Friday saw another six games played. Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow didn’t look terrible, but neither was able to get points up as Cincinnati won at home. Cleveland beat Detroit, 19-17, reminding us how silly it is to care about pre-season football; wins tend to mean a bit less when it’s your second and third string players who are better than the other team’s second and third stringers.

Jacksonville inched by the Giants, 32-31. Jordan Palmer, Carson’s younger brother, got a fair amount of playing time for the Jaguars. Tampa Bay beat the Dolphins soundly, shortly before Miami parted ways with Chad Johnson. Kansas City beat Arizona at home and the 49ers, also at home, earned a 17-6 victory over Minnesota.

The weekend saw a bit less action as the week wound down. The Texans beat Carolina, 26-13. Cam Newton was a little shaky throwing it in his pre-season opener, but he ripped off a 15-yard run on one of his two carries. The other Saturday game saw the newly swagged-out Seahawks notch a 10-point win over the Titans.

The only Sunday game saw the bottom two teams from the 2011 season, the Colts, who had the 1^st overall pick in the draft, and the Rams, who got several draft picks in trading their 2^nd overall pick to the Redskins. The Colts showed no mercy in their 38-3 blowout. Andrew Luck’s first pass went for a 63-yard touchdown, though it was only completed a few yards down field. The team would score touchdowns on three of his four drives as he went 10-16 with 188 yards and a pair of TDs.

Week 1 closed with a very different, 3-0 win by the Cowboys in Oakland. It is only pre-season, and kinks can be worked out, but neither team looked comfortable, or particularly good. I don’t want to analyze too prematurely, but both teams could be in for a long season based on what we saw from them and from the teams they will be facing in the regular season.

Like me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cpuffnfl and follow me on Twitter @PuffontheNFL. Tomorrow I will post the coming week’s Top Things to Know and Pre-Season Week 2 will kick off Thursday with the Bengals playing in Atlanta and the Packers hosting the Browns.

Until then, thanks for reading!