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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Saturday Night Football Afterword: Lions vs Falcons

Calvin Johnson got a chunk of his 225 yards on this
3rd quarter reception. Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.

Being a Lions fan is not something I envy. Then again, I’m sure being a Redskins fan hasn’t been something any of them would envy until this season.

Tonight, Detroit was treated to the Lions’ seventh consecutive loss. The fourth quarter offered a reason for plenty of cheering, but with the Lions in the cellar of the NFC – along with the Eagles – there wasn’t much more excitement to be had.

The source of the stadium’s energy boost in the final quarter was Calvin Johnson, who set three records in the losing effort. He broke Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record with one game left to play this season, and he set records for consecutive 100-yard receiving games and 10-reception games, with eight and four, respectively.

Matt Ryan had a solid game, completing 78% of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns, tying a career high for scoring throws in a game. Two particular passes toward the start of the fourth quarter were most telling of what level his game is at right now, which I would say is very high. He will ultimately be judged by his playoff productions, which has not been very good in his three career playoff games, all loses. But he continues to be a solid regular season player.

Two of Ryan’s touchdown passes went to Roddy White, who had eight catches for 153 yards.

With the win, Atlanta has locked up the top seed in the NFC and will not have to play a road playoff game in 2012.

The Lions, meanwhile, have fallen oh so far since an impressive 2011 campaign that ended with a playoff loss to New Orleans. Detroit will have a lot to do in the draft and during free agency to move back up in a much-improved NFC North. However, the number one concern for Jim Schwartz this offseason needs to be fixing the team’s off-the-field issues, even if it means cutting problematic players, even Ndamukong Suh.