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The 2020 NFL season was a smoldering pile of heartbreak, missed opportunities, and disappointment for Atlanta Falcons fans. While Atlanta fans are used to enduring undue amounts of pain and suffering at the hands of our sports teams, this year’s 4-12 campaign managed to hurt and disappoint us in ways no other team has before...and that’s saying a lot for a team that blew a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl.
“Disappointing” doesn’t seem like a strong enough word to describe a season in which the Falcons could have nabbed a spot in the expanded Wild Card round with just an 8-8 record. Instead, they become one of only three teams to go 0-7 in one-score games since 2002, leading to the dismissals of both Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn.
As frustrating as it was, it wasn't ALL bad for the Falcons. So with a heavy but hopeful heart, here are 16 things I loved and hated about the 2020 Atlanta Falcons.
16. I love A.J. Terrell. He struggled at the end of the year against some really good receiver/QB duos (San Diego, Tampa Bay x 2, Kansas City)
15. I love our linebackers. Foye Oluokon put together a Pro Bowl caliber season as he led the team in tackles for the second straight year (despite the fact that Pro Football Focus hates him). Whoever takes over as the Falcons next head coach will have two strong building blocks in the middle of the defense in Oluokon and Deion Jones.
14. I love our anonymous depth pieces on the defensive line. Jacob Tuioti-Mariner, John Cominsky, and Steven Means provided really solid rotational depth and all showed flashes. None are the dominant game changers you need to be a stellar front seven, but they are group of blue collar underdogs that largely outperformed expectations (which were honestly pretty low). Basically, they're the kind of players you want to pair with an elite edge rusher.
13. I hate the production from our “A-list” defensive linemen...and by "A-List" I'm referring to our big ticket free agents and high draft picks.
Deadrin Senat has two tackles in the last two seasons. The former third round pick has played in just four games during that time.
Second round pick Marlon Davidon played in seven games and had EIGHT tackles.
Dante Fowler had one more sack and five more tackles than the departed Takk McKinley. That's a season total of two sacks, and ten tackles. WTH???
12. I hate Todd Gurley’s knee and Julio Jones’ hamstring. Gurley’s workload and production dropped off a cliff after week 10 as he missed multiple games and saw sparse playing time when he did play. After scoring nine TD in the first nine games, Gurley managed just 95 yards and ZERO TD in the last seven games. Meanwhile, Jones' hamstring limited him to just nine games -- his lowest total since 2013. He was still good when he played, ranking in the top-10 in yards per game and leading the league in catches of 20+ yards through the first half of the season.
11. I hate our return game...again. It’s fine if you like to watch fair catches (looking at YOU Eric Weems), but the Falcons seemingly NEVER get that big return to flip momentum and field position. Can we bring back Andre Roberts? Can we get Devin Hester out of retirement?
10. I both love and hate Matt Ryan’s consistency. I appreciate that he rarely has seasons where he completely sucks and doesn’t string together bad games, but I just want him to be better than just “pretty good.” With little exception, the typical matt Ryan year is good-too-pretty-good with -- right around 4,500 25 TD/12 INT. Guess his stats for 2020? Just over 4,500 yards, 26 TD/11 INT ranking in the top-12 in every major stat Is it wrong to want just a little more??
9. I love the development of Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage. Ridley made second team All-Pro with 90 catches for 1,374 and nine TD, finally staying health enough to produce like the WR1 many people believed he would become. Gage added a career-high 72 catches for 786 yards and became one of Ryan's favorite third down targets, hauling in 50 first down catches.
8. I (still) hate the Falcons Red Zone offense. The Falcons finished No. 26 in red zone TD percentage for the second year in a row. Many factors contribute to this (personnel, execution, etc), but I want to focus on two things -- play calling and lack of a run game. (Plus the one game every year where Matt Ryan throws a late game pick in the endzone. Longtime Falcons fans knows exactly what I’m talking about.)
When you can run the ball effectively, you’re good in the red zone. Four of top-five red zone offenses in the NFL had Pro Bowl running backs...they other had Russell Wilson. When the Falcons had peak Devonta Freeman, they excelled in the Red Zone. Earlier this year when the Falcons had a healthy Todd Gurley, they were passable in the red zone. As Gurley’s health waned and his workload dropped, it became the Younghoe Koo show. Koo was great, but leading the NFL in made FG isn’t ALWAYS a good thing.
7. I love Younghoe Koo. He was the most prolific kicker in the NFL this season, making 95% of this kicks and going an unreal 8-8 on kicks of 50+. I love him even more for missing that late FG against KC to guarantee the Falcons didn’t accidentally win that game and ruin their top-five draft position. (I didn’t actually feel that way at the time, but hindsight is 20/20).
6. I hate the Falcons run game. It was so inconsistent. Ito Smith was our best pure runner, Brian Hill had the most big play potential, and Todd Gurley was best in short yardage and pass protection. Basically each one of them made up about 70% of an NFL running back, and it was frustrating at times watching us mix and match trying to get each player in a position to maximize what they did best to mixed results The end result was that the Falcons finished near the bottom of the league in rushing (again).
5. I love Jeff Ulbrich’s defense. Ulbrich retained most of Quinn’s personnel and scheme but made one big change...he blitzed -- a lot. In particular, he blitzed Deion Jones with great success, something we rarely ever saw under Dan Quinn. Most impressive of all -- he managed to fix Isaiah Oliver. Oliver’s skill set isn’t particularly well suited to playing in the slot, but he STRUGGLED outside, so Ulbrich decided to just have Oliver match up with the other team’s No.3 receiver (when possible) regardless of where they lined up. All of a sudden, Oliver looked like a competent NFL player through the last 6 games (though still not what you hope for out of a second round pick).
4. I hate the occasional genius of Dirk Koetter. How could Koetter’s schemes look so ingenious in some games (ex: Week 15 vs Tampa) and so terrible in the very next game (week 16 vs Kansas City)? There were multiple times in the last five weeks where I saw a new wrinkle added that made me say -- “That’s awesome -- why didn’t we do that before?? Why didn’t we flare our backs more? Why did we wait so long to use Russell Gage in the wildcat? Why didn’t we let Ito Smith get more carries? Why didn’t we throw more quick screens as an extension of our run game?" You get the idea.
3. I love Raheem Morris...but not as our head coach. I love his blunt, no-nonsense approach, his emphasis on accountability, and his ability to connect with players. But the Falcons need a peak offensive mind to squeeze every last bit of juice out of the end of Matt and Julio’s primes, and that simply isn’t Raheem’s game. Even if Morris was able to hire a top-flight offensive coordinator, good OC's usually last about two seasons before getting poached for head coaching gigs (ala Kyle Shanahan). Morris is a strong candidate, he just may not be the right one for what the Falcons need.
2. I hate our end-of-game management and execution. Here are a few highlights from of our end of game blunders:
Couldn’t cover an onside kick at Dallas.
Failed on 4th down against Detroit instead of kicking a FG to go up an extra score. Then Todd Gurley scores with less than a minute left allowing Detroit time to come back.
Threw two INT with in the last 4 minutes against San Diego.
Missed a 39-yard game-tying FG against KC.
Needs we go on??
1. I love our draft position. If the Falcons defeated the Bucs on the last day of the season they could’ve dropped to as far as No.11 in the draft. I don't believe for rooting for your team to lose, but I do believe there is very little advantage in dropping SEVEN spots in the draft to win a meaningless game in week 16 of a lost season. Here's hoping whomever the Falcons take at No.4 becomes a building block for the resurrection of our beloved franchise.
Bring on 2021. Rise Up!
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