Robinson shines once again in Falcons victory

By: T. Love

It’s important to remember that this is the preseason and defenses aren’t disguising coverages all that much, but Laurent Robinson is looking like a stud. And I called it! In Atlanta’s 13-10 victory over Buffalo last night, the rookie led all Falcon receivers for the second-straight week catching four passes for 54 yards. Overall the offense looked mediocre at best and failed to build on last week’s success. However, in an attempt to stay more positive, here is the bad, good and the great.

In my Friday post, I had a few points to look out for so here it is along with some other observations.

Jason Snelling totin’ the mail
A nice 22 yard run up the gut and averaging a little under 4.2 yards per carry. Not too bad for Snelling in his first start. There is still a little trouble for him to get outside so that limits playcalling, but his pass protection is solid. Snelling has made the roster at this point and he will be a nice change of pace during games this season.

Joey Harrington
Passes longer than 10 yards are just not Joey’s strength. The wind was strong last night, but you have got to compensate better than that. 4-for-7 for 31 yards and one interception. Not good at all and he should have had two picks. Hope the running game can stay strong this season because we still don’t have a quarterback.

D.J. Shockley
The Falcons are cursed!!! I’ll talk about this later.

Stop the run
Held the Bills to 69 rushing yards. Not a bad performance and the return of Grady Jackson was a big help. Rookie Daren Stone is a beast coming up to make a tackle in run support. This guy is going to get some playing time this season and earn his stripes on special teams this season and will be ready to take over for Lawyer Milloy once his Falcon days are over. Fellow rookie Stephen Nicholas had another strong performance with three tackles and two assists. Keep playing hard, he and Demorrio Williams will make each other better on the weakside.

Former falcons
No grabs for Peerless. There was a missed pass interference call against Allen Rossum, but Peerless would have dropped it anyways. J-Web, one tackle, one assists. Good luck this season fellas.

Jimmy Williams
The run support is there, but he is still late on diagnosing the play. He allowed Chris Houston to get burnt on a deep ball and takes bad angles when trying to make up for being late. The Falcons are going to have to disguise there defense better since defenses will audible to the deep ball on one-on-one coverage. If I notice this, I’m sure the coordinators will as well. Williams is going to have a pretty tough time taking this job from Crocker and he only has two more chances to prove himself.

Not a terrible game overall for the Falcons but we did not get better from last week. Actually, we had more mistakes. Three turnovers could kill any team. The Falcons are not a good team so they don’t need to help the opposition.

The offense also needs to stay on the field longer by converting third downs. 3-for-13 overall on third downs isn’t going to cut it, but we at least have to get the short ones. We have yet to prove we can pound the ball in short yardage situations. “Power spread”, not seeing the power so much.

On the defensive side, the linebackers are the strongest position… on the outsides. Nicholas and third-year man Michael Boley are solid tacklers and get to the football. Keith Brookng’s better days are behind him, but he is serviceable.

The secondary had a couple of miscues, but QB pressure made it difficult to get passes off. Three sacks, a couple of hurries allowed the Falcons to hold Buffalo to 158 passing yards. Good job all around by the defense, but the Bills offense is pretty weak.

On special teams, better coverage and Allen Rossum’s pink slip is coming soon. Adam Jennings seems like the real deal.