Ask The Falcoholic!

Early in the season, the offensive line was doing an abysmal job of protecting him. He was sacked like a dozen times in four games, and as a result, he started to develop some bad habits.

That said, I think he’s returning to normal, even if the numbers aren’t really showing it. It’ll be interesting to see how he does against your secondary.

Receivers simply have too much time to run routes, and no corner can cover a talented receiver forever.

They’ve been making strides in recent weeks, picking Cam Newton three times last week and picking up six sacks in the last two games. They have to keep the momentum going, though.

As far as I know, Julio will be ready to go. I know he’s chomping at the bit, and the passing game isn’t the same without him.

They’ll run against you, given your relatively poor ranking against the run. Turner is an absolute bulldozer against struggling rush defenses.

The O-line is steadily improving, thankfully, but they’re not back to where they were. They’re not playing cohesively as a unit.

But they’re less inclined to do so than the 49ers. My best guess is that you’ll see a lot of Turner to the outside, where his crazy power will (hopefully) let him plow over guys a little smaller than Suh.

The line was having major problems earlier this year, and is making incremental progress. Mike Mularkey, our offensive coordinator, is the most hated man in Atlanta. His playcalling is generally conservative and sometimes, to be honest, stupid.

Your offense and your pass rush. Good lord, that offense.

More confident? Your run defense. I’m hoping Turner can eat you alive.

They’re 3-3, have worked out some of the early season kinks and appear to be heading in the right direction. If they can beat you guys or at least play you extremely tough, I’ll be encouraged. I don’t think we’ve seen what this team is capable of yet, so I’ll go with same despite record.

I think he’ll put up at least 100 on 25+ carries. The Falcons are going to run him until his legs fall off or the Lions completely shut him down.

As I commented last week, the level of angst after the 2-3 start was unreal. I think you guys took your winless season better than a lot of Falcons fans took that. Kind of the way the fanbase is.

The South is very much there for the taking, but I think the Falcons need to string together a few wins in a row before anybody starts thinking that way.

So much as I’ve seen a lot of dumb calls. You see that every year, but it’s been pretty concentrated through the first few weeks. The Falcons got jobbed a couple times in the early going.

That’s an interesting question. If the NFL would pay them full-time, we might get more out of them? Maybe?

But if he develops into an elite option, it’ll seem fine in retrospect. It’s really going to depend on JJ’s career trajectory.

Seems to be sapping his speed and maybe his concentration. He’s had drops and a couple of dumb penalties. We’re all a little worried about him.

But our linebackers match up pretty well against tight ends, when they need to. They’re prone to the occasional mistake, though.

If you guys go to 6-1, I’d say you’re in the driver’s seat for the Wild Card. If you’re 5-2 and the Falcons are 4-3…little different story.

Whether it’s that many picks or not, time will tell, but he’s got everything he needs to be an elite NFL wide receiver. Now Ryan just has to get pass protection and get him the damn ball.

I always thought he should have been better than he was in Atlanta. The new coaching staff didn’t take a shine to him, but I think the change of scenery really helped.

See above for the tight end answer. Our pass rush is good, getting better but wildly inconsistent from week to week.

Ray Edwards has had two consecutive good weeks, and was a beast by all accounts against CAR. It seems like they were trying to mess with Ray too much initially. They have since put him back at his normal position (LDE) almost exclusively and he’s been much, much better and more consistent.

Getting Babineaux back and almost to full health is going to help exponentially, and it seems that Peters and Jerry are really on the edge of breaking out. Everyone knows how great and lethal Abe can be, but his hip has been bothering him.

We have so many good young players that it’s hard to say who the most improved is so far. If I had to go on this season alone, I’d probably go with Sean Weatherspoon. He’s really starting to show why he was a first-round pick last year.

Most disappointing would have to be Dunta Robinson. He gets a bad rap over at the Falcoholic, but he has been terrible this season so far. Not sure why that’s the case, but it looks like that’s beginning to get fixed.

Under the Radar: Our starting safeties (William Moore and Thomas Decoud) get no national love, though they are a solid and upcoming duo. If you don’t know about the LBs, watch them as well. Lofton has the ability to dominate against the rush and has made big strides in coverage. Nicholas is probably challenging ’Spoon for most improved this season.

But you can’t do team celebrations anymore, so it won’t be the full glory.

Apparently Ovie Mughelli did the dirty bird against the Panthers?

RE started off slowly, but has really come on the last two games.

Abraham is solely a DE, though our DEF Coordinator (if you can truly call him that) does like our DLine to drop back (too) occasionally.

Lofton seems to have gotten better this year because he worked a lot on his coverage skills in the offseason. ‘Spoon has been our most improved player, and looks dominant at times, but still hasn’t played a complete game. Lastly, Stephen Nicholas looked to be a solid career backup, but earned his starting spot with good-to-excellent coverage skills. He’s battling Spoon imo for most improved.

By the tape, Garrett Reynolds is bigger than Dahl and looks more valuable and flat out better at times. However, the whole of the OLine has been pathetic this year, especially over the first three games. They’re making strides, but still struggle too often at giving Ryan enough time to throw.

Many go the easy route at pointing out that Dahl is the reason for the struggles, but I think it’s a much more complicated issue than that. I’m sure that’s part of the reason, but the bigger issue seems to be that they were never very good, and the last couple of years Ryan has made them look better with the short to intermediate quick passing game. Since everyone heard how ‘explosive’ this OFF was going to be this off season, longer routes were implemented, and it looks like the OLine just can’t handle that extra second or two required.

I’ve never had the latter. Have to be on the look out for that.

And probably a good one at that.