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... Please let me know."

Well, this upcoming week is the next or arguably last playoff challenge for the Falcons. After a 10-day layoff, the Falcons played with ZERO intensity vs. the Panthers.

Now they get a chance to get that back this week against the Giants. If not, then this team's playoff readiness doesn't look too promising.

Next week's performance will be the best measure of how much heart this team has. Particularly on offense. The defense has answered most of the questions about it. The offense has looked like the team that only put up 2 points vs. the Giants the past 2 weeks.

I was thinking the same thing thing, the birds played like crap for a whole half and the beginning of the third qtr. after the Cam Newton run I knew the game was over (I partially blamed myself seeing as this is the game I have not had a beer before halftime and this it the first game the Falcons have not scored before halftime). I will say this this would have had to be one of the worst game plans I have seen implemented. We didnt make pressuring Cam a priority for most of the game instead choosing to drop people into coverage yet people were wide open in the secondary. The only plus is that Eli will not be shaking off DT and DE and running through LBs. Thank goodness the only running QB we might have to see in the playoffs is "Danger" Russ Wilson, because he is the only one I would want to see in the dome out of RG3 or Cam.

Well you better hope RG3's knee injury is very serious because if not, they are coming to Atlanta in Round 2!

Either as the 4 seed (with 3 seed GB winning the other game) or the 6 seed (with an upset over GB).

If it's serious, then he might miss these next 2 games (that would be wins if he played) and they miss the playoffs. Cousins can't carry them, not with that defense.

With that Defense I will take my chances, I truly believe that if the Falcons play the Panthers 10 times this would have been the only time they held the Falcons to zero points in the first half.

[quote="Pudge"]... Please let me know."

Well, this upcoming week is the next or arguably last playoff challenge for the Falcons. After a 10-day layoff, the Falcons played with ZERO intensity vs. the Panthers.

Now they get a chance to get that back this week against the Giants. If not, then this team's playoff readiness doesn't look too promising.

Next week's performance will be the best measure of how much heart this team has. Particularly on offense. The defense has answered most of the questions about it. The offense has looked like the team that only put up 2 points vs. the Giants the past 2 weeks.[/qu

It looks like we got fat and happy during our mini bye week. Every team throws out a stinker every now and then. Probably a combo of winning the division, and having a 2 and 1/2 game lead for the 1 seed. I'm not concerned. yet.
If we get dominated/put up a stinker next week, I will be.

True, but how many teams throw out stinkers at the end of the season. Not very many. And those that do, tend not to have success in January.

Here are the games where a playoff team lost to a non-playoff team in the Games #12 thru #15 over the past 6 years, which included games where the playoff team was down by at least 14 points at halftime and lost.

In Week 14 of 2010, the Chiefs lost to the Chargers 31-0. The Chiefs were 8-4 at the time, and the Chargers were 6-6.

In Week 16 of 2009, the Vikings lost to the Bears 36-30. The Vikings were down 16-0 at halftime. The Vikings were 11-3 at the time, while the Bears were 5-9.

Two weeks earlier, the 8-4 Cardinals lost to the 5-7 49ers by a score of 24-9, after being down 17-0 at halftime.

In Week 16 of 2008, the 8-6 Cardinals lost to the 9-5 Patriots by a score of 47-7, as they were down 31-0.

In Week 14 of 2006, the 10-2 Colts lost to the 7-5 Jaguars by a score of 44-17, down 24-10 at halftime.

The point I'm illustrating is that when good playoff teams get waxed at the end of the season, it's usually to teams that are in the playoff race, not a 11-1 team losing a 3-9 team.

This game could in fact be a hiccup, but it's dependent on the Falcons putting forth a strong showing against the Giants next week. If not, then it might just be a truer indicator of how good this team is (which is in fact, not very good).

to be fair Pudge, at least for portions of the 2nd half, I do think they turned it on, but your right that first half was awful.

can someone answer this riddle: why do we wait until were down 16 to zip to open up the no huddle?

And why did the no huddle look so damn slow yesterday?

IMO, we need to play to Ryan's strengths, not the other way around. It's nice seeing Julio score on a bubble screen, but why don't they go no huddle more and not in 'dire' situations?


http://blog.atlantafalcons.com/jayadams ... p-in-road/

I don't know whether or not great teams put up stinkers late in the season. I think it was pretty obvious to anyone watching that our team lacked motivation. I'm not saying that's a good thing. I don't expect us to have the same problem next week. If we get dominated, then it's fair to say this team has serious flaws. I'm just not putting that much stock into yesterday's loss.

I guess I'm not that worried about it either because the team has a chance to respond this week. But if they don't, then it's going to open up some serious questions.

The problem is when was the last time the Falcons played a good game? The defense was great vs. the Saints, but the offense was terrible. May have been the worst offensive performance we've seen from this team since the first month of Ryan's career.

The Bucs game, I'm not going to complain too much about because the Bucs are a good team and I thought we outplayed them. If anything, I would have expected yesterday's outcome against them rather than the Panthers. I guess I would qualify that as "pretty good."

But before that? The Eagle game in Week 8? And before that? Week 3 vs. San Diego?

We're talking about a team that has Super Bowl prospects that has maybe played a "good game" 3 or 4 times all year.

When is this team going to turn it on? I don't believe you can turn it on in Week 19. You gotta get things going in Weeks 12-17.

I think back to that Cardinals-Pats game cited before. I remember watching some of that game. It was in Foxboro, in the snow, and the Patriots absolutely annihilated Arizona. And everybody in the world (including myself) wrote off the Cardinals as a viable contender. Then they came back for the season finale at home vs. Seattle, and handly beat them, 34-21. Warner got pulled at the end of the 3rd qtr. when they were up 28-14. And then we know the Cards went on their run.

That's what I'm looking for with this Falcon team this week. I'm not sure I need to see them beat the Giants.

But if the end result is the Giants win, I want to say that the Falcons threw everything and the kitchen sink at New York, but the Giants happened to be a little better. I haven't really cared about Wins and Losses since like Week 10. It's been all about how the team plays since that point since it was very likely that we were going to be in the playoffs at that point in the season.

And I'm really, really tired of watching the Falcons win these 24-20 games. I'd much rather see this team win (or lose) a 38-34 game rather than the, "Well we win but..." games that we've seen pretty much 80% of this season.

If this team is worth a damn, maybe just maybe they'll score 30 points in game?...