The Falcoholic
After sitting at 3-2, the Atlanta Falcons have dropped to 3-5. There’s no questioning the players’ effort in this one, and it yielded some good performances despite the outcome.
Here’s the Week 9 3 up and 3 down.
Walker put it all together as an edge defender in this game. He was stout against the run and lived in the backfield all game (anything else that happened was woke, off-ball nonsense). The time out clearly did him good; his lower-body explosiveness was noticeable.
Walker was considered a project on draft night; he’s been learning and playing a more defined position and has improved every game. Two sacks every week probably isn’t sustainable, but Walker just needs to keep focusing on doing his job at a high level, and good things will continue to happen.
London went off and tried to will his team to a win with his hat-trick performance. The physical receiver caused problems all over the secondary. He makes every 50/50 ball feel like a 70/30, and he’s proving to be a young quarterback’s best friend. London is going to want top dollar in the offseason, and games like these will command it.
The slow start is behind him, and while teams will certainly adjust and send more bracket coverage his way, it’s going to be hard to keep him bottled up. Even when he’s covered, he’s open.
If you can’t be happy about a three-touchdown, zero-turnover game, then that’s on you. It wasn’t a perfect game, but in his 10th start and coming back from injury, Penix did enough to keep his team in the game until his kicker botched it. Penix’s raw completion % will rile up some fans, but his adjusted completion % (accounts for drops, throwaways, and spikes) was 71.9%, according to PFF.
We saw the QB stretch his legs on multiple occasions and hopefully that gives him the confidence to do that more. Penix has mostly struggled on the road as a pro, but he actually did well behind a patchwork line that had him under pressure most of the day. He delivered some good balls and yes, will want others back, but this was a positive step in his development.
Defensive backs clap in the secondary to grab each other’s attention and communicate all the time, trying to blame that, and initially stating it was done strategically was embarrassing. Ryan Neuzil should’ve owned the mistake, and Raheem Morris should’ve never passed that excuse along.
The issue isn’t this one embarrassing moment; it’s the high volume of hijinks the Falcons find themselves in the middle of that drives their loyal viewers crazy, like having to burn a timeout after a penalty. This is who they are; this is what it means to be a Falcon.
The Falcons are one more injury away from you playing. Better start stretching now.
Honestly, I was impressed by...
