NY Giants 27 Atlanta 14

The Giants out-Falconed Atlanta on Sunday. Atlanta ran the ball for 223 yards and the Giants outdid them in that arena.

Eli Manning should seek hypnosis into believing that regardless of the half, he's always playing in the second. He led the Giants remarkable comeback against Philly. Seattle was up 35-0 and Eli led the Giants to a potential comeback. This past weekend, Eli and the Giants were down 14-3 following a franchise record-breaking 90-yard touchdown run by Warrick Dunn. The Giants went on from there to score 24 unanswered points in their 27-14 victory over the Falcons. Tiki Barber had over 180 rushing yards on the day and well over 200 total yards.

Why did the Falcons lose? The line(s) and missed opportunities. Their D-Line was dominated in the second half. They got little to no pressure on Manning and couldn't stop the run. This didn't make the job any easier on the secondary in the passing game. Eli had all day to throw the ball. The front seven missed quite a few tackles, as well. At one point, I started to tally the missed tackles, but lost track, there were so many. The O-Line was dominated as well. What number signifies this? Quarterback Michael Vick got sacked a career high 7 times in the game and was hit a number of others.

The offense never really got in synch. Vick had a few good first down runs to start the game, but Dunn was ineffective excluding the spread option runs. Outside of that 90-yard gallop in the second half, Dunn's only effective play throughout was out of the spread option alignment. There were some good big runs here and there for the Falcons, but there weren't consistently effective runs. Vick was never able to get into a rhythm throwing the ball. He finished the game 14 of 27, with about seven of those being drops, including two that could've gone for touchdowns. Following an interception by Atlanta in the first quarter, they started with the ball at the Giant 20-yard line. Following a sack and a false start penalty, Atlanta was backed up and forced to throw. On 3rd down, Vick fired the ball into Roddy White at the 4-yard line and he appeared to have a lane to the end zone. But, Roddy dropped the ball and deflected it to cornerback Sam Madison for the interception. Vick later fired a 60-yard bomb to Michael Jenkins at the 1-yard line. His momentum would've carried him into the end zone for 6, but Jenkins, even with the ball hitting him right in the hands, dropped the football. Those were two missed opportunities right there. Vick also lost a fumble on a spread option call. He was attempting to fake the handoff to Dunn and take it himself, but there was a mix-up on the play and a lost fumble was the result. That was the third missed opportunity by the Falcons.

One concern going into next week's game vs. Pittsburgh is the health of the Falcons' defensive line. John Abraham was limited to 20 snaps against the Giants. Patrick Kerney went out in the second half with a hamstring injury and Rod Coleman went out with a toe injury. Abraham and Kerney sound like they're probable for the game against the Steelers and I'm uncertain about Coleman's status. Without those guys healthy, though, the Falcons are in trouble. Sunday's game was all too reminiscent of last year's team. It reminded me of last year's game against the Packers who were on their 25th string running back. If Atlanta can't stop the run, it won't matter how many rushing records they break this year. With their run-oriented offense, the Falcons are not apt to scoring many points in a game. Because of that, the defense will have to play their part and stop the opponent from scoring much.

Another concern is the offensive line. I've heard some people's shocked comments regarding Atlanta's offensive linemen and how they haven't been invited to one Pro Bowl, since the Falcons have led the league in rushing the past two seasons and are well on their way to a third consecutive. Because of their blocking scheme, the linemen need to be a bit smaller than the average. So, while they're typically very effective in moving around and blocking for the run, they are not too effective when it comes to pass protection. This was demonstrated all too clearly on Sunday when Vick was sacked 7 times. The guys up front have to protect Vick better than that, especially with their upcoming matchups with the Steelers and Ravens.

Atlanta needs to get healthy on defense #1, protect Vick in the pocket #2, find a consistent rhythm on offense #3, and move Ashley Lelie to the #1 spot on the depth chart at receiver. If they can do that, they should be fine, but if they can't, they'll be in trouble. Hopefully they'll play a much crisper game next Sunday against Pittsburgh than we saw this past Sunday.