Atlanta Falcons: Aspire to Become Game Finishers

The Atlanta Falcons have at times over the last three regular seasons shown a tendency to take their foot off the gas. From losing at 17-point lead at halftime in the 2012 NFC Championship Game at home against the San Francisco 49ers to poor clock management issues against both the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns last year, what does new Head Coach Dan Quinn have to do to get his Atlanta Falcons team to finish games strongly in 2015?

In the post-game press conference after the Atlanta Falcons 31-24 preseason victory over the Tennessee Titans, HC Dan Quinn expressed his thoughts on how the team ended the ball game. “I like the way we finished. It was tied 24-24, and I was hoping we would have a chance to show that we could finish.”

-= Vic Beasley: Dynamic Pass Rusher as a Rookie? =-

Though the Titans were able to tie the game up in the latter part of the game after Atlanta relinquished a decent lead, it was the way the Atlanta Falcons took back control that had me excited for all that lies ahead for this team in the Dan Quinn Era.

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Atlanta under former HC Mike Smith would often obtain convincing leads through scoring at will through the air under former OC Dirk Koetter’s lethal aerial attack. Defensively, the team would rely on either breaking up passes on third down or hopefully intercepting an errant pass from the opposition. Stopping the run and getting the competition to punt was nearly always a challenge. Getting our opponents to settle for field goals the last two plus seasons was almost viewed as a successful defensive stop.

Then if you add in Smitty’s poor clock management skills, combined with an offensive line that struggled to keep QB Matt Ryan clean in the pocket or provide adequate run blocking up front to chew up some clock, the Atlanta Falcons only had one way to win late in ball games. Essentially Ryan and his receiving corps had to win shootouts to give the Atlanta Falcons a chance at coming away with a win. Though Matt Ryan has a ton of game-winning drives, you can’t expect him to lead the team to victory on every final possession of the game.

Friday night was different for a few reasons. The defense caused three turnovers, two interceptions and one scoop and score from LB Paul Worrilow. An aggressive tone set forth by the defense the entire ball game helped sway the game in the Falcons favor late, despite TJ Yates’ struggles to run the offense for most of the game.

-= Sean Renfree: Pushing TJ Yates for Second String QB =-

Though the Atlanta Falcons did not run the football well at all Friday night, the Dirty Birds were able to score two rushing touchdowns when they had to. Last year’s team nearly always came up a yard short both at the goal line and the first down marker. While the RB unit is mostly hamstrung at the moment, you have to commend their effort to keep the chains moving even when the group is nowhere near full strength.

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How the 2015 Atlanta Falcons choose to close out ball games will decide if this team is playoff caliber or not. After Preseason Week 1, they seem like a team that’s certainly in the mix. Where I think that the Dan Quinn led group will have an obvious advantage over the teams in Smitty’s final years is that the Atlanta Falcons will have multiple ways to close out games, instead of just one.

I can see Dan Quinn’s team being able to not only move the ball vertically on offense, but also having confidence to chew up some clock on the ground even with an okay running back group. But more importantly on the defensive side of the ball, I think we can grow to trust Quinn’s defensive players to make key plays on the ball to get Matt Ryan back on the field and be in control of the game.

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