Atlanta Falcons: Sloppy Victory Leads To Perfect Start Of Season

The Atlanta Falcons kicked off the 2017 NFL season with a rare thing: A Road win in the NFL. Though not pretty, it does count.

The Durty Birds were finally back in action in Chicago today, and left the “Space Ship” with a 23-17 win over the Bears. No one will point to this game as one for the ages. There were many areas of concern. But the Atlanta Falcons leave Week 1 in perfect condition.

A win is a win. That’s one of those sports axioms we always hear. My dad used to say, when teaching me and my brothers the game of golf, “They don’t grade ’em, boys, they score ’em.” This was definitely one of those deals.

The Good.

All in all, the Defense flashed speed and physical all day. There were times when coverage and contain broke down, but no team is perfect. Yes, they allowed

300+ yards

on Offense. But Chicago only averaged

4.8 yards

per play. Atlanta’s Defense also recorded

4 sacks

on the day. An opening day road effort that gives those numbers, and only gives up 17 points is good, indeed.

More from ATL All Day

The Bad. One could just say the offense here and be done with it. But to be specific, the “Red Zone” issues of a few years ago have returned. Red Zone efficiency was 33%. That’s not good enough. Part of that was because ATL only averaged 2.8 yrds/carry on the ground. That’s also not good enough. We knew that the transition to Steve Sarkisian as OC would have bumps, but today was more bruise. Play calling was unimaginative and, frankly, incredibly predictable. They have to fix that. If not, you’ll hear lots of folks mumbling about how Shanahan wasn’t so bad, after all.

The Ugly. The entire Offensive Line had a poor performance today. But the Right Guard position is a disaster. Wes Schweitzer was pushed around all day almost to the point that you wondered if he was playing injured. They really, really need to find a fix there. Now, Chicago is no joke up front on Defense, but so what? This is the NFL. You can’t play like that on Sunday.

The Really Ugly. Complaining about Refs is amateur hour. But Jeff Triplette has always called a poor game. Today was no different.

Our beloved Atlanta Falcons shook the rust, avoided late game disaster, and found a way to win on the road. They are now 1-0. It wasn’t pretty, but like my dad said, “You don’t grade ’em, you score ’em”.

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Let’s keep stacking those “W”.

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