Falcons Win A Close One In Seattle 30 – 28

The Falcons continue their trend of taking games to the last minute, the last three games have all been decided in the final minute of the ball game.

There were some nervous Falcons fans out there when Seattle began to drive down the field with only a minute to go. On a big 3rd & 8 at midfield, Seattle QB Tavarris Jackson could not complete the pass setting up a tricky situation for the Seahawks. Down by 2 and with 13 seconds to go, Seattle had a key decision to make. Go for a first down, timeout and have a shot at a field goal in reasonable range or attempt a huge 61 yard FG to win the game. Baring in mind that Seattle K Hauschka’s career long was only 54 yards, the decision to go for a 61 yarder was a strange one.

Seattle missed the FG and the Falcons won, however it should have been more comfortable than it actually was. Up 24-7 at the half the Falcons looked comfortable, moving the ball well on offense and looking stout defensively. Matt Ryan was consistently connecting with an ever present Tony Gonzalez and a massively impressive rookie in Julio Jones that showed the Falcons passing game has some life.

As the game progressed the running game for the Falcons got worse and worse. The lack of success was due to lack of a push from the O-Line, causing Turner to be met time after time in the backfield, being brought down for a loss. This put more and more pressure on the passing game, although they moved the ball ok though the air, the Falcons were not able to translate that into more points and the lead as a result began to deteriorate.

The Defense were also sluggish after half time, a lack of pass rush and a few blown coverage allowed Seattle to get back right in the game, having the opportunity with a minute left to go an beat the Falcons.

Overall, the Falcons can take a lot of positives from the game, the play of Julio Jones in particular, who was terrific! There are though, quite a few things that will need to be ironed out, especially as the Falcons take on the World Champion Green Bay Packers next week in a revenge fuelled encounter.

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