Falcons vs Colts – Postgame Falcons’ Grades

Each week after every game, win or lose, I will grade the performance of the Falcons’ Offense, Defense, Special Teams and coaches.

• Offense (A-) – The Falcons first and foremost did a nice job protecting Matt Ryan from dangerous defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis. This enabled the Falcons to build drives and give time for Matt Ryan to get the ball down the field. While I think the Falcons came into the game wanting to run it down the throat of the Colts defense, the real success came with explosive pass plays. Julio Jones was obviously the star, getting his first two touchdowns as a professional on two big explosive plays, showing exactly why the Falcons traded up for him. Matt Ryan looked wildly inaccurate in the second quarter for some reason, and was punished with one pick 6 and well could have thrown another INT in the series after that. However after halftime, he came out and looked his old self again leading the Falcons down the field for another TD.

• Defense (A++) – You can’t ask for anything more from the Defense. Holding the Colts offense to zero points and under 200 yards total offense. They also forced two turnovers (One INT and One FF) and two sacks. In truth the Falcons could have had more picks as Brent Grimes dropped a very easy catch, which i know he wished he had back. If you had to be picky they weren’t quite as strong against the run as we’ve become accustomed too allowing an average of 4.4 yards a carry, something the Falcons will need to improve on next week.
• Special Teams (A) – Matt Bosher looked tremendous yesterday, his kickoffs were deep and forced a few touchbacks. His punting also showed nice improvement on 7 punts he had an average of 43.1 yards, a long of 59 and 3 put inside the 20. The average increase is very impressive, earlier in the season he has punting about 36 yards a punt. A 7 yard increase is huge for the special teams and he is starting to show exactly why the Falcons expended a 6th round draft pick on him.
• Coaching (A) – First off I was impressed by how the Falcons kept their discipline by winning comfortably a game they were heavily favored to win. Something the New Orleans Saints were not able to do last week. Secondly very impressed by how much the Falcons have seemed to improve over the bye week, weather that is down to good coaching or pure simply just getting healthy, I’m not too sure. I also liked the creativity in the offensive playcalling, something I have often been critical of. Mike Mularkey was able to find new ways to get exciting rookies Julio Jones and Jacquizz Rodgers involved on some sweeps, reverses and options.

It’s always nice to give all areas of the Falcons an A! What do you guys think? Who should have gotten a different grade?