Quote:
Originally Posted by crash_override
(Post 986293)
At least "Matty Ice" still has a cool nickname and a few regular season wins to be proud of... Lol. go pack.
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Hey now, it's not like Rodgers has any rings on his fingers yet either. Took him like 6 years to get his first playoff win. Matty Ice is one of the best QBs in this league, period. He's like a mini-Brady or mini-Manning right now. Can't wait to see what he does these next few seasons.
Well here's my take on the game... All stats aside, just thoughts from someone who watched the entire game. I thought the Falcons had a good defensive game plan. They had a lot of plays where they either confused Green Bay or beat them at the line of scrimmage and had free blitzers at Rodgers. Rodgers just made great play after great play feeling pressure and escaping to make a play. The falcons don't have the defensive talent yet to stay man to man on their receivers for all that time. I credit it all to Rodgers, every 3rd down it seemed like Atlanta had a guy running free at him and he would spin out of a tackle and get the first down.
First drive of the game was exactly what Atlanta did all season, they were running the ball and pounding it and scored. Then Weems had the return, and it was awesome and you'll always take a return TD, but it didn't give the defense any time to rest and didn't let Atlanta pound the Packers defense like they wanted to. What really changed the game obviously was the pick-six before halftime, that just killed Atlanta's chances. Atlanta throws some of the toughest passes in the league, and they are good at it, but I don't understand rolling Ryan to his left and making him throw an out route across his body. There's not a route you cna run that would be more likely to be a pick-six than that. Tramond jumped it and made a good play on it. Even if Atlanta doesn't get a FG there, it's still a 7 point game at halftime, and I would have liked their chances. Atlanta's been money in close games all year and the pack have been terrible. But that made it a 14 point game and was just such a killer, I knew it was over after that. Just sucked all the energy out of the team and staidum.
Then the second half Atlanta had to play from behind and they aren't a team suited for quick scores or airing it out. Totally took them out of their running game, had to pass too much, and I just knew the chances were futile. Credit the Packers, Falcons just didn't play their brand of football, they relied all year on not making mistakes, not committing penalties, and playing smart and they just weren't able to do that, and again that pick-six just killed them.
Going forward for Atlanta... I think they have two more years with really good shots at the Superbowl. Roddy is like 30, Turner is 30, Tony G is 100, but he's in amazing shape and he'll be able to play as long as he wants. Turner didn't take many hits when he was young since he was a backup so I think he's got a couple more 1200+ yard seasons in him and there's no reason for me to think Roddy is not gonna be one of the top WRs again for the 4th year in a row. Love what the defense has done these past few seasons, hopefully they can add some pieces this off-season through the draft and free agency. There's a lot of talent out there (Asomugha would look nice in ATL!). And there's a good bunch of solid #2 WRs out there too. Arthur Blank has been aggressive, he wasn't scared to go out and get Tony Gonzalez so I'm hoping he brings in another nice piece.
My brother is a diehard Jets fan and I was rooting for them but I didn't think they could win. Man, i LOVE Rex Ryan, I always have. I don't understand the hate he gets. He talks the talk and then walks the walk. He's really building a legacy right now. Brady didn't look comfortable all game, and the Jets did exactly what they wanted to do on offense. Run the ball and Sanchez made the plays he needed to, including that incredible pass and catch to Holmes in the endzone on 3rd down. What an amazing game that was.
