Will the snap counts illuminate this week, or only deepen our confusion and frustration? Let’s find out!
Offense
Michael Penix Jr.: 63
Jake Matthews: 63
Kyle Hinton: 63
Ryan Neuzil: 63
Elijah Wilkinson: 63
Drake London:
62
Chris Lindstrom: 62
Kyle Pitts: 58
Darnell Mooney: 57
Bijan Robinson: 54
David Sills: 31
Charlie Woerner: 25
Tyler Allgeier: 23
KhaDarel Hodge: 2
Teagan Quitoriano: 2
Jovaughn Gwyn: 1
Casey Washington: 1
Sills was wide open late when Penix missed him badly, so he was in the position to make a splash play in this one. I still don’t understand why over half this team’s snaps went to a wide receiver who is not a high-end blocker when the Falcons were A) running well and B) getting pass catching production out of their backs and even Charlie Woerner. This was probably Sills’ best game overall this season, but I’m still baffled by the personnel usage, particularly when WR2 is struggling so much. Interestingly, Mooney made his only catch on eight targets working against Sauce Gardner.
Kyle Hinton, meanwhile, filled in extremely well. He was one of two starting offensive linemen Pro Football Focus did not tally a pressure for, the other being Chris Lindstrom, and he was good enough in run blocking that the Falcons really didn’t miss Matthew Bergeron that much for one week. If Bergeron misses more time, Hinton should be a solid fill-in at worst.
The splits and usage for Bijan and Allgeier, meanwhile, were some of the most logical we’ve seen this year. That clears a low bar, given that the Falcons put together multiple drives where they mysteriously forgot to run despite being able to do so all day, but Allgeier got his red zone work and finished drives while Bijan cut through the tangle largely on early downs for big pickups.
Defense
Kaden Elliss: 77
Jessie Bates: 77
A.J. Terrell: 77
Xavier Watts: 77
Keith Taylor: 65
Ruke Orhorhoro: 62
Billy Bowman Jr.: 58
David Onyemata: 54
Jalon Walker: 50
Zach Harrison: 47
James Pearce Jr.: 45
Arnold Ebiketie: 38
Ronnie Harrison: 35
JD Bertrand: 28
Brandon Dorlus: 28
Josh Woods: 13
Dee Alford: 12
Sam Roberts: 4
The Falcons rotated Bertrand with Harrison and Woods this time, with Harrison still getting the bulk of snaps. Aside from one really nice run stop I’ll give him a ton of credit for, especially given that it came on fourth down, Bertrand was once again the weakest link in that chain, consistently arriving late, struggling to make tackles, and “enjoying” misadventures in coverage on the rare occasions he was asked to handle that. Harrison, meanwhile, was flying to the ball and making tackles, and was credited with four run stops on a tough day for this run defense; Woods missed one tackle but made a habit of throwing himself at the ball as well. Until Divine Deablo returns, a Harrison 60%, Woods 25%, and Bertrand 15% or less split probably makes a lot of sense.
With injuries along the defensive line, the Falcons had to roll out Orhorhoro and Onyemata on many more snaps than I expect they wanted to, and both had tough days against the run. I saw Onyemata pursuing plays desperately on a few occasions and Ruke blocked out of them entirely; the Falcons probably can’t survive on a weekly basis without someone like Sam Roberts or LaCale London to help soak up early down snaps and play the run effectively. That said, this group was still money on passing downs throughout the day, minus their inability to contain Jones.
Alford was on his way to a bit of a tough day early, with one nice play in coverage and two receptions credited to him in coverage on three targets for 47 yards, but we’ll never know if he would’ve rallied and authored some of the big plays he’s wont to get because he left the game with a concussion. Taylor replaced him and allowed a team-high 56 yards on four receptions and six targets, but did nice work against the run and held up astonishingly well considering he’s CB5 and hadn’t seen any real game action this year.
It takes a village to be this poor against the run, and aside from Jalon Walker, Ronnie Harrison, and Zach Harrison, I don’t think anyone covered themselves in glory on Sunday. That’s worrisome with Rico Dowdle up next.
Special teams
KhaDarel Hodge: 24
DeMarcco Hellams: 24
Mike Ford: 24
JD Bertrand: 23
Teagan Quitoriano: 21
DeAngelo Malone: 19
Feleipe Franks: 19
Josh Woods: 18
Natrone Brooks: 18
Bradley Pinion: 14
Charlie Woerner: 11
Tyler Allgeier: 9
Liam McCullough: 9
Ronnie Harrison: 8
Jamal Agnew: 8
Zach Harrison: 6
Ruke Orhorhoro: 5
David Onyemata: 5
Brandon Dorlus: 5
Ryan Neuzil: 3
Kyle Hinton: 3
Jake Matthews: 3
Elijah Wilkinson: 3
Jovaughn Gwyn: 3
Jack Nelson: 3
Zane Gonzalez: 3
Arnold Ebiketie: 2
Kaden Elliss: 1
Xavier Watts: 1
Keith Taylor: 1
Jalon Walker: 1
PFF credited the Falcons with nine missed tackles on Sunday on returns, and that shouldn’t surprise anybody. The guilty parties were stalwarts of this team’s coverage unit, with JD Bertrand (2), DeAngelo Malone, (2), Mike Ford (1), Feleipe Franks (1), and Mike Ford (1) among those missing them. Only Natrone Brooks and KhaDarel Hodge made tackles without missing one, and Brooks and Hodge both saved returns from potentially being touchdowns. That was maybe the ugliest day of the year for the coverage units, which have been such a massive liability this year that I no longer feel great about Marquice Williams surviving a second coaching staff change if things continue to go awry.
Part of that is the lackluster nature of Atlanta’s own returns. Jamal Agnew has slipped multiple times this year, including in this one, and averaged just 22.5 yards per return on the day. The Colts, meanwhile, averaged 35 yards per kick return and 10.7 yards on punts; that’s a striking disparity that increases the degree of difficulty for both the offense and defense.
At least Zane Gonzalez made all his kicks!
