Why do you suppose teams continue blitzing us? That's an honest question. I guess it could be that only rushing four is so ineffective that teams feel they need to send an extra guy just to have a shot at a sack, but I believe the best way to beat us is to do what the Bucs did in our second game against them. They played a lot of zone and took away the short and intermediate passing options, trying to get interceptions and to force us to throw the ball down field. They had success with this. I fear that the Packers will do that on Saturday, and I'm anxious to see how Mularkey plans on beating them if they do.
"zombieslayer" wrote:
Ice - This is an excellent question and I wanted to address this.
I think I know why. DCs have their prejudices. One of their prejudices (as we have seen as Packer fans) is that DCs think ALL young QBs will do something stupid when being blitzed. Ryan is still a young QB, despite having a pretty good season this year.
"Ice2White" wrote:
Efficiency might have something to do with it, as well.
The Falcons offense just doesn't make any mistakes. The thought behind blitzing is forcing some mistakes, getting turnovers and sacks. When Ryan and Turner get in a groove, they're close to unstoppable. They usually won't wow you with their amazing plays, but they just go up and down the field.
I can imagine that, if you want to get them out of that groove, you send some blitzes their way. Hope that that very solid O-line makes a mistake.
That said, look at your schedule. You played a whole list of teams that couldn't get there with 4 to save their lifes, regardless of their opponent. And that's not a knock on your season, at all, since it's been a very impressive one, but that has to factor in a little.