Simple, but Deadly: Five Plays Atlanta Falcons Use in Their Arsenal

Believe it or not, simplicity can be complex—especially when referring to the Atlanta Falcons offense.

The Falcons had a huge 2008 season offensively, using a variety of simple plays and formations that kept defenses clueless.

Here are a few plays offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and Atlanta implemented in its offense to help keep defenses on their toes while willing its way to 361 yards per game.

The Counter

The counter was the bread and butter for the Falcons, whether they were in an ace formation or the I-form.

This play set up the rest of the offense, and worked due to Atlanta's implemented zone blocking scheme. The counter is a basic play—fake the run to one direction and then cut back to hit the open hole.

Running back Michael Turner found bursts of daylight on the counter. In the I-form, Atlanta liked to overload the side it was faking to with a tight end, such as on Turner's 66-yard touchdown against Detroit last year.

On that play, the tight end came off the line faking a route. Fullback Ovie Mughelli cut right, showing the off tackle, only to come back and help seal a lane for Turner to run through.

The slot receiver ran to the flats to draw his man to the sideline while the wide receiver blocks his corner from the play. This play worked wonders for the Falcons and opened up the rest of the Atlanta offense.

Outs and Comebacks

At times, it seemed quarterback Matt Ryan's best friend was the sideline, especially when throwing to his receivers on third down.

Frequently, Ryan had safety valves in the forms of the out and comeback route, making him one of the best quarterbacks in the league when it was 3rd-and-7 or longer.

Last year against Chicago, Ryan had two big plays using the out route. One was on a touchdown pass to Roddy White.

In the red zone, Ryan took the snap out of shotgun with Harry Douglas in the slot and White wide. Both receivers ran five yards before turning into their respective routes.

With Douglas staying the middle, the safety couldn't roll to help White's man with coverage. White cut, ran the out and Ryan hit him for the score.

Of course, the most important play of the game came on a deep out with Chicago sitting in prevent. Again, Ryan was in shotgun, took the snap and gunned it downfield to Michael Jenkins who was just where he needed to be in between the corners and the safeties on the sideline—which set up the game-winning field goal.

The comeback worked similarly as Atlanta wideouts would work the sideline, fake the go-route and curl back. These passing plays helped keep defenses honest as they always had to account for both the deep and the 10 or 15-yard passes.

Play Action Deep

Simple, but beautiful.

Atlanta's run game, led by the counter with help from the ISO, draw and off-tackle with its zone blocking, helped set up play action deep with easy, deep routes many receivers could excel on.

In Ryan's first pass of his career against Detroit, he threw a deep touchdown to Jenkins, who was running a post pattern.

On the play action, White ran a fly and his cover corner followed. The deep safety would have rolled to White but Jenkins ran a post to hold him in the middle of the field.

With the safety staying home and unsure as to whether Jenkins would run across the middle or not, Jenkins was able to turn his post deep and run past the Detroit secondary on the way to the end zone.

Quick Checks, Hurry-Up

There were times when Atlanta would run a variation of the hurry-up offense to prevent defenses from adjusting to their tendencies on drives.

When running this, Ryan would usually be in shotgun, calling plays and routes at the line. If the defense was confused and backing off its coverage, Ryan would call a quick check to White and throw him the ball once the ball was snapped—acting as a run almost.

Ryan would also make this check when in the normal offensive set if he felt the defense was playing the run and backing off on the pass.

This freedom for Ryan allowed Atlanta to force defensive backfields to play the receivers no matter what the formation, which allowed the play action deep pass (mentioned above) to work so well.

The Dirty Bird Formation

Everybody has a Wildcat these days.

And Atlanta is no different, implementing its version dubbed the Dirty Bird formation.

For the Falcons, it was running back Jerious Norwood taking direct snaps and gaining a handful of yards on occasion. While Atlanta didn't add variations to its version like the Miami Dolphins did, it was affective as teams have to defend this new dynamic in the NFL—started by Gus Malzahn when he was offensive coordinator at Arkansas (now the Auburn OC).

Atlanta may tweak this a little and Norwood may see some more direct snaps. But wouldn't it be interesting if Atlanta tried backup quarterback D.J. Shockley in the Dirty Bird formation to add a passing element to it?

I don't get paid to make coaching decisions (then again, I'm not getting paid by anyone right now as a May college graduate in this dreadful economy) nor am I going to pretend like I have the authority or credibility to say what Atlanta should do.

But I do think it's OK to think about how much fun that would be to watch if executed right, even if it was just once. OK, maybe that's my Georgia bias seeping through.

How Will These Plays Work in 2009?

If I was Mike Smith or Mike Mularkey I would tell you.

Unfortunately, I'm not. And they likely wouldn't tell you either. But I'll try anyway.

The Falcons will still pound the ball—that won't change one bit. It's successful, the offensive line is back and should be stronger. And Ryan has a year and an offseason under his belt.

The addition of Tony Gonzalez (read my take here) should open the passing game even more and make Atlanta one of the most balanced offensive units in the NFL.

The one play out of those mentioned that could work to Atlanta's advantage as a home run threat may be play action deep. Instead of the second wide receiver keeping the safety honest, there's Gonzalez instead.

The offense is simple. But it sure is effective.