Chicago Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons: Full Report Card Grades for Atlanta
The Atlanta Falcons just dropped their third straight game. This time it was at home to the Chicago Bears after a series of poor coaching decisions and a complete lack of execution by the players. Add in some dumb penalties, and it was a whirlwind of ineptitude for Atlanta today.
Matt Ryan was one of the few bright spots for the Falcons, but even he couldn't get out of this perfect storm that was Mike Smith's awful defensive concepts and Dirk Koetter's terrible play-calling. To grade these Falcons favorably would just be intellectually dishonest. They have looked terrible the past three games.
Quarterbacks
1 of 10
Matt Ryan was completely harassed all game long. Peter Konz was unable to figure out how to call protections, and Ryan was the one that felt the brunt of these issues. Ryan did have moments that he was unable to trust his offensive line and climb in the pocket like he did earlier in the year.
He also didn't scramble for any first downs like he did prior to this game as well. Atlanta's signal-caller did have quite a few great throws, but multiple drops and tipped passes at the line hurt a stat line that should look much better than it does.
Ryan finished 19-of-37 (51.3 percent) for 271 yards and a touchdown. His one poor decision was one made under duress. He threw an interception on a contested catch on an attempt to Julio Jones. Ryan isn't why the Falcons lost today. However, he could have not thrown the interception or tried to throw the ball away on the sacks.
Grade: B
Running Backs and Fullbacks
2 of 10
Steven Jackson looked solid on his runs. He gained 25 yards on his six carries for a 4.2-yard-per-carry game. After his six touches, the Falcons basically abandoned him to go to another running back. They don't understand how to truly rotate the running backs in Falcon Land just yet.
Antone Smith did his normal thing, with his six touches gaining 69 yards and scoring a touchdown. And taking out his 41-yard touchdown, Smith was gaining 5.6 yards per touch. Jacquizz Rodgers was solid as well with his 4.5 yards per touch on the one run and one catch that he was given.
Devonta Freeman even got in on the act with his four touches averaging 7.75 yards per. The Falcons' only lapse from their running backs came out of the pass protections. Smith got blown up on one play, allowing a hit, while Rodgers allowed a sack on a different play.
Grade: B
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
By my count, the Falcons dropped eight different passes in the game. Levine Toilolo had three of them. Toilolo also didn't block effectively off the edge against the run. Despite having a career-best game, Toilolo has proven that he's not worthy of starting at tight end in the NFL.
Add in a pair of drops from Julio Jones and a trio of drops from Roddy White, and the Falcons receivers just didn't have a great game today. Jones may have had 68 yards through the air, but his drops hindered more than his catches helped.
White isn't the guy he once was, either. And the lack of pass-blocking ability really hurts the Falcons as a whole. They aren't able to run as many four-wide receiver concepts, as they did earlier in the season. At this point, Atlanta needs to have a total revamp of its offense, but there's not enough time for that.
Grade: C
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Offensive Linemen
4 of 10
The offensive line was unable to be effective pass blocking, as they allowed the Bears pass rush to harass Matt Ryan all day with as little as a four-man rush all game. Unable to adjust midgame for the better, the run game soured in the second half as well.
Atlanta couldn't commit either way. Allowing seven hits and four sacks combined with only gaining 3.2 yards per carry on the ground killed Atlanta's chances at any sort of comeback. Atlanta can't run any sort of schemes with a line that gets four penalties for 32 yards on the day.
Considering Atlanta had just six penalties for 52 yards total, this unit needs to be completely kicked in the butt during this week of practice. Mike Tice understands that they aren't going to be perfect, but the Falcons can't let Ryan get hit, not open holes for the run and also get penalties. It's awful in all three facets.
Grade: F
Defensive Linemen and Edge Players
5 of 10
On designed runs by running backs, the Falcons allowed 4.71 yards per carry. This was terrible. Matt Forte and Ka'Deem Carey slashed through the Falcons defense easily. They were able to snuff out the pair of reverses by Alshon Jeffery and the scrambles by Jay Cutler pretty well, though.
Atlanta had no reason to look as bad as they did on defense Sunday, but the line did finally create a ton of pressure. They forced Cutler to scramble five different times due to pass rush, sacked him three times and hit him six different times. They also forced multiple poor throws by Cutler.
However, it wasn't enough for the Falcons to stop the deep bombs. Cutler would have a couple of bad plays, and then on a third down, he'd throw it into a soft spot in the zone for a first down due to no pass rush. Atlanta needs to improve in the scheme here and stop dropping Jonathan Massaquoi into coverage.
Grade: D
Linebackers
6 of 10
Prince Shembo went out early in the game due to a knee injury he had been dealing with. The Falcons missed his abilities as a pass-rusher, run-stuffer and blitzer in the middle of the defense. He was replaced by Joplo Bartu, who filled in admirably in Shembo's absence.
Bartu was solid in coverage, but he did lapse a few times, and his worst angles were taken on passing plays. He was unable to get through the Bears' already decimated offensive line on his blitzes. On top of that, he had some bad angles in the run game that had him getting blocked out of the way by offensive linemen and fullbacks.
Paul Worrilow had a solid day creating pressure on Jay Cutler during his blitzes. He got penalized on one play that shouldn't have been a penalty. But most of the day, he was eating offensive linemen who had made it to the second level due to poor line play.
Grade: C
Secondary
7 of 10
Atlanta allowed too many yards through the air for this to be considered a great game, allowing five passes of 19 yards or farther downfield to be completed. That's unacceptable. The Falcons need to be able to limit the big play, and the only way to do that is to play better coverage.
Of those five passes, only two of them had Cutler without someone bearing down on him or getting in his face. The Falcons have to make some plays on the ball too. There were times when they knocked the ball away, but Atlanta really has to start creating turnovers with its defense, and the secondary is where that starts.
The Falcons' safeties did a solid job on the day creating some stops when they were needed. Unfortunately, they were unable to stop the deep passes. There's some miscommunicating going on in the defensive backfield that will eventually get rectified. However, it showed in Sunday's game that the Falcons' leader was missing.
Grade: C
Special Teams
8 of 10
Atlanta's field position game was excellent today. Matt Bosher did a great job in giving his coverage units time to get down the field to make plays. Before the final two drives set the Bears at their own 40 and 45, the Falcons were able to keep them at an average starting field position of their own 19-yard line.
On the flip side, the return game did a great job of setting the Falcons up with field position. Devin Hester did a good job with returns, averaging 22 yards per kick return and five yards per punt return. The average starting field position for the team was their own 23-yard line.
Matt Bryant also had a great day as well. He knocked through both of his field goals. One was from 52 yards out and the other was from 54 yards out. He also kicked his extra point through the uprights easily. Ra'Shede Hageman also blocked an extra point, showing some of his penetrating potential on special teams.
Grade: B
Coaching
9 of 10
Mike Smith doesn't have the Falcons playing with heart. They aren't executing effectively on either offense or defense. They are committing too many penalties. They are making too many mental mistakes. They are playing out of position. Everything that is wrong with Atlanta rests on Smith's shoulders.
Dirk Koetter is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken excrement with the current state of the offensive line. Despite having better talent to work with in 2013, he doesn't have great results coming out of it. When the offensive line was healthy, the Falcons were looking like a team that could score over 30 points a game, though. Koetter just isn't adjusting well without the health along their offensive line early in the season.
Mike Nolan is still playing the ridiculously stupid scheme that he has played so far this year. He isn't able to realize that his 6'2", 286-pound defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux has no business playing defensive end in four-man alignments. He doesn't seem to understand that his 6'1", 240-pound linebacker Kroy Biermann shouldn't be playing strong-side defensive end. Atlanta needs to fix the defense, but Smith and Nolan are screwing up.
Grade: F
Overall Grade
10 of 10
| Positional Group | Grade |
| Quarterback | B |
| Running Backs and Fullbacks | B |
| Wide Receivers and Tight Ends | C |
| Offensive Linemen | F |
| Defensive Linemen and Edge Players | D |
| Linebackers | C |
| Secondary | C |
| Special Teams | B |
| Coaching | F |
| Overall Grade | D |
The Falcons have one of the worst teams in the NFL right now. They are currently on pace to have a top-10 pick yet again. There isn't a pass rush on the field and the defense is getting shredded against the run because the coaches don't understand how to run seven-man fronts.
On offense, there's not enough Antone Smith out there. He's someone who should be a featured part of the offense. The combination of Smith and Julio Jones as the Falcons' biggest playmakers should be the prime components of the offense. Without great offensive linemen, the Falcons have dropped off the cliff.
All stats used are from Pro Football Focus' Premium Stats (subscription required), ESPN.com, CFBStats or NFL.com. All combine and pro day info is courtesy of NFLDraftScout.com. All contract information is courtesy of Spotrac and Rotoworld.
Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He covers the Atlanta Falcons, college football, the NFL and the NFL draft. He also runs DraftFalcons.com.
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