Post by Guvmintcheeze on Oct 5, 2014 23:34:18 GMT
Missed red zone opportunities hurt Atlanta Falcons
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The last thing a sulking Roddy White wanted to hear was anything about how he guaranteed scoring a touchdown against the New York Giants.
Sunday's 30-20 loss for the Atlanta Falcons wasn't about White and any individual accomplishments, although he did surpass 700 career receptions despite not scoring. Sunday was about an offense missing out on two crucial red zone opportunities in the first half, then getting stuck in neutral for the final 30 minutes.
A couple touchdowns instead of field goals and maybe we're talking about ending a road losing streak at four instead of extending it to five. A pair of touchdowns and maybe the Metlife is sucked out of the Giants home crowd.
"It hurt us," White said of the missed opportunities. "It hurt us down the stretch. When you get short fields and you get turnovers, you've got to score touchdowns in this league, especially on the road, with how hard it is to win on the road. When we were kicking field goals, we gave them an opportunity; a chance."
The Falcons entered Sunday's game with the league's best red zone touchdown percentage, scoring touchdowns on 8 of 9 trips. Sunday, they managed just one such score in three attempts, looking more like the team that ranked 22nd in red zone efficiency last season.
"Yes, those are red zone situations that we would like to have put the ball in the end zone," Falcons coach Mike Smith said. "And we know against a good offense and a good quarterback like Eli Manning that when you kick field goals when you get down there, you really put yourself behind."
The first failure came on a third-and-4 play right at the beginning of the second quarter, a drive that begin after Eric Weems recovered a fumble on special teams at the Giants' 21-yard line. Quarterback Matt Ryan delivered a shovel pass to touchdown-maker Antone Smith, but Smith managed just a yard. The Falcons settled for Matt Bryant's 20-yard field goal.
Then with 11 seconds remaining before halftime, the Falcons faced a third-and-goal at the 2-yard line. White ran a slant but couldn't come up with the ball as Giants linebacker Jameel McClain and cornerback Prince Amukamara converged on him. The Falcons again had to be content with a Bryant 20-yard field goal and 13-10 halftime lead.
"We had a chance right there to put them away," White said of the blown touchdowns. "We didn't handle our business on offense because we didn't convert in the red zone. We didn't get those touchdowns that we needed."
Speaking specifically about his red zone chance, White said it led to a discussion about what could have been done differently.
"We didn't run any fade routes today, but we talked about it on the sideline," White said. "We talked about it [happening] if we got another opportunity down there, but unfortunately we didn't get down there."
And the Falcons' chances of winning slowly faded away.
It wasn't just about those missed opportunities. The Falcons surrendered a 10-point third-quarter lead and failed to build momentum off Smith's 74-yard catch-and-run touchdown. The defensive pressure was missing, as usual. And third-down was a problem on both sides, with the offense converting just 2 of 13 chances (15 percent) and the defense surrendering 9 of 15 third-down chances (60 percent) to the Giants.
But even Ryan had to revert back to the red zone misses.
"To me, it came down to we weren't as efficient as we needed to be in the red zone," Ryan said. "And obviously, we were not as good as we wanted to be on third down."
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The last thing a sulking Roddy White wanted to hear was anything about how he guaranteed scoring a touchdown against the New York Giants.
Sunday's 30-20 loss for the Atlanta Falcons wasn't about White and any individual accomplishments, although he did surpass 700 career receptions despite not scoring. Sunday was about an offense missing out on two crucial red zone opportunities in the first half, then getting stuck in neutral for the final 30 minutes.
A couple touchdowns instead of field goals and maybe we're talking about ending a road losing streak at four instead of extending it to five. A pair of touchdowns and maybe the Metlife is sucked out of the Giants home crowd.
"It hurt us," White said of the missed opportunities. "It hurt us down the stretch. When you get short fields and you get turnovers, you've got to score touchdowns in this league, especially on the road, with how hard it is to win on the road. When we were kicking field goals, we gave them an opportunity; a chance."
The Falcons entered Sunday's game with the league's best red zone touchdown percentage, scoring touchdowns on 8 of 9 trips. Sunday, they managed just one such score in three attempts, looking more like the team that ranked 22nd in red zone efficiency last season.
"Yes, those are red zone situations that we would like to have put the ball in the end zone," Falcons coach Mike Smith said. "And we know against a good offense and a good quarterback like Eli Manning that when you kick field goals when you get down there, you really put yourself behind."
The first failure came on a third-and-4 play right at the beginning of the second quarter, a drive that begin after Eric Weems recovered a fumble on special teams at the Giants' 21-yard line. Quarterback Matt Ryan delivered a shovel pass to touchdown-maker Antone Smith, but Smith managed just a yard. The Falcons settled for Matt Bryant's 20-yard field goal.
Then with 11 seconds remaining before halftime, the Falcons faced a third-and-goal at the 2-yard line. White ran a slant but couldn't come up with the ball as Giants linebacker Jameel McClain and cornerback Prince Amukamara converged on him. The Falcons again had to be content with a Bryant 20-yard field goal and 13-10 halftime lead.
"We had a chance right there to put them away," White said of the blown touchdowns. "We didn't handle our business on offense because we didn't convert in the red zone. We didn't get those touchdowns that we needed."
Speaking specifically about his red zone chance, White said it led to a discussion about what could have been done differently.
"We didn't run any fade routes today, but we talked about it on the sideline," White said. "We talked about it [happening] if we got another opportunity down there, but unfortunately we didn't get down there."
And the Falcons' chances of winning slowly faded away.
It wasn't just about those missed opportunities. The Falcons surrendered a 10-point third-quarter lead and failed to build momentum off Smith's 74-yard catch-and-run touchdown. The defensive pressure was missing, as usual. And third-down was a problem on both sides, with the offense converting just 2 of 13 chances (15 percent) and the defense surrendering 9 of 15 third-down chances (60 percent) to the Giants.
But even Ryan had to revert back to the red zone misses.
"To me, it came down to we weren't as efficient as we needed to be in the red zone," Ryan said. "And obviously, we were not as good as we wanted to be on third down."