DEL.ICIO.USFalcons missed chances in red zone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Nice game.
It did not have to be so hard.
Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com
Teammated pile on kicker Jason Elam at midfield after his 48-year field goal as time expired gave the Falcons a 22-20 victory over the Bears at the Georgia Dome Sunday.
Before Jason Elam brought down the house, the Falcons should have long sewn this one up.
Well before the game was decided, Atlanta had advanced the ball inside the Chicago 20-yard line four times, including twice in the first 22 minutes and 11 seconds. Those four trips netted just one touchdown, two field goals and the one miss that might have lost the game.
Out of a possible 28 points Atlanta might have claimed in four red zone penetrations, the team scored 13.
Elam is Monday’s hero but in the shoulda-coulda game, these numbers throb.
“You always try to get six,” guard Justin Blalock said. “You might be moving the ball, like we were. But this league is too tough to keep people at bay for an entire day.
“Today was a perfect example. You want to max all your points.”
It wasn’t just the red-zone either. Before Elam’s game-winning field goal, the Falcons seven times got the ball to the Bears’ 30 and had just the one touchdown to show for it.
It is not happenstance. Entering the weekend, Atlanta had managed seven touchdowns in 16 red-zone possessions for a 43.8 percent conversion rate. That ranked the team 28th of 32 in the NFL.
“Sure, we’d certainly like to score a touchdown every time we’re in the red zone,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “It’s not going to happen every time.”
The theme was introduced early. On the team’s opening possession, on first-and-10 at the Chicago 15, the Falcons tried a reverse with Harry Douglas. He was trapped for an 11-yard loss and the possession bogged down to a fourth-and-6 on the 11, where Elam was summoned for a field goal.
A second possession was halted on the 30, where Elam converted again. A third possession, which Chicago extended by fumbling away a Falcons’ fumble, Atlanta had a touchdown reception by Roddy White called back when tackle Tyson Clabo was called for illegally straying down field. Another Elam field goal.
It was 9-0. It might have been 21-0.
“It seemed like whenever we got down there, we did something that got ourselves off-track, whether it was a penalty or something,” Blalock said. “To their credit, they have a great defense. I mean, honestly, they gave us quite a bit to deal with. They do a lot up front. They’re very active. They make a lot of people play slowly.”
The Bears stumped them again in the first possession of the second half, turning a first-and-10 on the Chicago 25 into a fourth-and-8. Elam claimed his fourth field goal there but not until their fifth visit inside the Bears’ 30 did the Falcons manage a touchdown.
Hence, when it came time for Elam to ice the game with 2:46 left — and he missed — he was ready to take the blame. But that belonged to his team’s red zone offense. The Falcons should have had a double-digit cushion.
“I do think that we need to get better in that area,” Ryan said, “making sure that when we do get down there — because it’s difficult to get there — but when we do get down there, we have to get seven points.”
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