DEL.ICIO.USNFL: ATLANTA FALCONS
Cardinals clipped the Falcons’ ground game
For the Journal-Constitution
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Glendale, Ariz. — Michael Turner was not accusing the Cardinals of dirty tricks, just a good game plan.
“It seemed like they knew what play we were going to run before we ran it,” Turner said after the Falcons’ 30-24 loss to Arizona in the NFC playoffs Saturday.
Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com
Cardinals’ defensive end Bertrand Berry sacks Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who was taken down three times by the Cardinals defense.
And “run it” is the operative phrase.
When Atlanta does not run, it has trouble winning. You can look it up.
The Falcons (11-6) suffered all six of their losses this season in their eight worst rushing games, and this one was the biggest stinker at perhaps the most unexpected time.
Atlanta ran for a season-low 60 yards and Turner tied his season low with 42 yards against a Cardinals defense that was ranked in the middle of the NFL. They gave up 165 yards to Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson on Dec. 14 and 110 to Philadelphia’s Michael Westbrook two games before that.
“They loaded the box and they did a very good job controlling the line of scrimmage,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said.
Turner, who entered with 1,699 yards and a Pro Bowl invitation, had trouble finding holes from the beginning, rushing for 2, 0, 5, minus-3, 3, 2 and 2 yards on his seven first-quarter carries.
When the Falcons dropped into a 14-3 hole shortly thereafter, the game plan skewed away from the running game. He finished with 18 carries.
“They just played great football, period. Their defense was fired up. They were running around all day,” Turner said. “It seemed like they had guys everywhere. They had a good game plan.”
“Our plan was to fly to the ball and make tackles,” Cardinals outside linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He’s a great running back. To hold him to 42 yards is huge.”
Jerious Norwood was not a factor, carrying twice for 12 yards. Matt Ryan scrambled four times for six yards. That was the extent of the Falcons’ ground game.
“I thought they played physical up front,” said Ryan, who completed an NFL rookie playoff-record 26 passes. “Their linebackers scraped (off blocks) and made some plays. Credit them. They played a very good game defensively.”
Roddy White had a season-high 11 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown when the Falcons accentuated the passing game, but said he would have liked to see the offensive mix that had worked all season.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” he said of the inability to run.
“You want to establish the run and the play-action pass. They scored and made two big plays and it kind of threw us behind the eight ball.”
The Cardinals had three sacks and three turnovers, the biggest one coming when defensive tackle Darnell Dockett got into the Falcons’ backfield early to force a fumbled exchange between Ryan and Turner that turned into a touchdown.
“That’s one of the chips we had on our shoulders all week,” Dockett said. “I was watching the TV before the game started: ‘Michael Turner will have a big game. He’ll run all over the Cardinals defense.’ We can’t stop the run. We suck against the run. The d-line took it as a challenge.
“Sixty yards in a playoff game. We did a good job of stopping the run.”
The Cardinals were 19th in the NFL in rushing defense entering the playoffs.
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