Normally, we get the coordinators for you all on Tuesdays, but with the short week they were not made available until Wednesday.
We’ll have to check with the league and try to make sure we get them earlier in the week next year if the Falcons play on a Thursday.
Since the coordinators are so good on their topic areas, it’s important to share their insight about their units.
Sorry, it’s coming just hours before kickoff.
But here’s what offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter had to say:
ON PASS PROTECTION AND JOE HAWLEY TAKING THE BLAME FOR COMMUNICATION ISSUES: The main issue last week was that they just had more guys than we did. They were just over-load blitzing us. We had to throw hot six times I think it was. If you're in six-man protection and they rush seven, it doesn't matter how you block it up.
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
Joe (Hawley) takes a lot of pride in his communications. I think there was one play were Joe, Matt (Ryan) and the back were not on the same page, but there was … most of the issue is that they brought more players that we had.
UPTEMPO: Look, you're not going up tempo if you're not making first downs. It's plain and simple. To go up tempo, you've got to move the chains. When you're not moving the chains, you're not going up tempo. You get three plays and you're back on the bench. . . . Everybody is making such a big issue (about the tempo). If we're making first downs, we'll go fast. If you're not making first downs, it doesn't matter how fast you go. It's just not that complicated. I hear it a 1,000 times. Whether if it's the Philadelphia Eagles, the most famous up tempo (team) right now, if you're not moving the chains, it doesn't matter how fast you go.
HOT RECEIVERS: There is full speed practice and game speed. Cincinnati had a good plan for how they covered it. Some of the ways that we hit our hots in the past didn't come up for us in this game. When you're short one blocker, it's not like Matt can sit back there and go either or. If he goes to or, he's on his back. So, he's got to go to the right guy at the right time and Matt is really good at that. He has to make a split second decision and some of the things that come up with big plays, they were passing some stuff off a little bit different than what we've seen before. Without going into too much detail, I could have helped him out more by adding more guys in the protections. Or get out of six-man protection and go to seven-man protection.
ON TAMPA BAY: It's a totally different scheme. We've played teams like that in the past obviously. Lovie Smith and Leslie Frazier are two of the best. They make you earn everything that you get. They believe in their system. There are definitely ways to attack it. They are not going to give you a whole bunch of opportunities to get the ball down the field, but when they do, you've got to hit your plays at the right time.
ON RODDY WHITE: Roddy has played plenty of games in his career without practice. Roddy has been in this offense for seven or eight years. …sometimes you're worried about players assignments, but on a short week you're not putting in a complicated game plan anyway. All of the stuff that is in this game plan, Roddy knows it. When it's an experience guy like Roddy, its way more about his health than about is he going to know what to do.
ON JAKE MATTHEWS: Getting Jake back would be great. We feel like we have good depth at tackle right now. We have Lamar (Holmes). Gabe (Carimi) has played and Ryan Schraeder played a little bit of the jumbo tight end. We feel like we have four tackles that can go in there and play. We can win with any of those four, but it's great to get Jake back.
ON THE BUCS WITH LB MASON FOSTER OUT: Every team in the NFL has a next man up mentality. So, if No. 50 is the guy if 59 can't play, he's played a lot of linebacker last week. He's good against the run. Just like last week when we had to start Gabe at left tackle, the next guy has to go in and play well. That's how Tampa is looking at it.
ON BEING MORE CONSISTENT: When your are coming off a game like Cincinnati and you weren't successful on offense. You weren't successful as an offensive unit. There were some individuals who played fine. Others, not as good. When you have a game like that, especially coming off that first week, you are soul-searching yourself, players and coaches to help us do better. The players are always going to say 'we've got to make more plays.' The coaches are going to say 'we have to coach better. We have to give them better opportunities.' When you come off a game, when you get whipped like that . . . we had such a good first week and then such a bad second week. . . .we just have to move on.
ON THE FOUR-RUNNING BACK ROTATION: There are both tagged situations and flow (of the game) decisions. That's very similar to the up-tempo and the no-huddle. It's very tough to rotate four guys when you're not making first downs. We break our deal down into what we call run downs. First and 10, second-and-1 to 6, that's your biggest chunk of plays in any game. We only had 10 in the first half of that Cincinnati game. We had 10 runs downs where you like to be 50-50, run-pass. We were. We had five runs and five passes. That's not enough for four running backs. And five passes is not enough for the quarterback and the receivers that we have. What's the answer? Move the football. It's not a mystery. Don't got three-and-out and don't turn it over. We have to make first downs to get more plays or you've got to score points. We did neither.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Falcons quoteboard from Bengals' loss
Julio Jones returned after tweaking is foot
Two Bengals who have something to play for
