I've always said the explosion in popularity of video games was the worst thing that ever happened to NFL offensive coordinators. Now every jamoke with a joystick thinks they can call plays better than that terrible coordinator ruining their favorite team. For these after-the-fact Einsteins, a play call is bad because it doesn't work.
That brings us to Kyle Shanahan. Among many Falcons fans, he's gone from genius (early last season) to idiot (later last season) back to genius (running the best offense in the NFL). His offense is a machine now but one of its weaknesses is in the red zone , where the Falcons rank "only" 15th in red-zone percentage.
I haven’t heard many complaints about Shanahan’s play-calling this season but most of them boil down to: “Why not throw it up for Julio in the red zone?” Hey, it works on Madden.
Well, let’s hear it from Julio Jones, who has been the target on just 20.8 percent of Matt Ryan's 61 red-zone passing attempts:
“Teams just tend to take me away and I’m really not part of the equation down there. We’ve just got to step up and make plays down there. Everybody. There is no rhyme or reason why we are not hitting it. People are doubling (me) and switching things up down there. They do certain looks throughout the week (on video) and then when they play us, they give us another look. It happens. As long as we are winning games, though. We are scoring enough points to make it happen.”
Surprisingly, the solution for the Falcons’ issues in the red zone is not as simple as just throwing it up to Julio. It turns out opponents also recognize this as a potentially effective strategy for the Falcons and guard against it. I guess they play Madden, too?
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And here’s another thing. When Shanahan is building his game plan each week, he doesn’t have a lot to go on when anticipating how opponents will deal with Julio in the red zone. He can’t go into the game video library and see how the opponent that week schemed against a big, fast, quick, tough receiver with good hands who can run the entire route tree like a much smaller wide receiver.
“When you do have someone like Julio of his caliber, there is not a lot of tape that you can guess off of,” Shanahan said. “There’s not a lot of teams that have Julio players. It’s very rare that you are just going to get the exact look that they are playing other (teams). You have always got to put stuff in to get Julio the ball. But you’ve got to expect that there are going to be two, three guys on him and where do you want to go when that happens?
“You usually see guys’ plans early in games but guys adjust too and you need balanced plans. And you’ve got to go through (QB) progressions. You’ve got to have time for the quarterback to go through progressions. And when he gets to the spot where coverage dictates where you go, that guy has got to win.”
Dang, that sounds a lot harder than Madden.
Seriously, though, Ryan has been good in the red zone. His completion percentage down there (63.9) ranks sixth among NFL starters. He's got 13 red-zone TDs against just one pick (Week 2 at Oakland).
For the Falcons to be better in the red zone they have to run the ball better down there. That’s true for every team. Dan Quinn said this week that the Falcons are looking to tighten up the combination blocks by linemen. Perimeter blocking by the wide receivers is important, too.
“You run the ball more efficiently in the red zone, you get better looks for your receivers also,” Shanahan said. “You never really say this (one) area. It has to do with everything.”
It’s Shanahan’s job to figure out the plays that give the Falcons the best chance to score in the red zone. At Tampa Bay, Ryan did just throw it up to Julio for a touchdown—don’t ask me why he would ever get single coverage on the outside—but usually it’s not that simple.
“Everybody has just got to be on the same page down there,” Jones said.
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