The Falcons won Sunday with neither Matt Ryan nor Julio Jones being the best player on the field. Whenever that happened last year, the Falcons lost. Sometimes they lost even when Ryan and Jones went wild. (Thinking of the second half at Green Bay.) That this team outlasted Washington in overtime with their main men playing supporting roles tells us these are newer, angrier Birds.
A year ago, these fallible fingers typed a sentence insisting the Falcons had nothing beyond Ryan and Jones. The man who’d assembled the roster sent a text of self-defense. “Quite exaggerative,” Thomas Dimitroff wrote, and he had a point – to a point. I hadn’t mentioned Desmond Trufant. Beyond those three, I saw no one worth mentioning.
Today I could go on for a while. Devonta Freeman looks like a mini-Marshawn Lynch. Robert Alford makes mistakes but makes big plays, too. Jonathan Babineaux, who has been here since 2005, has become an interior force. Jacob Tamme and Leonard Hankerson, who weren’t here last year, have made catches of massive importance. Nate Stupar, barely here last year, applied the pressure that begat Alford’s walk-off interception.
The biggest defensive swoop of the first four games was made by Kroy Biermann, whom fans lampoon as being less forceful than his Real Housewife spouse. The second-biggest was Ricardo Allen’s diving interception of a deflected Eagles pass. The rookie Vic Beasley Jr. hasn’t hit his stride, but he’s a talent.
Then there’s the offensive line, long a source of civic derision. According to Pro Football Focus, the highest-rated Falcon in Sunday’s victory was – no, not Freeman – right tackle Ryan Schraeder. The second-highest – also ahead of Freeman – was left guard Andy Levitre. (Hey, somebody blew those holes through which Freeman flashed. And should we dub him Schraeder the Road Grader?)
The same Pro Football Focus last week ranked the NFL’s offensive lines. A year ago, the website rated the Falcons’ O-line the NFL’s 26th-best, which seemed kind. This year? Numero Uno. Really. Truly.
Wrote PFF’s Khaled Elsayed: “(It’s) something you rarely see — Atlanta has morphed its scheme and personnel to achieve immediate results. Mike Person has been a revelation at center, and Chris Chester has proven to be a tremendous free agent pickup. Even Andy Levitre, who looked spent in Tennessee, has fit in seamlessly.”
No, none of those three interior linemen were here in 2014. Levitre arrived a week before the opener against Philadelphia. But what matters isn’t so much who acquired whom when but who’s doing what now.
In June, Pro Football Focus ranked the Falcons’ roster as the NFL’s second-worst. Of the five starters Sam Monson classified under “should be upgraded,” one was Patrick DeMarco, the fullback who has blocked like thunder for a running game that ranks ninth in the league, up from 24th last season. Another was left tackle Jake Matthews, whom PFF now calls “one of the better linemen in the league.”
The franchise that ran out of ideas under Mike Smith has been rendered fresh and new by Dan Quinn and staff. Given final say over the 53-man roster, Quinn could tell Dimitroff, “I need better,” and not be wishing on a star. (Quinn’s desires have an organizational resonance his predecessor’s never did.) And let’s face it: DQ and Co. are coaching the heck out of these guys.
Ryan recalled a moment last season – in the Week 1 victory over New Orleans – when Freeman caught a pass and made a cut that made the quarterback go, “Whoa.” But we saw so little else of Freeman it was hard to know what to make of him. Today he seems not just a change-of-pace back but an every-down man who shredded the stout defenses of Dallas and Washington for 294 yards.
That can happen in football. The right coach can take modest resources and maximize them to spectacular effect. Almost every Falcon has contributed to this flying start, and that’s by design: Quinn’s defense rotates nine linemen and six linebackers.
A year ago, the Falcons had no team to speak of. Today they’re a real team — with a real coach.
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