FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan doesn't believe that much is wrong with the offense, which has averaged 16.7 points over the past four games and has contributed to a 1-3 record over that period.
In his weekly session with the media, Shanahan said he believes the offense can get back on track by eliminating penalties and turnovers. He doesn’t plan to run more no-huddle offense, he’d like to get wide receiver Roddy White more touches, but he considers his main duty is to spring wide receiver Julio Jones.
Here’s what Shanahan had to say:
Q: What’s wrong with the offense?
A: First and foremost was the turnovers. We've got three losses and two of the losses I feel very strongly that it was mainly because of our turnovers….Those are the main things. In our final week (before the bye) verses (San Francisco), it wasn't about turnovers. I just think we didn't play our best ball….They did a good job stopping our run game. We needed to step up in the pass game and we just didn't make the plays that we needed, throwing and catching the ball. You just go back to the basics, working at it. That's really all that you can do. We've had three practices now since then and I think we've gotten better each day at that.
Q: Can you run more no huddle? Do y’all want to run more no-huddle?
A: That's something that we think about every week. That's something that we think about every quarter. Every time in the game. It's part of our offense. We've run it this year. I don't know if people have noticed. We've done it in probably three of the games. We think if it gives us an advantage, we'll do it. But we don't just say hey, let's go no-huddle because we hear you guys telling us too. I don't hear you, but my wife hears you. (The Falcons have only run no-huddle in traditional hurry-up situations.)
Q: Why are Roddy White’s targets so low?
A: It's part of coverages. It's part of who you go to. We have a lot of people who can make plays. Roddy is, in my opinion, probably the best receiver of my generation of guys I've studied. I've always loved Roddy. He doesn't have the same role on this team that he had when he was younger. We have other guys that we can go to. He's not always the number two option. I know he was the one, but Julio has been here and we know what Julio is. Roddy is not always the two. Roddy does a lot of good things. He done everything that we asked him to do. I think we do need to get him more touches. He's been there at times and has been open when he hasn't gotten the ball. It's nothing personal. Roddy has done a good job. He's done what we've asked him to do. (White has 30 targets according to pro-football-reference.com. He has 17 catches.)
Q: What stands out from working with Julio Jones on a daily basis?
A: Julio is extremely gifted, which everybody knows. He's a big guy who is very explosive, who has good hands, who can cut, who can run faster than most people and who can break down. That makes it very hard to cover someone like that. There are people like that, but what separates Julio is that he's fearless. He doesn't mind the physicality of the game. He doesn't mind going in there. He's one of the best blocking receivers that I've ever been around. You guys have seen him on picks looking like a Cybor going down the field making tackles. He's a tough football player who's also very gifted. Julio's main thing and it always will be, just keeping him healthy.
Q: How do you see Julio matchup up against (Indianapolis cornerback) Vontae Davis?
A: Vontae is a very good corner. He's one of the better ones that we've played against this year. It will be challenge. I think it will be a challenge for both of them. I feel Julio is a very good player and I like the matchup no matter who he's going up against.
Q: How will you get White the ball more when Leonard Hankerson is returning?
A: We have a bunch of guys. It's not just those two (Hankerson and White). Hank is a big part of our offense, too. It's hurt (us) not having him around. I don't know if he'll be back this week, but I hope he is. If not, we do have a bunch of guys who can step up. Nick Williams has done a good job while he's been gone. Hardy has stepped up the last couple of weeks and has done a good job. The main thing is that I don't think about balancing out passes. I think about trying to get the ball to Julio for the most part. I think defenses are thinking about taking away Julio so that we can't. When we don't, we've got to go to other people. It depends what the coverage it. It depends how it goes. But I'm not racking my brain here saying how do we get him this amount, him this amount, or him this amount. That's not really my job. My job is to try to figure out the best way for us to be successful. I try to be honest with everybody and try to do my best at it.
Q: Is it your position that turnovers and penalties are the only things wrong with the offense?
A: Everyone can have their different opinions. But I think there are a lot of good things that we are doing. I thought San Francisco was our worse game. … we struggled to run the ball. Then we didn't make the plays in the passing game that we needed to. The way our special teams played, the turnovers we got on defense, I was really disappointed in us in that loss. In the other two losses, I didn't think. … verses Tampa and New Orleans. …two of the better games in terms of moving the ball. To go in a game where you don't punt once. To go in another game when you are averaging almost eight yards a play, I don't look as those as, man we're struggling. I look at it as frustrating because you're moving the ball, but you don't have the points to show for it. So you look at why don't you score those points? We looked into all of that stuff in two of those games, a lot of that stuff was turnovers. It wasn't so much in the San Francisco game. We've got to get better. We have to get better in every aspect. You are either getting better or worse. Our goal is to get better. You guys are right, when we don't score enough points, that means you're getting worse. I've been in games where you can't do anything. I haven't felt like that at all this year. It's more like, oh let's get back out there. We'll get this going. But we have (had) a few set backs. The main thing is don't panic and be confident with what you are doing. Just keep working to get better. Usually when you do that, the rest takes care of itself.
Q: What is the challenge of running the no-huddle when you have an inexperienced center?
A: When you're going fast all of the time. It can mess up the defense, but that can really mess up the offense. I feel pretty confident when we know where people are and we can block people (then) we're going to have a pretty good running game. When we don't know where people are and they are all over the place and you're trying to go fast, it's a mess. So, it's kind of hit or miss. You are either lucky or unlucky. There are some inconsistency with it. But there are also some huge advantages, too. It's nothing against not going no-huddle. I know that you guys are used to it because you've seen it for a long time. There are some great positives in it, but there are also some negatives, too. It's finding that balance. I think we've had a lot of success this year on offense. I know we haven't done as well these last few weeks as we did early. If I thought going no-huddle would answer every problem, the answer to no turnovers, no penalties and everyone is catching better with no-huddle, then we'll do that. But it's more than just that. We'll see how this game stacks up. It's going to be different every week. I change my mind based off of series. It depends what the defense is doing. It depends what our players were doing.
Q: Why did you all elect not to run Devonta (Freeman) on the final three plays against San Francisco? Did you want to go for it on fourth down?
A: As an offensive coach, I want to go for it when its fourth-and-20. You're not the head coach. But you always want the ball on offense. I totally understood Coach's decision. It's kind of (like) the situation that I was in two weeks before at Tennessee. I thought they were going to play a different look and I decided to throw ball on fourth-and-1 and it didn't work. I was an idiot for it. If it would have worked, it would have been a good deal. It's 50-50 situations. You have to be confident in your work that you put in … It can go either way and you live with the consequences. When you talk about electing to go to people on plays, it's not like that. To tell you the truth, the one that we went to (Justin) Hardy, Devonta was (the) number one (option). But they all-out blitzed us. So, then you've got to throw your hot route. We liked what we had, but we just came up a yard short.
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