Well, if I'm going to be wrong, might as well be spectacularly wrong . . .
Let me begin by saying that it's possible the New Orleans Saints aligned their defense in such a way that it made it difficult for the Falcons to keep feeding Devonta Freeman. It could be that passing was the better option, and that’s certainly the way it looked early as Matt Ryan connected on play-action passes and bootlegs. Only someone who reviews the video of every play and knows the Falcons’ play calls and checks can know for sure.
But . . . .
Freeman, the hard-running touchdown machine who has been the best back in the league, hardly got to run against the worst defense in the league. The Falcons ran 55 plays before they were hopelessly behind and Freeman carried the ball on 13 of them. He got 100 yards on those carries, or 7.7 yards attempt. Freeman did have eight catches for 56 yards but five of those receptions came in garbage time, helping your fantasy team but not the Falcons.
Freeman certainly looked the part when he got his chances.
After the Falcons spotted the Saints a 14-0 lead and got back within 14-7, Freeman started to do his thing. He darted right for six yards on first-and-10. He bounded left for nine yards and a first down. He ran for five yards on first down and then . . . Ryan passed incomplete, Tevin Coleman ran four yards, and then Coleman lost a fumble at the Saints’ nine-yard line.
Freeman really got going on the next possession. He ran for 12 yards, 19 yards and then . . . Coleman ran for a yard, Jacob Tamme caught a six-yard pass and Ryan lost a fumble.
The Falcons somehow trailed just 14-7 at halftime and they got the ball to begin the third quarter. Freeman ran for five yards, then he had his two-yard run negated by a hold that made it second-and-15 and then . . . .and then Ryan threw incomplete on second-and-15 and tossed a short give-up pass to Terron Ward on third down.
The Falcons were still down just 17-7 when they got the ball back the next time. Freeman ran for two yards on first down and then . . . two straight incompletions and a punt. The Falcons were down 24-7 late in the third quarter when they got the ball back again: pass, pass, pass, 13-yard Freeman run, five yard Freeman run, minus-five yards Freeman run. Three plays later, they got a 20-yard catch by Jacob Tamme on fourth-and-five and then . . . and then Freeman burst into the open field for a 25-yard TD!
The Falcons’ defense collapsed from there and so Freeman didn’t get another carry. But why didn’t he get more carries before that? If it’s true that the Saints were loading up to stop the run then what does it mean that Ryan completed just five passes longer than 15 yards, including just two after halftime and before the Saints went into prevent mode? They better hope the fix is getting Julio Jones back to deep-threat form and Mike Person back at center.
Like I said, maybe the Saints weren’t going to give Freeman many chances to beat them by running the ball but the Falcons weren’t giving Freeman many chances to beat the Saints, either. Again, I don’t have the full picture, but that’s the way it looks in the aftermath of this Falcons flop.
