VERY delayed Falcons thoughts

Better late than never, I guess...

THE GOOD:
- This is an easy one....the running game. Every facet worked exactly how you draw it up. The offensive line opened huge holes, along with Ovie and those big tight ends that we picked up in the offseason. Many times, Turner and Norwood hit the second level without being touched. Once they got there, they certainly knew what to do. Turner seems to be the real deal...pretty good speed, shifty for his size, and definitely not afraid of contact. A franchise record 220 yards and 2 touchdowns is one heck of debut. Norwood continues to be a threat every time he touches the ball.

- Kind of a corollary to that one is the offensive line. I think the line is going to be much better than most people expected them to be. Sam Baker already looks like an NFL tackle...I was glad to see that he did in fact have normal human-size arms. Kiper was making him out to be an alligator with all his talk about "short arms." Jeff Fisher said after the Titans preseason game that this o-line played a little nastier than previous years...gotta love that. Good to see them playing real blow-you-off-the-ball type football rather than that pansy zone blocking we've seen for so long.

- Matt Ryan. He did exactly what we needed him to do...make good decisions, be accurate, and protect the football. I don't see us getting away with him only throwing the ball 13 times very often, but we will definitely be running the ball quite a bit in order to protect him. I'm thinking this may be kind of like the Dan Reeves offense...pound the ball to set up the play-action. I think Ryan is perfectly suited for that.

- The wide receivers. Didn't ask them to do much, but no drops and Roddy White made a nice play on the deep ball that Ryan threw. Says a lot about the WR play we've had recently that this was enough to stand out to me as a good game by our wideouts.

- John Abraham continues to absolutely dominate every time he's healthy.

THE BAD:
- Just like the Dawgs game, not much. I still have questions about the defense, with the exception of Abraham, but I wouldn't even put them in the "bad" category...let's call them an "incomplete."

Overall, you couldn't ask for a better start to the season. Nice of the Lions to basically roll over and die on defense.

This week should provide a stiffer test, and we'll know a lot more about this team in about four days.