Matt Ryan threw for the most passing yards in Atlanta Falcons history. That sort of thing happens when you give a quarterback ample time to survey the field. More frustrating was the fact that Ryan evaded the pass rush the times he was close to getting sacked, despite that not being his strength. The Saints’ Achilles heel on defense continues to be cover corners not named Keenan Lewis (not that he played his best game either), but that weakness was made so much worse by the atrocious tackling on display all game long. Ryan simply gashed the Saints at will and it’s a serious concern moving forward. Hopefully this defense can flip a switch and made a radical transformation in week 2. So far, the defense looks like it’s under the watchful eye of Steve Spagnuolo. The good news is while the coverage may not improve, the pass rush and tackling almost has to. On to the grades… again, the letter grade is the player’s performance for the game and the GPA is the cumulative effort for the season. Be warned, they are very bad. That’s what happens when you turn in the second worst performance in team history.
Cam Jordan: D (1.00) I hate to be harsh on players I have a lot of respect for, but he was utterly dormant despite a favorable matchup. With Jake Matthews’ shift to left tackle, Jordan was essentially facing a backup and he just didn’t get much going for the entirety of the game. He did face constant double teams which made his task much more difficult. He finished with just one tackle and a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage. He will have much better games this season, this much I can promise you.
Junior Galette: D+ (1.33) For a man that just got paid more money than Jimmy Graham, this was a really disappointing performance. Matthews did a terrific job of handling Galette, although he benefited from constantly holding him and never getting flagged. Galette had the benefit of going against Gabe Carimi in the second half after Matthews went down, and he should have dominated but continued to struggle. He finished with 4 tackles, but part of the reason for his poor grade is that in the second half he looked like he started giving up on some plays. The effort was poor. He was also flagged for jumping offsides once. Likewise, we expect and will see a lot more out of him this year.
Akiem Hicks: D (1.00) A very poor interior performance from Hicks. He struggled against the run and rushing the passer alike. I was shocked how ordinary he was in this game. Like Galette and Jordan this seemed like a very favorable matchup, it just didn’t happen.
Brodrick Bunkley: D (1.00) He had one tackle and the Falcons’ rushing attack fueled by the corpse of Steve Jackson was entirely too successful. Bunkley didn’t absorb space of get any penetration. The Saints missed John Jenkins in this game.
Glenn Foster: C- (1.67) He saw limited snaps and made no impact.
Tyrunn Walker: B- (2.67) He registered the team’s only sack. Thank God for that.
Brandon Deaderick: C- (1.67) He had one tackle and seemed to be constantly chasing after the play. He looked slow in pursuit. Hopefully John Jenkins is ready to supplant him next week.
Kasim Edebali: C (2.00) He registered no statistics but he actually looked decent as an edge rusher the times he got reps. The disruption he did cause just flushed Ryan out of the pocket where he’d still do plenty of damage, though.
David Hawthorne: C (2.00) The two toughest players to grade on defense were Lofton and Hawthorne. All game long they kept trading off between physical textbook tackles in open space and whiffing on guys they had a clear shot at that would rip off huge gains as a result. He was victimized in coverage, but so was everyone. He had 8 tackles. An up and down game.
Curtis Lofton: C+ (2.33) The Hawthorne write up applies here too for the most part. He left the game with what looked like a stinger but returned and continued to play hard. Give him a lot of credit for that. His struggles in coverage are documented, this game was no exception, but for the most part he did a terrific job finding the ball and making the tackle. It’s the tackles he missed that stand out perhaps, but the effort was constantly there which is more than I can say for some. He led the team with 10 tackles despite missing some time.
Ramon Humber: D (1.00) Filling in for Lofton was not pretty, particularly in coverage. He looked uncomfortable and had no tackles.
Keenan Lewis: C (2.00) He finished with 3 tackles and a defended pass, where he jumped a red zone target and almost came up with the interception. In coverage he was the best on the team, but that’s not saying much. He was out muscled by Roddy White for a touchdown, had trouble staying with the speedy Devin Hester on crossing routes and whiffed on a couple tackles. On one 3rd and 12 play in particular he had a very makeable tackle opportunity near the sideline well short of the first down marker and missed a huge opportunity to help the defense hold Atlanta to three points. All that said Matt Ryan messed with Lewis the least because his coverage was often solid. In his defense he also had some nice, physical, open field stops too. He also had a shoestring tackle on Steven Jackson on a play where if he misses it it goes for a long gain.
Patrick Robinson: D (1.00) He had 3 tackles and a nice break up where he read the play well and came over to help White’s man. Other than that he was victimized all day long. He let Julio Jones and Hester blow by him with ease. We’ll see how he bounces back but the decision to part with Champ Bailey has to be under scrutiny right now.
Corey White: C+ (2.33) He was up and down but at least he was physical and alternated mistakes with fight. If nothing else he competed well and he did come up with a fumble recovery in the end zone for the team’s first takeaway. He had 6 tackles and did a good job disrupting some of the bubble screens. He was also beaten in coverage a fair amount. He was also flagged for a totally bogus “pass interference” call well short of the sticks which bailed the Falcons out on a 3rd and 15.
Kenny Vaccaro: D (1.00) He had 4 tackles and missed what felt like 70. It was probably the worst game he’s had in a Saints’ uniform. What he does best is play close to the line of scrimmage and take guys out. That’s what he did worst in this game. Totally out of character.
Jairus Byrd: C+ (2.33) The forced fumble in the red zone on Julio Jones was a thing of beauty and in a small moment the free agent contract all made perfect sense. Unfortunately the time away from practice during camp showed. Byrd was rusty. He struggled many times with angles and with tackling. We’ve seen flashes and I’m sure he will get back to himself soon but this was not a great performance. He had 5 tackles.
Rafael Bush: C+ (2.33) His tackling was the best of the team, no surprise, and as the last line of defense he prevented a few big gains from becoming much worse. He did get beat on a couple deep throws, though, including one just before haltime that set up a field goal. He had 7 tackles.
Shayne Graham: A (4.00) He was perfect on a 31 yarder and a 50 yarder with much room to spare. Color me impressed. He was also perfect on 4 extra points. For now the decision to keep him looks solid and he gave a lot of stability to the kicking game.
Thomas Morstead: A+ (4.33) He completely neutralized Hester in the kicking game. Not only was he terrific on kickoffs (only one return taken out for 21 yards, 5/6 on touchbacks), Hester also had only 1 yard on one punt return. Both of his punts were pinned inside the 20 and he finished with a 50 yard net average. Yes, net. That’s astronomical. It’s literally almost physically impossible for him to have had a better game.
Defensive Player of the Game: Tyrunn Walker
Special Teams Player of the Game: Thomas Morstead
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
