The Falcons aren't as good as people hype them to be. They have yet to convince me that they are a great team. They are good, but also victims of luck. In the preseason, I predicted Saints would win the division, Falcons would miss the playoffs and TB would contend for wild card. Likely I was wrong about TB, but as far as the other 2, they are starting to look that way. Right now the Falcons are sitting at 1-3 while we are 2-2. It's time for the Jets to kick these guys while they are down. We both lost to the Patriots and another good team. The Falcons coverage against the Patriots looked pretty bad yesterday. It could very well be a close game. The key to this game will be Geno. If he can stop or limit the mistakes, we have a chance, regardless of almost everything else. Our corners need to step it up for this one, but honestly it's all on Geno.
Hate Thursday and Monday night games. Unless we are a winning team. Then I would stay up for the whole game.
If Gates starts we will lose this game. One thing is that their defense isn't all that good. Maybe we can exploit it somehow. Julio Jones will be one tough cover. Cromartie might get embarrassed out there. Then you got Roddy White whose not 100%. This game has the makings of an ass kicking but who knows, their offensive line can be exploited. Maybe we sack Matt 5 times and we rattle him.
too early to predict if Holmes starts and Goodson is ready to join Powell in the RB rotation and Winters steps in to rid the OL of Vladimir Putin, we have a chance
Jones will dominate Cro, the good news is White hasn't looked like himself w/ the injury. if he gets healthier we are in trouble. If we were at home I'd feel like we had a decent chance, on the road it will be tough. I don't expect to win but you never know.
No Holmes, no Hill and a rookie QB on the road against a good team with a bad record, coming off two consecutive losses. The Falcons are not a team with 1-4 talent. Outside of getting at least two miracle scores form defense or special teams, we're most likely gonna get our asses handed to us. Better start accepting it now.
Their defense is not good though I think we can run the ball very effectively and play the TOP game with them to keep Ryan and co. off the field. If we can hold the ball for 38-42 minutes I can see us winning this game. We need to feed Powell early and often and let Geno manage the game converting 3rd and shorts.
A few years ago at Giants Stadium I went to a game following a snowstorm in Dec. Atlanta beat us on a last minute catch in the end zone by Tony Gonzalez. I also remember going to a game many years ago when Billy White Shoes Johnson (with the Falcons then) I think ran two returns back for TDs and beat us, too. So a little revenge wouldn't be bad. It's not impossible for us to win on MNF, not at all. But it is impossible for me to predict the Jets to win this game. Falcons 28 Jets 17.
If Holmes and Hill were not injured I would like our odds a lot more. I don't think ATL is as good as a lot of people think they are. They are banged up on D but without Holmes and Hill Geno is going to struggle. We will put up a fight but I think we lose.
In that 09 game, Braylon Edwards dropped a wide open touch down pass that would have gone for like 70 yards.
This. Falcons have an excellent home record since drafting Matt Ryan. Them losing 2 in a row at home would be shocking. Them losing to drop to 1-4 would be shocking. A rookie QB in his first MNF game going on the road and beating a preseason SB contender would be shocking. I can't imagine anyone would be picking us in this game. Matchup-wise, we have some advantages, but the circumstances surrounding this game suggest that Atlanta will win decisively.
At this point, Smith seems heavily prone to making turnovers. If he generates 3, the Jets have no real chance to win because you'll be spotting the Falcons 10 - 21 points and our offense can maybe score 10 - 14 points without Holmes and Hill (unless we get easy TDs from turnovers.) The other thing that will basically take the Jets out of this game is penalties. If we have more than 5 or 6, it'll be hard to win. We're not going to return any kickoffs or punts for TDs, so that's out of the question. (We never get more than a few yards on punt returns, or beyond the 20 on kickoff returns, and it never felt like there was a chance of breaking through and running one back.) I could imagine Powell breaking through for a TD run, but I'd guesstimate that there's about a 10% chance of that happening in any given game. And even if it does, 7 points will only be a game-changer if the Falcons don't get a bunch of easy points off of turnovers. Smith is averaging 2 interceptions per game, almost 1 fumble per game, and over 3 sacks per game. It's hard to imagine him not having any turnovers, but if he keeps it to 1 turnover and it's not on the Jets' side of the field, then the defense will be able to keep this a low-scoring game and the Jets will have a chance to win if Powell and Goodson have a very good game, and if the WRs are able to hang onto the ball. We will not have any long TDs like in the Buffalo game, but we could conceivably have, at best, two Mark Sanchez style TD drives that take 18 plays and happen 4 yards at a time. Then either a Powell or Goodson breakout TD, or a TD if the defense generates a turnover. I don't think the defense will generate 2 turnovers- most likely it will be 0, but maybe they'll get 1. Best reasonable case scenario- the Jets get an easy TD because of a turnover near the end zone by the Falcons or returned for a TD, two field goals, and either 1 grit-it-out 15+ play TD drive from our own 20, or Powell or Goodson taking one to the house. That'd be 20 points- that is the most I can see the Jets scoring in this game. Then, Geno only has 1 turnover, it's in Falcons' territory or midfield, and the defense is able to shut down their running game and put enough pressure on Matt Ryan that he'll only be able to score about 17 points. On the flip-side, Smith could have an average game, which for him so far means 3 turnovers, 3 sacks, and 1 TD. In that case, the Jets will score about 10 - 13 points. However, the turnovers will lead to the Falcons getting an additional 10 - 21 points, plus 1 to 2 TDs from regular TD drives, plus 1 to 2 drives that end in field goals. In that case, the Falcons will get 20 to 41 points. So I could see this game going anywhere from a 41-10 loss, to a 20-17 win. The actual results are probably going to be somewhere in the middle, with the Falcons winning about 27 to 14, which is my prediction for this game. (I hope it does not come true and that the Jets win.) Matt Ryan averages less than 1 interception per game, so if we get even one that'll be lucky (considering our defense does not generate turnovers). He also rarely gets sacked, so we'll be lucky to get 2 - 3. So the best hope for some unexpectedly good play by the Jets would be if one of the WRs or Winslow has a career day and Smith doesn't create any turnovers. Or if Powell or Goodson or both are dominant and MM leans on the running game even though that goes against every fiber of his being. If the Jets can somehow pull it together enough to beat the Falcons, I'll be very impressed, but based on how awful they looked last week I am not getting my hopes up for an upset win.
Cromartie needs to step up this game. He's gotten off to a bad start this season. If he can do a solid job on Julio Jones and we can get after Ryan with our D-Line that would be huge. We also need to be able to run the football and keep that offense off the field. Gotta win the time of possession battle. I'm hoping to see a lot of Bilal Powell and Geno Smith runs here. Hopefully those can open things up for a couple of shots down field. The only problem is the Falcons have been ok against the run so far this year and bad against the pass. Small sample size but according to those numbers the best way to attack the Falcons would actually be the opposite.
Its odd going over to the Falcoholic blog and see their fans just as distraught as ours despite our insistence that this is unwinnable(which don't get me wrong is still pretty true) apparently their team is reluctant to make scheme adjustments, their offense in the redzone isn't very good,(so the game will probably be FG heavy) they don't have a lot of players pass rushing at a time, and the team overall plays kind of dead. whats most important though is that they have Ryan and select group of weapons and we have Geno who has to work with Kerely Spadola and some new guy. whoever plays the bets pass defense wins. this could be another heartbreaker, but hardly a blowout.
I just can't get over the fact that Gates will be the Jets' WR2...I want the team to bounce back from that Tennessee game, but how are you supposed to bounce back when the WR2 doesn't know how to catch a football?
