2 bad coaching jobs this week

[Lothar]

It seems like the better teams do a great job limiting Atlanta's O by containing Vick, stuffing the run and making him beat you thru the air. But Grey tipped his hand earlier this week and said - unlike last week against Griese - he was going to go after him. I think he made the right move last week against a rhytm west coast offense - but they couldn't tackle anybody. Well, this week I was shocked to see 6 and 7 man blitzes - this just plays into Vick's hands. Unless you have the team speed of Tampa, you want to limit the run game and contain Vick - make him work it slowly down the field since he's not the most accurate of passers. And especially when the run game was gashing us. I still can't understand the last blitz at the end of the first half. There were 40 seconds or so left in the half. One more stop and Atlanta would run the clock out - but we get burned for a 50 yard run by Dunn.

 

Offensively, I see JP staring down receivers an awful lot. Still with 4 street players in the secondary, how hard would it be to find the guy not covered by Deangelo Hall? That may be JP but coaches should be letting him know who to go after. Mularkey said he was hesitant to throw because of the success running the ball but all ATlanta wated to do was get it into a 3rd and 2 and count on JP or the OL to screw things up. Late in the game when our defense showed no propensity to hold back the Falcons, I'd have had JP rolling out with regularity and throw till he got into a rhythm. that's his strength - use it.

 

Since the beginning of last year, I've been impressed with the coaching staff being able to stay the course as the team found its feet. However, I haven't seen very good coaching these last 2 weeks on either side of the ball. And now with the injuries piling up, the strength of the team may soon be a weakness. In that case, do we really want to rely on JP and the offense sputtering every week?

 

If Spikes is down for the year, we may have to bite the bullet (with our decrepit 2nd string 'backers) and hand the keys to the offense over to Holcombe to allow us to stay in games. Believe me, I'm a big JP fan, but the formula of running Willis and counting on the D to keep us in games while he learns may have to take a backseat to the team succeeding. At least, until we're out of the playoff picture.