The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coach reflects on struggle as team gears up for Lions.
FLOWERY BRANCH — The Falcons have had to time reflect on their struggles to convert in short-yardage situations Sunday against the 49ers.
The Falcons’ were 1-of-7 in short-yardage plays, and they ran an assortment of plays trying to get an advantage mostly in speed. They didn’t feel like they had an advantage in the power department.
The Falcons (6-8) will need to convert their short-yardage situations when they face the Detroit Lions (2-111) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-benz Stadium.
“Obviously, those are crit- ical downs,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said. “There are different philosophies when you get to first-and-1, second-and-1. Some people, generally, if you want to be risky there, there are all kinds of different theories and whatnot.”
Second-and-short is the time to be risky and maybe throw the ball down the field.
“What you really have to look at is the critical downs,” Smith said. “What happened after that. If you take a shot on second-and-1 and don’t get it, so you convert on third down or do you lose a yard? Now, it becomes third-and-2. … It’s not clean. Like a lot of football, there are a lot of variables.”
The Falcons also struggled in short yardage against New England.
“Now you get into to crit- ical yardage, third-and-1, fourth-and-1, and I believe we are 61% on the year on third-and-1 (which they are, along with 41.7% on fourthand-1),” Smith said. “We were 68% last year in Tennessee in third-and-1, give or take. You’ve got to win those downs, and there’s a lot that goes into it.”
There’s the smash-mouth approach.
“Obviously, primitive, right up the middle,” Smith said. “Sneaks, dives, bellys, or what every you want to call it. One-back hitters. It’s all about matchups. Some- times ... it’s going to be about matchups up front.”
So, if you have the Hogs and can move folks around, take the power approach. If you don’t, then you have to consider the speed approach. The Falcons went with the speed approach several times against the 49ers. They went shotgun, empty backfield
and even faked a dive and tossed a pitch out.
“There are strategic things you try to do whether if you want to go inside, you want to go outside, want to do misdirection,” Smith said. “You’ve seen a lot of jet sweeps. We’ve converted on a jet sweep.”
The Falcons, like most teams, work on the ir short-yardage packages as a part of the game plan during the week.
“You try and find what your advantages are,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. “Is it spacing them out and trying to create space to get a gap to be able to move the chains or do you feel like the defense that you’re going against, you’re better off packing it in and trying to go with those power per- centages.”
The coaching staff studies the film to come up with their perceived advantages in short yardage.
“I think as players it’s our
responsibility to make those plays come to life,” Ryan said. “To find ways, whether it is with power or space whatever that may be, we have to find a way to get the job done.”
The concept of snapping the ball backward into a shot- gun formation away from the goal seems anti-football. The Falcons pitched the ball seven yards from the one yard they needed to gain to Cordarelle Patterson against the 49ers.
“I understand,” Ryan said. “You don’t want to take the ball further away from where you’re at. But we’ve scored plenty of touchdowns from the ‘gun. Thrown plenty of them from the ‘gun down there on the 1-yard line. I think there are successful ways to do it from multiple different looks.”
Ryan doesn’t appear to have a preference.
“In my experience, we’ve had success doing it both ways,” Ryan said.