Skins fall to Falcons 24-17

Another close game.  Again, this is largely what I wanted to see this season.  I am less focused on the record and more wanting to see us be competitive and see improvement week to week.  Here are my thoughts on the game:

1.            Defense much improved. I did like that we cut the zero blitz nonsense and gave the secondary a lot of help by having the LBs drop and take mid range passes away from the WRs.  Seemed like the DBs were playing back and Ryan had to check down a lot during the day.  It was a much better job of coaching and executing.  You will never stop Jones and White but I thought we did a decent job of slowing them down.  I did think that because we dropped so many guys back we were not able to generate as great of a pass rush.  Still, I was pleased with the overall performance of the group.  Kerrigan obviously had the big play with the INT for a TD.  Thought Perry Riley made some nice defensive plays. 
2.            Offense was okay.  Morris continues to impress.  Thought the O line did a nice job creating lanes for him.  RG3 was okay (more on him below).  The biggest issue I had with this group was the inability to convert third downs.  What was most frustrating was that we often had third and shorts but we could not convert.  I believe we are the worst in the league at third down conversions – that hurts big time.
3.            RG3 SLIDE!!!  Obviously RG3 took the hard hit scrambling to the side lines.  He HAS to know he needs to slide or throw the ball out of bounds or run out of bounds anything but take that hit.  That is all on him.  We need him and him getting knocked out of the game hurt us bad.  Cousins came in an did a okay job.  Obviously, he got the big play to Moss which was big but he made typical rookie QB mistakes in his INTs.  He stared down the WRs and he didn’t recognize zone coverage and ended up throwing an INT when he didn’t see the DB in zone coverage.  That is going to happen with Cousins.  He’s decent but he isn’t ready for prime time.  Honestly, if RG3 can’t go this week, I would rather see Rexy in there than Cousins.  I think Rexy gives us the better chance of success. 
4.            Cundiff sucks!  If he is on the team after today, I will be shocked.  Missing a 31 yarder after last week’s performance is inexcusable.  I hear that he is making everything in practice and he talks with confidence but it isn’t translating to game day.  His miss was huge as it would have been a 10-0 lead late in the first half.  Instead, the miss was deflating for us and the Falcons were able to march down the field and score a TD tying the game going into half time.  Getting a new kicker is imperative. 

In the end, it was a decent performance against one of the best teams in the NFC.  Hopefully RG3 is able to return and while it was tough to take the loss, it is exciting to see that we are more consistent and competitive and we certainly seem like a much stronger team than previous years. 

HTTR!!!