“We thought that was a good matchup for us”.
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The Atlanta Falcons (0-1) lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-24, last week in which Matt Ryan threw for 334 yards and two touchdowns.
Murray finished with 101 total yards and a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, leading the entire contest with 3.86 Rushing Net Expected Points. It was a game virtually no one thought the Falcons could win (except for maybe the Falcoholic himself) and the team almost gave it away a few times.
Nothing new for the Falcons to have trouble getting pressure on the quarterback and that was the case for the Falcons most of the day.
Additionally, the number of missed tackles was highly concerning, as several offensive drives for the Raiders would have been stopped if the first/second/third/fourth defender had managed to bring the ball carrier down. If it hadn’t been for defensive penalties, the Raiders may have been scoreless through three quarters. “Until everybody makes a full commitment to turning this thing around we’re going to be a subpar defense”. The Raiders averaged 6.2 yards per carry, with several runs over 10 yards. Amari Cooper led the team with 71 reception yards, a long of 25 that help the Raiders get into the red zone and eventually score their first points. File under bad calls: Carr hit Cooper for a huge 70-ish yard touchdown, but it was taken back, because the official said No. 89 went out of bounds.
Despite getting burned several times, there were glimpses of improvement. Through the first two games, he looks like a completely different back.
This level of distribution indicates several things, all of them good. Hopefully for Raiders fans, Sunday was a one-time deal, but it looks like it may be an issue going forward.
In the second quarter, Robert Alford intercepted Carr’s pass in the end zone, but he pushed off Michael Crabtree resulting in a pass interference. Whatever happened in the locker room at halftime whipped the offense into shape. They scored just one touchdown on four trips to the red zone last week against Tampa Bay. It was the Falcons only turnover in the game.
Sunday will be the first time the Falcons and Raiders have played each other in the regular season since 2012.
After getting just 19 sacks last season for the fewest in the National Football League since 2009 and getting none in the opener, the Falcons got their first of the season against Carr. The offense’s attack was more balanced, and the two backs combined for 139 yards. Look for the Raiders to play better defensively than they did last week against the Falcons, who are 1-5 against the spread in their last six road games and are 2-11 ATS in their last 13 games overall. Tamme finished with five catches for 75 yards. He was well protected against pass-rush demon Khalil Mack and, in turn, was able to take some shots down the field to Julio Jones and rookie tight end Austin Hooper.
Against the Saints last week, the Raiders rushed for 167 yards and three touchdowns.
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Two games and 1,035 yards – that’s a lot of motivation.
