Eagles Game Will Be Important For Falcons Secondary

The Falcons displayed a poor performance in the first game of the NFL regular season on Sunday vs. the Bears. It won’t get any easier as the next week they face Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles at the Georgia Dome. Jay Cutler threw 312 yards on an efficient 22-32 passing. The Falcons secondary has been the talk for years now as the team Achilles heal, and it showed against the Bears. After allowing Aaron Rodgers to carve them up in last year’s playoff loss against the Packers this team was talking improvement on getting better. That didn’t happen on Sunday as they allowed receivers to be open, and they allowed big passing plays on third down. If the Falcons couldn’t stop the Bears receivers I don’t even want to see what happens when they face Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.

Not all can be blamed on the Falcons secondary, because the defensive line and linebackers didn’t do any better as far as getting Jay Cutler to the ground. The secondary is however at fault for allowing big passing plays to happen which they try to eliminate. Jay Cutler connected to a wide open Roy Williams on a 23-yard pass on third down early in the first quarter, and that opened the gates for more long passes. Mike Smith said that there was miscommunication on all of the big passing plays that the Bears had, and that just can’t happen if the Falcons want to be considered a championship caliber team. What hurt the Falcons also is that they had their opportunities to stop some of the drives that the Bears were putting together. Thomas Decoud dropped two very catchable interceptions. These are the plays that the Falcons defense has to make, they need to make plays to get off the field, and they didn’t against the Bears.

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As expected after the game the Falcons secondary is getting ripped by every sports journalist, and you really can’t argue with anything that they are saying after their performance. In come the Eagles with explosive receivers and Michael Vick who is a threat with his feet and arm. The Falcons secondary will definitely be challenged, and we will see if they indeed are improved. I do believe that this game will determine what the Falcons secondary will be for the season. Will this be the secondary that can’t hold up or will this be the secondary that in year four under defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder we will see the improvements that we should see. We will see on Sunday what this secondary is made of. Will it be a statement or another flop is what we will find out.

By: Steven Virden
ProFootball-fans.com Atlanta Falcons Correspondent