Poll: Top matchup to watch vs Falcons Week 1

Football is back!
This thread isn't intended to replace Aros' missed Fearless Predictions. I know there's also another post out there pertaining to Todd Gurley.

This post is simply a poll and discussion for which matchup you'll be keeping an eye on, or find most interesting in this upcoming game vs Atlanta?

Grady Jarrett is a beast and I'm worried about Russell behind this (yet again) work in progress O line.

How will Jamal Adams help our secondary vs the Falcons passing attack? We all know what Julio can do. Ridley is an underrated star in the making too. Theyve got some solid pass catchers across the board.

Will Russell be able to pick apart the Falcons secondary? If given the time to throw, he should have a good day. They lost Trufant and Alford. Keanu Neal is healthy now for week 1 and he's a stud.

Lots of fun matchups on Sunday!

I have a false sense of confidence about our o-line. I erroneously think they'll hold up just fine against the Falcons D. So I'm more interested to see our pass rush, and how much our revamped secondary helps the defense.

Have you seen our road openers in the Carroll era?

This won't be pretty and there won't be a matchup that's worth watching. We will run ineffectively, pass too conservatively, bend and eventually break on defence and Wilson will get sacked too often as he furiously tries to lead a comeback in the 4th quarter. All to little avail.

This is the Pete Carrol way. It is known.

I'm a trench guy, so I want to see how our o-line handles Quinn's d-line. Less than 2 sacks okay, but if more than 2 it might get ugly.

Mad Dog":2siurrgp said:

Have you seen our road openers in the Carroll era?

This won't be pretty and there won't be a matchup that's worth watching. We will run ineffectively, pass too conservatively, bend and eventually break on defence and Wilson will get sacked too often as he furiously tries to lead a comeback in the 4th quarter. All to little avail.

This is the Pete Carrol way. It is known.

Click to expand...

Lol hey I'm just trying to be optimistic here

nwHawk":1gp5iikb said:

I'm a trench guy, so I want to see how our o-line handles Quinn's d-line. Less than 2 sacks okay, but if more than 2 it might get ugly.

Click to expand...

This is the one for me too. Atlanta's got a lot of fire power so I think they will put up points. If the o-line can't protect Russ leading to the Hawk offence not keeping up we're in trouble. ALong with Garrett they have Fowler coming off the edge now.

I put our passing attack because I think it's a gimme that their's will score points. We need to match those points by getting untracked early and not depending on another 4th qtr comeback.

The offense usually lags behind the defense this early in the season and I would like to see us reverse that trend.

The player I am watching is Jamal Adams, hope he can make a real impact this season.

I'll take the optimistic view and assume our secondary will hold it's own against the Falcon receivers. I'll also be an optimist and assume our receivers will shine vs their secondary. That boils it down to how well we contain the run and how much success we have running the ball. Gurley has had success against us as a Ram. When healthy we always seem to find a way to produce good running yardage.
Therefore I think we'll see another close game where we have a decent chance to pull out a tough week 1 win. Pete is bound to even up on those terrible opening week road game odds.

Wasn't the Falcon pretty much the only team we didn't struggle last year. We went up 24 -0 but Pete didn't want to keep their foot in Quinns throat. If they didn't do their comeback, Quinn would probably been fired the following day.

"If they didn't do their comeback, Quinn would probably been fired the following day."
That might have been a break for us. Quinn as our DC was right before our D really lost it's luster. Right?

Gotta be the retooled secondary. That's now the heart of the team, outside of RW. Should be elite and elevate the defense to top-10 territory, even with the front 7 uncertainty.

Pete vs the letting Russell Cook argument.

Eager to see the shiny new toys in the secondary, and if we can slow down Atlanta's passing attack with that secondary. Maybe even get a pick or two and even a score out of it. Jamal Adams, how does he change our D's attitude, will we see Flowers, or Dunbar, or both, how do they use Blair, and we know QDiggs will bring it.

I'm guessing this time we'll see a healthy Julio so that will be a challenge. Still waiting for Pete to coach up DK Metcalf as our designated shutdown corner for Julio and dudes like him. Not holding breath, though.

Useless plausible-but-unlikely prediction: Matty Ice throws for 300, with 3 TDs, but 2 picks, 1 of which gets returned for a TD by Hawks. 3 Sacks by the Hawks. Jordyn Brooks, Mayowa, and Adams with sacks. I'll guess it's Blair and KJ or Diggs with picks and Diggs or Blair that gets to the house. OK, so 10 million to 1 odds on all that? I'll settle for a couple turnovers created by our D and a Hawks win.