Writers of Pro Football Prospectus 2008

printable version

Any Given Sunday

The weekend's biggest upset goes under the Football Outsiders lens.

Need Help with KUBIAK or Premium?

blog advertising is good for you


13 Sep 2011

ESPN AGS: Bears over Falcons

The first Any Given Sunday looks at the Falcons' struggles on offense and a surprising star for the Chicago defense.

Posted by: Vince Verhei on 13 Sep 2011

15 comments, Last at 17 Dec 2012, 5:13am by carlos888

Comments

1
by Marko :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 2:30pm

The Falcons won 13 games last season, not 14. I presume the "surprising star for the Chicago defense" is Henry Melton. His play was not that surprising to those who follow the Bears closely, nor was it a surprise to the coaches.

7
by Chip :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 10:37pm

Agreed. Melton's line: 2 sacks, 2 tfl, & 7 hits in his first career start.

8
by Chip :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 10:37pm

Agreed. Melton's line: 2 sacks, 2 tfl, & 7 hits in his first career start.

2
by QQ (not verified) :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 3:13pm

Seeing Atl lose @Chi was quite predictable, it was amazing how much love Atl got in the Offseason. Atl's record was quite a bit inflated due to a combination of very easy schedule and good fortune in close games.

GB has a hard time scoring 20 vs Chi yet people were predicting that Atl (a Dome team), that was last in the league in explosive plays, that was relying on a rookie wr (usually minimal impact year 1) and an old te to score 25-30+ was pretty amsuing.

3
by rageon :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 3:29pm

Last year, Chicago's defense was statistically better than Atlanta's offense. I see no huge reason why this would change.

5
by Kal :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 7:56pm

Except defenses, year to year, change significantly for most teams - the Bears included. Whereas offenses do not.

4
by Boots Day :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 7:04pm

Bills over Chiefs seems like the obvious choice for this week's AGS. Were the Falcons even favored in this one?

6
by Chip :: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 9:50pm

Atl was -4

9
by TomC :: Wed, 09/14/2011 - 9:06am

Which seemed so strange to me when I first saw the line that I thought it must be a trap line, and Vegas knew something about the game that I didn't. Not that the Bears should have been heavy favorites, but they were at home against a team they clearly match up well with, and it's not like there were legions of Falcons fans betting up the spread. I had expected a pick'em or maybe Bears -2.

[edit: ATL -4 means that the Falcons would have been favored by a TD at a neutral site. That's just crazy, isn't it?]

10
by Bowl Game Anomaly :: Thu, 09/15/2011 - 8:15am

All it means is that Atlanta was really overrated last year, which is not surprising because statistically-inclined people have been saying that all offseason. Conversely, my anecdotal impression is that few people really trusted the Bears to be good this year even though last year they had a good record and won a playoff game.

11
by akn :: Thu, 09/15/2011 - 11:44pm

The vast majority of experts believed the Bears were overrated as well (getting lucky last year with Calvin Johnson non-catches, 3rd string QBs, and the weakest playoff opponent in the first round). The statistically-inclined people agreed.

13
by tuluse :: Fri, 09/16/2011 - 1:16am

Weighted DVOA had the Bears as good but not great team. Which seemed fair to me.

14
by MikeyDoubleDEE (not verified) :: Sat, 12/15/2012 - 11:23pm

They were probably consulting the strength coach since there is nobody else, not even the head coach, that has a better feel of the pulse of the team than does the strength and conditioning coach. Due to politics they normally have to keep their mouth shut when, as it is 99% of the time, the other coaching staff is making the team do things that go strongly against the recommendations of the strength coach. Or the players are doing extra practice/training on their own. Remember that athletes are spoiled as are most of the coaches, especially at the elite college and pro level. But that doesn't stop the strength coach from making a phone call to Vegas from time to time. If I was running the sports books in Vegas, Al Vermeil would have a "red phone" in his office..and a very nice office, comped by Vegas, to be sure.

12
by Frank (not verified) :: Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:32am

Bills over Chiefs seems like the obvious choice for this week's AGS. Were the Falcons even favored in this one?

15
by carlos888 (not verified) :: Mon, 12/17/2012 - 5:13am

i like AGS.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options