Coach Killers is your weekly look around the league at those performances, decisions and "Wait, what did he just do?!" moments that put the guy in charge squarely on the ol' hot seat. Questions, comments, casserole ideas? Hit us up on Twitter at @ryanwilson_07.
Falcons offensive line
Matt Ryan is a top-5 quarterback. Julio Jones is a top-5 wide receiver. Beyond that, the Falcons' offense is an exploding Pinto. There are other playmakers -- Roddy White, Devin Hester and Antone Smith, for example -- but they're not getting as many looks as they should for one simple reason: the offensive line is in shambles.
It's easy (and popular) to blame general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith for the latest impending implosion but the reality is that the Falcons, which had issues along the O-line heading into the season when everybody was healthy, have been victimized by one injury after another.
Even in the NFL, where we routinely hear that "injuries are a part of the game," the Falcons have had a disproportionate run on them. It started in the preseason when left tackle Sam Baker was lost for the year to a knee injury. That forced rookie first-rounder Jake Matthews to move from right to left tackle where he's struggled. Never was that more evident than Sunday in Baltimore when he looked lost and overmatched against a good Ravens' front seven.
Adding insult to literal injury: Against Baltimore, the Falcons lost center Peter Konz for the season. Konz had replaced Joe Hawley in Week 4, who is also on injured reserve. Other O-linemen on the shelf: backup Mike Johnson and Lamar Holmes. Things are so desperate that undrafted rookie center James Stone moves into the starting lineup and the team signed journeyman Jonathan Scott, who had seen action in recent years with below-average units in Pittsburgh and Chicago.
"I think what we lost more than anything is quality depth," offensive line coach Mike Tice at the beginning of the month, via ESPN.com. "Now we have to groom some depth over the next few weeks for the next wave of things that can happen. Something's always going to happen. This is the NFL. You don't get through the season unscathed."
After being humiliated by the the Ravens, 29-7, coach Smith said that he wouldn't use injuries as an excuse, though that's exactly what he and Dimitroff might want to do privately when trying to explain the team's four-game losing streak to owner Arthur Blank.
"We had way too much pressure," Smith said, referring to the 60-minute beating Ryan took in Baltimore. "Our quarterback was hit and sacked way too much. There were times where we really didn't have a chance to get the play off, and that's very difficult for a quarterback, and we have to do better with our protection."
Just how bad was it? Via ESPN.com's Vaughn McClure:
Ryan was pressured on a season-high 32 percent of his dropbacks in this past Sunday's 29-7 loss to Baltimore, according to ESPN Stats & Information. It's no coincidence he was sacked a season-high five times. The pressure on his dropbacks has steadily climbed over the last five weeks (19 percent in Week 3, 23 percent in Week 4, 24 percent in Week 5, 29 percent in Week 6).
Typically, we try to avoid making excuses, particularly when it comes to injuries and bad officiating, mostly because every team deals with both. But the Falcons have truly been unlucky to the point that they're at a competitive disadvantage.
But that's not to say Dimitroff and Smith should sashay into the 2015 season in their current roles. They were pulling the strings during last year's 4-12 campaign, and it's a straightforward argument that neither did enough to improve the Falcons in the offseason. O-line issues aside, the defense was a major liability in 2013, where it finished 29th overall, according to Football Outsiders. Through six games of the 2014 season, the unit ranks 31st.
The Falcons did take defensive lineman Ra'Shede Hageman in the second round of the May draft but he is (understandably) still growing into his role. And free-agent acquisitions Paul Soliai and Tyson Jackson, both defensive linemen, have all been average, per ProFootballFocus.com.
Since dropping 56 points on a terrible Bucs team in Week 3, the Falcons have lost four straight to the Vikings (2-5), Giants (3-4), Bears (3-4) and Ravens (5-2). Perhaps more troubling, despite the 56-burger, the Falcons are still minus-18 in point differential. The faint outline of a silver lining is this: The NFC South is a joke. The Panthers lead the division at 3-3-1 and the Falcons, despite their struggles, are just 1.5 games back.
If Tice can find a way to duct-tape this offensive line together long enough to allow Ryan to make some plays, maybe the Falcons can find a way to win. Heading into the Ravens game -- and despite all the injuries -- the unit ranked seventh in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders, and that was largely due to Ryan. But if things quickly got out of hand with a good Baltimore defense, what's going to happen when they face the Lions' top-ranked D -- which features a formidable defensive line led by Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley -- this Sunday?
"We're in the position that we're in," Ryan said this week. "We know where everybody else is at. But I think (coach Smith) is right: At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what everybody else does. Ultimately, we've got to worry about and we've got to concern ourselves with what we've got to do to get better."
Godspeed, sir.
Bengals: featuring inept offense, no-tackling Terence Newman
The Bengals began the season 3-0 and the defense allowed just 33 points in that stretch. In the three games since, the Bengals are 0-2-1 and the defense has given up 107 points. More troubling: Not only was the offense shutout in Sunday's loss to the Colts, they were never, ever a factor in the game. They finished with 135 total yards, began the afternoon with eight consecutive three-and-outs, were 1 of 13 on third down and had more punts (11) than first downs (8).
“All those things you just mentioned falls at my responsibility, making sure that we’re on top of everything, and honestly I don’t think I did a very good job of that,” offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said afterwards.
Sometimes nothing works. It happens, and that was certainly the case against the Colts. But there really is no explanation for Terence Newman's phantom hug on Ahmad Bradshaw as he scampered untouched into the end zone.
Olé!
Hey, Terence, this is how you tackle:
"It's not the end of the world, guys," defensive lineman Domata Peko said of the shutout. "We'll be all right. ... We've got 10 games left. Let's just take it one game at a time."
Peko's right but things don't get any easier; the Bengals face the AFC North-leading Ravens Sunday.
Browns' fourth-down offense
The Browns' offense, which exploded for 31 points against the Steelers in Week 6, managed just six points against the previously winless Jaguars. The low point of the afternoon may have been this bungled fourth-down attempt that happened early in the final quarter.
Trailing 10-6 and facing a 4th-and-5 from the Jags' 44-yard line, here's the play the Browns decided to go with (via Big Cat Country):
First, wholesale personnel changes followed by a play, that if the Browns ran 100 times, would never, ever gain positive yards.
Coach Mike Pettine can explain: "We were just trying to catch them in a substitution ... and I don't know how it was communicated, but the ball was not supposed to be snapped. It was supposed to be either an offsides or a timeout."
Also not helping the Browns' chances: Jordon Poyer trying to field a fourth-quarter punt with his face.
Glass-half-full perspective: The Browns were in the neutral zone on the Poyer face-muff, so either way, the Jags were getting a first down.
Texans' two-minute offense
For the first 26 minutes and 47 seconds of of Monday night's game, the Texans dominated the Steelers on both sides of the ball. Then, just before halftime, Pittsburgh scored 21 points in 73 seconds -- thanks to a big third-down conversion and two Texans' turnovers.
How quickly did things change? Here's Houston's win probability chart, courtesy of Advanced Football Analytics:
That's right, the Texans had an 83 percent chance of winning after the Steelers' kicked a field goal with 3:13 left in the second quarter to cut the lead to 13-3. Seventy-three seconds later, the Texans' chances of winning plummeted to 18 percent.
“It was miserable and just a terrible, terrible display of offensive football by us,” Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said, via the Houston Chronicle. “It was about as bad as it gets and as bad as I’ve ever seen. Two turnovers there and practically gave them the ball inside the five-yard line and giving them 14 points. It was just unacceptable.”
Thankfully, Chronicle beat writer John McClain again helped keep things in perspective.
The last time I saw something in Pittsburgh as weak as the Texans' performance was Flashdance in '83.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) October 21, 2014
