Falcons vs. Packers Q&A: How to defeat Atlanta

In their first game in over 13 years without Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packers take the field against the Atlanta Falcons. Dave Choate of The Falcoholic was kind enough to answer some of our questions about the Falcons and provide some insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

APC: If you were game planning against the Falcons, how would you attack them on offense? On defense?

On offense, you do what you want, more or less. With Deion Jones back they aren’t quite as susceptible to whiffing on open field tackles, but they are not good enough to stop a consistent run game or a dynamic passing game. If I were the Packers, I’d let Aaron Jones go nuts, because the Falcons showed an alarming inability to stop Baltimore from picking up chunks of yardage all day. Just execute at a high level and avoid turnovers and they got his.

Defensively, send the house. The Falcons’ offensive line has been abysmal and they can’t run the football at all, so the more you can get after Matt Ryan, the more you can hold this unit back. Perhaps Atlanta will improve with the changes in personnel along the line and with the quality of this Green Bay run defense, but the simple truth of the matter is that the Falcons have been struggling for a solid month to do much of anything, and this line can be confounded with minimal effort. Get after Matt Ryan and win.

We’d like to thank Dave and The Falcoholic for his insight. Be sure to check out our Q&A session over there, as well as their fantastic coverage of all things Falcons. As always, keep your internet machines tuned to Acme Packing Company this Sunday for our comprehensive game-day coverage of Falcons versus Packers.