Before I get to the most overlooked story from the Bucs game, I have two Fanhouse posts to pimp. The first is my long game review and the second is 5 Reasons the Falcons are better than the Bucs. I might just work in a herpes simplex joke in there.
You wouldn't know it from reading any of the Falcons blogs but Atlanta unveiled a new offense, finally abandoning the west coast offense. Instead they are running more of a spread option offense, lining up Vick in the shotgun with Dunn next to him and allowing Vick to read the defense. The Falcons offense caught the Bucs by surprise, and kept them off balance while gaining 99 yards rushing from the shotgun. Braves and Birds has the best take on the Falcons I've seen so far...
I was very happy to see the Falcons do what I and most fans with a passing knowledge of college football wanted them to try: running zone read plays. The personnel fits the play perfectly. It was great fun watching Vick and Dunn repeatedly break big gains on the play that Texas rode to a national title and West Virginia rode to the best season in school history. Eventually, Tampa figured the play out and started blitzing on the weak side of the play to stop Vick from breaking outside, but it seems likely that the Falcons have (or will put in) a countermeasure, probably a pass play to the outside to take advantage of that sort of blitz.
It also makes sense for Atlanta to throw more deep balls as defenses start stacking eight or nine men in the box. Vick threw only two deep passes on Sunday, both to Lelie, who will be the target of most of Vick's bombs. Vick is still not good enough to complete more than 55% of his passes so the Falcons will be screwed if they have to play from behind, but as long as the Falcons offensive coaches are creative the Falcons should be competitive. Although I will add the caveat that the offense will fall apart if they have to play a hard-hitting defense a la the Steelers or Jaguars.
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