atlsportsstan

[atlsportsstan]

5 posts!

[atlsportsstan]

Austin Riley had a really good season, and nobody talked about it.

Austin Riley, since coming into the MLB in 2019, has been absolutely jaw-dropping. Whether it be him fielding amazing over the shoulder catches in the World Series or hitting bombs in Truist Park, he has become one of the best young players in baseball. If you follow baseball, you might not have heard too much from him this season. However, he is having a really good season, and today I am going to tell you about Austin Riley’s 2023 season.

First, we have to start off with some stats from previous years. In the last 2 seasons, he averaged 36 home runs while having an OPS+ of 138 (The league average hitter would have an OPS+ of 100). His triple slash (batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage) was .288/.358/.530, which is really freaking good. He’s not just a monster in the box. He’s been an above average fielder at 3rd base each of the last 2 years. It is also important to note that he came in the top 8 in NL MVP voting for these 2 seasons.

So, how did Riley preform this way? Well, he’s hit 37 home runs and an OPS+ of 127. His triple slash is .280/.344/.515. Even though it may seem like his batting numbers took a bit of a dip, his defense has still been unbelievably. Another season of him being an above average fielder, while turning an insane 38 double plays from the hot corner.

The point is that you haven’t heard much from Riley this season. No big moment bombs, but he has built himself this year on playing pure quality baseball. Why isn’t he getting media attention? Well, it's mainly because of this one outfielder named Ronald Acuna Jr and Riley’s buddy over at first base named Matt Olson. Those 2 guys are having historic seasons. So don't forget, that while most people tend to only focus on the main dancers, sometimes it's good to take a look at the backup dancers too.

[atlsportsstan]

Why the NFC South will have the best division race in the NFL (And why the Falcons will win it)

We are already 7 weeks into the 2023 NFL season. Around this point in the season, you start looking at divisional games a little bit more, and paying attention to who would make the playoffs if the season ended today. Sitting here, we have a bunch of big time divisional rivalries to look at. The Bills and Dolphins fighting it out to see who is the new king of the AFC East, the NFC West looking like the NFC West of old, and, somewhat surprisingly, the NFC South sticking in there. I fully believe that the NFC South will have one of the greatest divisional races of all time, and here’s why.

No, the NFC South doesn't have any big-name teams. And, yes, every team in this division has a bottom 16 quarterback in the league. But that’s every team in this division. The Saints are rolling with Dereck Carr for their campaign, currently sitting at 3-4. The Bucs are rocking with Baker Mayfield, and they sit at 3-3. The Falcons are sticking with Desmond Ridder, and they have a 4-3 record. Hell, even the Panthers, who are starting a rookie Bryce Young and who currently sit at 0-6 still have a chance to make the playoffs.

For most playoff teams, they’re schedule will get harder as the season goes on. Not these teams. The Falcons have the “easiest” remaining schedule in the NFL, with the Bucs and Saints not too far behind them, ranking at 27th and 18th respectively. They don’t coin the phrase “Any given Sunday” for no reason. Because on any given Sunday, the Panthers could easily rattle off a bunch of wins against the Texans, Colts, and Bears, while the Falcons, Saints, and Bucs all go on cold spells, and all of a sudden, the Panthers are sitting at 3-6, tied for 2nd in the division, and 1 game behind the first place Falcons.

But, who do I see winning this division? Well if you look at how the roster is constructed, I don’t know how you can look at the Atlanta Falcons roster, and say that they are not making the playoffs. Desmond Ridder, despite some early woes, will get it together as he gets more experience under his belt. The three-headed monster of Bijan, Tyler, and CP will terrorize defenses, and Ridder has weapons he can trust in London, Hollins, Pitts, and now Jonnu Smith. The defense is still a brick wall that has only allowed 1 rushing touchdown all season. All I’m saying is, don’t be surprised when the Falcons come out of January hosting a playoff game. And like I said back in May, “fuck around and bring a playoff game to the benz. see what happens.”

[atlsportsstan]

INSTANT REACTIONS: Falcons fall in the Motor City.

Okay. So that was something. The Atlanta Falcons just took their first loss of 2023 in a 20-6 finish against the Detroit Lions. I watched all but maybe 2 snaps, and am here to basically recap the game. I will also tell you what has to change for the Falcons in order for them to go across the pond and take a win from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Welcome to the post game recap.

Okay, so before I rant about the game, I have some words for FOX Sports. What the hell? I was trying to stream it on the Xbox application, and it crashed about 5 times during the game. Keep in mind I was watching college football all day yesterday on ESPN, and eventually the FOX Sports app. The entire day of streaming, which started with the Georgia game at 7:30, and I did not get one delay. Come on now FOX. We’re better than this. Anyways, let’s talk about this game.

Let’s talk about the offense, because this is where the root of all of our problems come from. It is very easy to look at Desmond Ridder’s stats and put all of the blame on him. However, even though Ridder throwing for 201 yards on 55 completion percentage is not good, he very rarely had any time to do anything with the football. A Lions defense, who had 1 total sack coming into today, had 7 sacks on Ridder and 8 QB hits. Ridder also did not hit on a majority of his throws when the pocket was clean, I’m not denying that. But if the Falcons offensive line can return to the form they had last year, this offense can be dangerous. But, the Falcons bread and butter is their running game. That’s exactly what every single soul watching that game said as they watched Arthur Smith call double the amount of passing plays as rushing plays. Bijian could never get it going. Couple that with the Falcons being down early, and we can never get the play action going and that leads us to our ultimate demise.

Enough about the offensive side of the ball. How did the defense do? Despite playing against Jared Goff, who has always been regarded as a pocket passer, this defensive line registered a big goose egg in the sack column. Our defensive backs looked lost, with the exceptions of AJ Terrell and Jesse Bates. Detroit only did it with 4 total players targeted in the air, and they just torched our zone coverage. I did not entirely hate the game our defense played. I’d say the average team would win a game like this 7/10 times.

In an afternoon full of negatives, there were a couple of positives. For example, one thing the Falcons have had problems with in the past were penalties. However, with Ford Field being at 99% capacity, the Falcons only registered 4 total penalties, totaling 24 yards. Jessie Bates caught his 3rd interception is basically the same fashion as his first 2. That’s about it for the positives. I wasn’t joking when I said a couple. It was very had to watch.

But, tomorrow is a new day. How can the Falcons go into London and take a win against the 1-2 Jaguars? The offensive line has to keep Ridder’s white jersey clean. This is the same problem we had with Matt Ryan where we have the weapons to torch defenses, but never enough time in the pocket to do anything with it. We also have to get the ground game going early, while getting Lawrence on the London soil.

All in all, today will go down as an outlier in this season. Arthur Smith should not and will not let this slide. This is a one-time occurrence and we have to play better to beat Jacksonville. That’s all I got. Hopefully, I get NFL+ to make a full breakdown of this game and post it to YouTube. But only time will tell. I hope you guys enjoyed and stay tuned for more sports content. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you on the other side.

[atlsportsstan]

Why Falcons vs. Lions is the Game of the Day.

Today, the undefeated Atlanta Falcons made their first road trip of the young season to Detroit, MI to play the 1-1 Detroit Lions. This game could very well fly under the radar, and I’m here to tell you why this is the game you should pay attention to.

First, let's talk about the visitors. The Atlanta Falcons are trying to usher in a new era of football. Gone are the days of Matt Ryan and Julio Jones torching defenses for 200 yards a game. Now, head coach Arthur Smith is focused on a strong rushing attack. And, at least through the first 2 weeks, they’ve done a damn good job at that. Both running backs Tyler Allgeier and Bijan Robinson have combined to give the Falcons a top 5 rushing attack in the league at this point. 2nd year quarterback Desmond Ridder is still experiencing growing pains, as he threw 1 interception and almost threw another 2. Despite this, he is growing into a leader and giving Atlanta Fans a symbol of hope.

Last week, against Green Bay, the Falcons ended up being down 24-12 at the end of the 3rd quarter. 2 gutsy 4th down play calls from Arthur Smith and 13 points later, the Falcons came back and won the game 25-24 in front of an almost sold out Mercedes Benz Stadium. “When you see the Atlanta Falcons out there, we’ll never be down for the count. We’re gonna fight til that clock hits zero.” This is what Desmond Ridder said after their win on Sunday.

One thing about this Falcons team is that, even though the Falcons are 2-0 for the first time since 2017, there is still a ton of room to grow. Arthur Smith said Monday, “The encouraging thing is that we can get a lot better,” and the crazy thing is that he’s right. The Falcons went into Sunday without cornerback Jeff Okudah, running back Cordarelle Patterson, and outside linebacker Troy Andersen. Not to mention the team’s pass rush has been subpar, especially on Sunday.

Anyways, enough about the Falcons. Let’s talk about three blue ski masks wearing Detroit Lions. After seasons of ineptitude, the Lions actually have playoff aspirations this season. 3rd year head coach Dan Campbell is also trying to usher in a new style of Lions football. “...we're going to kick you in the teeth, all right, and when you punch us back, we're going to smile at you and when you knock us down, we're going to get up. And, on the way up, we're going to bite a kneecap off," said Dan Campbell in his introductory press conference back in 2021. They have done just that. Despite starting 2022 with a 1-6 record, they came storming back, winning 8 of their last 10 and finishing about a half game out of the last wild card spot.

Last Sunday, the Lions welcomed the Seattle Seahawks to Ford Field, the team who ended up with that last wild card spot last year. It was neck and neck all game, until there was 8:14 left in the fourth quarter, where a bad ball by veteran quarterback Jared Goff resulted in the arms of Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown and a pick six, making it a 10 point game. However, they started biting kneecaps. A Josh Reynolds touchdown and a Riley Patterson field foal later, the game was tied and going to overtime. The Seahawks won the overtime coin toss and scored  without the Lions getting a chance to touch the ball

So why should you watch this game instead of watching literally anything else at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon? Well, this will be a physical fight between 2 teams who feed off the physicality. But also, there really aren't too many good games on in the early window. Of course, you have the Patriots traveling to New Jersey to play the Jets, and everyone wants to know how the Browns will look without Nick Chubb. Apparently, it's not just me who feels this way, as the line from sportsbooks is set at Lions by 3.5 points. The point is, this will be a really close game, and I would not be surprised if we have to see Younghoe Koo or Riley Patterson kick a game-winning field goal late in the game.

Enough talking about the game. Who will win? If the Falcons can get out to a fast start, the defense will do their job holding Detroit and Atlanta will travel to London a perfect 3-0. However, it will all depend on if Bijan Robinson can get the Falcons started off hot. I think this happens and I have the Atlanta Falcons covering the spread and winning outright. Let me know your thoughts on the game in the comment section below. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day.

[atlsportsstan]

Is Colorado worth the hype?

The Colorado Buffaloes ended the 2022 college football season with 1 win. In December, they made a big splash and signed Deion Sanders to be their head coach. Along with the “Coach Prime” mentality, he also brought a lot of his players and had them battle it out with the returning Buffaloes players for who would stay and who would eventually transfer to a different school.

There was a lot of hype around Boulder, CO this year. Not many predicted they would be the greatest team in college football, but they thought they would finish the season in the top 25, and make a bowl game. Despite them not being expected to make too much noise this season, the national media has been all over Coach Prime and Colorado. In my opinion, this attention is not worthy of Colorado, at least not yet.

In their first game of the season, they had traveled on the road to play against TCU. The Buffaloes were 20.5 point underdogs going into Saturday, however, they ended up winning by 3 points thanks to a 46 yard touchdown connection from Shedur Sanders to Dylan Edwards with 4:25 left in the game. They threw for 510 yards, but only ran for 55 yards that Saturday afternoon. 

In their second game, they returned to a sold-out Folsom Field to play against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Colorado raced out to a 13-0 lead at halftime and never looked back. Shedur Sanders carved up some corn and gave the Buffaloes their first double-digit win since October of 2021. Normally, you storm the field for a big win against a rival or a legendary upset. However, this is Boulder, CO goddammit. They stormed the field. The energy up north is on a different level right now.

Their next game is one of the biggest. Colorado vs. Colorado State. Colorado went down 21-14 at halftime, and they had lost 2-way star Travis Hunter midway through the first quarter. They had to come back from down 10 points to force overtime. In overtime, they traded touchdowns before Shedur Sanders connected with Michael Harrison for an 18-yard touchdown. On the ensuing possession, Trevor Woods got an interception, thus ending the game for Colorado. They storm the field again, and Boulder is 3-0 for the first time in a long time.

Now the big question. Is Colorado worth the hype? This game between Colorado and Colorado State had an average viewership of 9.3 million viewers, was the 5th most-watched regular season game of all time, and the most streamed game in ESPN history. Colorado has had a lot of coverage on their team this season. My point is this. When you have Shedur Sanders and Travis Hunter on the same team, all coached by one of the best corners this world has seen, you are expected to beat everyone on their schedule. Definitely, you are not expected to go to 2 overtimes with Colorado State and only beat TCU by 2. I don’t believe in the hype.

All in all, who really cares what I think? I’m just some high school kid from Georgia. You’re right. I haven't been able to catch very much college football this season, but one thing I do know is football. And I've been watching football to know what a “tell game” is. Every team has one that will basically tell you how good they are. I fully believe that, above all else, next week's game at 10th-ranked Oregon is Colorado’s tell. This is really the first weekend I’m going to have free since the season started, so I will be tuning in without a doubt. And I encourage you all to tune in as well. 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.  This might just break the record that last week’s game just broke. Let me know your thoughts on this topic and who you think will prevail. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys soon.