Ryan always looks good at home.

His problems start when he is playing on the road.

We will need at pressure him al lot and when we have the ball, we need to run it down their throats.

4 sacks and a bunch of hurries on d and 175+ rushing will win the game.

175 is quite a bit. Especially out of the gate.
The year we lead the league in rushing we didn't put that many yards together until the 3rd week of the season.

And ATL's got a Top 10 run defense.

McCluster won't see time at RB this season.

Only time he'll run the ball if it's on a WR reverse etc.

What makes you so sure about that?

I think both of those marks I posted are not only possible, but probable.

Our run game should be in beast mode...our line and backs might be the best in the league and our receivers are good enough to prevent Atlanta from stacking to stop the run.

As far as the sacks go, our pass rush should be able to overwhelm Atlantas OL and hopefully gets in his head and makes him force passes that fruit us a couple picks.

We REALLY need Flowers out there, though...otherwise, Julio Jones is gonna torch Brown.

On paper, sure.
Unfortunately there's no way to know how good this backfield will be.

The #1 run game of 2010 didn't post 175 yards on the ground until Game 3.
I think that's ALOT to expect any team to put together in the opening week of the season.

And again, that Atlanta run defense is pretty stout.
They didn't surrender 175 yards on the ground to ANY team all last season.

175 is ALOT to ask for in the opener.
Especially with Charles and Hillis both coming back from injury.
I doubt seriously that Daboll loads either of them up with a bunch of carries in Game 1.

I'm confident about the first game. We should be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They won't be able to run against us with their shaky offensive line and we should be able to run up and down the field on them with the improvements we've made. Their secondary is swiss cheese so Cassel should be able to find the open WR. We shall see though. Lots of "shoulds." But I'm confident though.

the more success DMC has at WR the less likely they are to use him at RB. IMO

also we have so many more options at RB that i'm not sure there's room for him.

Charles
Hillis
Draughn
Gray

who would you suggest be replaced by McCluster?

Jessie Haynes?

The Falcons secondary, is most certainly not swiss cheese. The Falcons are a really solid, well put together football team.


Gonna be a good tough test for the Chiefs to gauge where they are.

Yes, it is. Grimes is the only concern I'd have, but that's it.

Well I think if it's close, and it should be, they more dynamic offense will have the advantage down the stretch. I bet we lose a close one. Should be a good game though.

I don't think we'll see him lining up back there frequently, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them line him up at WR and then motion back to RB on occasion. It seems like Dabol wants to incorporate a bit of the Saunders trickeration, so I'm sure McC will end up back there from time to time just to throw defenders off.

Because we're keeping 5 backs if you include Bannon and he hasn't played any snaps at RB?

Ok so a gimmick play.....like a WR reverse ...are the only times DMC will be carrying the rock.