Falcons lose starting cornerback Williams for the season *Merged*

[CoachHodnett]

Falcons lose starting cornerback Williams for the season

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on October 19, 2009 12:46 PM ET
The Falcons were fortunate to beat the Bears Sunday night, but they weren't so lucky with injury news Monday morning.

Fox's Alex Marvez reports that starting cornerback Brian Williams will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Chevis Jackson appears to be the most likely replacement for Atlanta at a thin position for the Falcons. Williams, after all, earned a starting job just a week after the Falcons signed him in September when Jacksonville let him go after training camp.

Atlanta's mostly young defense has played excellent considering its talent level thus far, but opposing teams will likely continue to attack the Falcons through the air.

Teams like the Saints, for instance

 

[JBond]

Source: Falcons lose starting CB for season

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10241728/Source:-Falcons-lose-starting-CB-for-season

The Atlanta Falcons posted an impressive 21-14 victory over Chicago on Sunday night, but the Falcons lost one of their key defensive players in the process.


Starting cornerback Brian Williams will be lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, a source told FOXSports.com.

Williams was injured in the fourth quarter and didn't return. Williams will likely be replaced in the starting lineup by second-year cornerback Chevis Jackson.
An eight-year NFL veteran, Williams signed with Atlanta in the offseason after spending the previous three seasons in Jacksonville. He has started 98 of 112 career games.
Williams, 30, was credited with 18 tackles, three passes defensed and an interception in Atlanta's first five games.

 

[The30YardSlant]

Really a non-issue IMO. Both Kansas City and Carolina have pretty bad secondary's and we struggled passing the ball for the majority of both games.

Unless Garrett grew a brain over the bye, I seriously doubt we'll be able to take advantage

 

[theogt]

Chevis is pretty good himself. I was pretty high on him coming out of the 2008 draft.

 

[Cowboys22]

We have never seemed to be adept at attacking an opponents weak spot due to injury. In fact, it seems we go out of our way not to focus on these weak areas. I never have figured that out. We should come out firing at whoever is playing that spot and keep doing it until he stops it or they roll coverages to help him and leave some other spot open. This would seem like a no-brainer to me so I'm sure it will never happen.

 

[AdamJT13]

Really a non-issue IMO. Both Kansas City and Carolina have pretty bad secondary's and we struggled passing the ball for the majority of both games.

We had more yards passing in both of those games than any other team has had against them this season.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I hear Pete Hunter is on his way to Atl. :laugh2:

 

[Idgit]

We have never seemed to be adept at attacking an opponents weak spot due to injury. In fact, it seems we go out of our way not to focus on these weak areas. I never have figured that out. We should come out firing at whoever is playing that spot and keep doing it until he stops it or they roll coverages to help him and leave some other spot open. This would seem like a no-brainer to me so I'm sure it will never happen.

Our offense is predicated on taking what the defense gives us. If they're down in the secondary, we'll take advantage of it.

I'd like to see us go empty-set some more. And it might be fun to see a little no-huddle/sugar huddle in the middle of a game if we can get them in their dime and on their heels.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I hear Pete Hunter is on his way to Atl. :laugh2:

Wow that is two Pete Hunter references in one day I've read.

 

[mldardy]

Really a non-issue IMO. Both Kansas City and Carolina have pretty bad secondary's and we struggled passing the ball for the majority of both games.

Unless Garrett grew a brain over the bye, I seriously doubt we'll be able to take advantage

I am not sure what games you were watching but we didn't struggle passing the ball in either one of those games. We ran the ball well against Carolina and when we needed to pass Romo had good numbers. The KC game we had 300 some yards through the air and could have had more without the dropped passes.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Garrett won't put together a game plan to expose them so it won't matter much really...

 

[Monster Heel]

I am not sure what games you were watching but we didn't struggle passing the ball in either one of those games. We ran the ball well against Carolina and when we needed to pass Romo had good numbers. The KC game we had 300 some yards through the air and could have had more without the dropped passes.

And 250 of those yards came from Miles Austin against KC. A guy breaking tackles against a bad defense doesn't constitute as a great performance for the passing game as a whole.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

We had more yards passing in both of those games than any other team has had against them this season.

I think someone just got schooled– yet again.

 

[Don Corleone]

And 250 of those yards came from Miles Austin against KC. A guy breaking tackles against a bad defense doesn't constitute as a great performance for the passing game as a whole.

Then what does???

 

[jzcowboy]

And 250 of those yards came from Miles Austin against KC. A guy breaking tackles against a bad defense doesn't constitute as a great performance for the passing game as a whole.

What?? You can't just tell somebody that we didn't have success, then discount any success based upon rules that only you go by.

 

[Monster Heel]

Then what does???

i don't know. let's try one that didn't get padded with two 50+ yard gainers, one in overtime. I doubt that happens again this season. What happens when the Cowboys don't play horrible defenses? Those types of plays don't happen and we barely move the ball through the air because this is a mediocre at best passing offense.

 

[AdamJT13]

What happens when the Cowboys don't play horrible defenses?

Every defense we play is horrible, remember? That's the only reason we're ranked No. 1 in yards per game.

 

[alancdc]

I hear Pete Hunter is on his way to Atl. :laugh2:

Not great news if he plays like he did for Seattle in that dreadful playoff game. RB Norwood also went to the locker room with what they speculated was a hip injury. Not sure his status?

 

[MrMom]

Falcons will have to adjust without CB Williams
October 19, 2009 1:38 PM
Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

The Falcons reportedly have lost starting cornerback Brian Williams for the season after he suffered an injury in Sunday night’s game.

That might hurt in the short term because Williams was playing well. He was picked up late in the preseason because the Falcons weren’t sure about Brent Grimes, Chevis Jackson and Tye Hill (another late pickup).

With Williams in the starting role, Grimes has been playing at nickel back. He may stay in that role because he doesn’t have the height to match up with receivers on every down. The Falcons turned to Jackson to take Williams’ spot after the injury and he would seem the most likely candidate to start.

Hill apparently hasn’t shown much in practices and the Falcons have kept him inactive. He’ll probably be activated going forward, but he’ll need a strong week of practice to have any chance to step immediately into the No. 2 or 3 cornerback roles.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

That's a really tough loss for them.