There weren’t many bright spots for the Falcons as the team was embarrassed in nearly every facet of the game by the Eagles. Cordarrelle Patterson was one of those lone bright spots, finishing Sunday with 54 yards on seven carries. He looked physical yet provided a burst behind Mike Davis, proving that he is a more than capable change-of-pace running back.
Despite an overall negative performance, the Falcons did show some interesting things — one being Arthur Smith’s use of his shiny, new toy in fourth-overall pick Kyle Pitts. The big problem I had with Smith’s use of Pitts was that he wasn’t even on the field during the offense’s first red zone trip, which is a head-scratching move. Pitts finished with a disappointing stat line of four receptions on eight targets for 31 yards. However, I have been saying that his capability to run the entire route tree from anywhere on the field is a huge advantage for Arthur Smith’s offense. He can line up on the boundary, in the slot, inline, and everywhere else Smith could imagine. Against Philadelphia, Pitts was used in a variety of alignments.
Kyle Pitts Snaps By Position
Position Snap Inline 11 Slot 20 Wide 12
Pitts had two notable plays in an overwhelmingly disappointing outing. He had an explosive play hauling in a 15-yard pass down the seam and also came up big on a fourth-down conversion, which was his only first down of the day. Overall, Smith didn’t use as many different route combinations with Pitts as he didn’t alignments, but hopefully, that’ll change. The short targets have to be there, but that doesn’t mean intermediate and deep shots have to be few and far between. Pitts didn’t have the breakout performance many fans had hoped for, but he will continually be featured more and more in the offense until he is the primary target for Matt Ryan.
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