GKS Contributor
ATLANTA- Some say having a Week Four bye can help an NFL team heal its wounds early, make critical personnel adjustments, and get some much needed rest.
Others point out that an early bye sets up a grind of thirteen straight weeks of football, which could swell to seventeen straight weeks depending on that team’s postseason draw.
Like it or not, the Falcons found themselves in that position. Now, they have a long haul to look forward to.
“I’ve never had a break this early in the season for me personally, so I am not accustomed to it,” said Falcons coach Mike Smith. “I would prefer to have it a little later, but this is when it was scheduled, so we had to adjust a little bit in terms of how we where going to approach it.”
Speaking of long hauls, the Falcons (2-1) take their longest road trip of the season this weekend, traveling to San Francisco to face the surprising 49ers (3-1).
Despite strong opening week efforts at home against two playoff teams from 2008, any progress made in Falcons wins over Miami and Carolina was wiped out in a decisive pre-bye road loss at New England.
“We were dead on offense, defense and special teams,” said Smith. “There were a lot of areas that we can get better at was well as coaching.”
Now, Smith and the rest of the Falcons coaching staff deals with the challenge of waking up their team in San Francisco. And Smith says it won’t be easy.
“They’re a good football team,” said Smith. “They were making plays in all three phases. They’re a very good team.”
While the Falcons running game failed to establish itself in New England, it figures to get an injection of speed this weekend with the return of Jerrious Norwood, who was knocked out of the lineup with two separate injuries in the span of a month.
“We’re a faster offense,” said Smith. “We’re much faster when we have Jerious in a game. He brings that speed element.”
Once divisional rivals, Atlanta and San Francisco have played each other only once in the past five seasons. That was a game won by the Falcons 20-10 in the lost season of 2007, where Michael Vick went to jail and Bobby Petrino went to Fayetteville in the span of a few months.
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