The Falcons were fine on the ground when Cordarrelle Patterson was out, and his return should only make that area of Atlanta’s offense more potent.
The young tandem of rookie Tyler Allgeier and second-year pro Caleb Huntley showed encouraging flashes in Patterson’s absence. The veteran then returned with a bang this past Sunday, with 13 attempts on the ground for 44 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Now that everyone is healthy, there is a lot of versatility in the group, with the trio offering the Falcons a variety of options both on the ground and in the air.
One might call it a three-headed monster. Not head coach Arthur Smith.
“I don’t know what that means, three-headed monster. We have an 11-headed monster, whoever is out there on offense,” he said Wednesday on “The Midday Show with Andy and Randy.” “That’s the way we look at it. We’ll do whatever we have to do to win the game.”
After expressing his clearly unwavering belief in the Falcons offense, Smith touched on how they manage the running backs.
“There are certain schemes that we favor certain guys to do, but again, we have versatility," Smith said. "If there’s a play we want to run and Huntley just went 40 yards and he’s puking on the sidelines, Tyler can make that run too. Sometimes, you do scheme things up for certain guys, but you have to adapt quickly on the fly.”
In the Falcons’ loss to the Chargers, Patterson’s 13 rushing attempts paced the team, with Allgeier carrying the ball 10 times for 99 yards and Huntley adding seven rushes for 34 yards. That seems like a logical split in carries going forward, with the first opportunity to make tweaks coming Thursday against the Panthers.
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