The Chargers and Falcons don’t play each other very often. Once every four years, to be exact. So when these NFC opponents pop up on the schedule the Bolts need to do a little extra studying.
When you’re talking about a division opponent that you see twice every year there really aren’t that many surprises. Even with the Broncos, who had a brand new quarterback on Thursday night, the Bolts had a good idea of what kind of scheme Denver would play so it didn’t take a whole lot of extra film study.
But Atlanta is a big mystery. The good news is there is now plenty of tape out there to study. Heck, a player or coach can look on YouTube for highlights or subscribe to the NFL Game Pass feature and see the All-22 Coaches Film for every single NFL game. But that’s also, in some cases, the bad news.
“I do think there are times where there is information overload,” said McCoy. “With the technology today … we chase a lot of ghosts as coaches. We really do, because you want to give someone like Philip Rivers all the answers in the world. Philip can absorb so much information that you want to make sure that if he sees this look he has this answer on what you want to go to.”
Rivers is notorious for his almost encyclopedic knowledge of the NFL and borderline photographic memory for games he’s played in or seen. He’s one of the guys who can never have too much info crammed in to his head.
He was watching the Falcons lose to the Seahawks 26-24 on Sunday and you can be certain he already has a good idea of what Atlanta’s defense likes to do. He will likely have ingested multiple Falcons games from 2016, and even a couple from previous years, by the time the Bolts and Birds kick off at the Georgia Dome on Sunday afternoon.
Other players, however, need to take their studying a little slower. It’s up to the coaching staff to know who can handle what and make sure nobody is overwhelmed. That is one of the little nuances of coaching that often goes unnoticed.
In the ATL this will be especially important with the San Diego defense. Too much information can make you think too much as you sift through all the different possible scenarios. Thinking too much makes you play slower and being a step behind is something the Chargers cannot do against Matt Ryan and Julio Jones or they will be in big, big trouble.
