As Turner Soars So Do the Falcons

Turner, the Falcons’ 5-foot-10, 244-pound running back is a squat target, all shoulder pads and knee pads as he plows to the hole. If he rushes for 100 yards, the passing game is a more substantial threat. If he churns first downs, it means that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will have to stew on the sidelines and watch a game of Monopoly by the home team.

“The way to really spark this team is to get the run game going,” Turner said. “That’s the easiest way to get us going.”

The Falcons can win on Saturday night at the Georgia Dome if quarterback Matt Ryan can make plays to wide receiver Roddy White and tight end Tony Gonzalez and if Turner can beat the run blitz, which is sure to come.

“If teams run blitz and you can get your running back started, there’s going to be chances for big plays because they’re going to have the safety down and there’s going to be one guy left in the middle of the field,” center Todd McClure said. “If we can get him to that second level, that’s where he can do some damage; just get him to his first cut.”

Turner, who is in the third season of a six-year deal that pays $34.5 million, led the N.F.C. in rushing with 1,371 yards. He scored 12 touchdowns and had seven games of 100-plus yards, even as part of an offense that completed the seventh most passes in the (361).

The consequences for the defense when Turner gets to the second level — face-to-face with a cornerback, safety or outside linebacker — are that the thick Turner can block for the decently fast Turner. He does not need an escort. His shoulder pads hit the safety or corner; his legs carry him past.

Turner ranked fourth in the N.F.L. with yards after contact (694). He has nine runs over 20 yards. The Falcons do not call him Burner Turner. They call him MARTA, for the commuter train system in Atlanta.

Turner was called something much worse following an injury-marred 2009 season, in which he rushed for 871 yards. There was a list full of derision: one-hit wonder, fat and happy, a flash in the pan, and on and on.

In his first season in Atlanta in 2008 after backing up LaDainian Tomlinson for four seasons in San Diego, Turner ran for 1,699 yards and 17 touchdowns and helped carry the Falcons to the playoffs.

In 2009, the yards plummeted, not just because of the high-ankle sprain, but because Turner was heavier and not as fine-tuned. He intended to rest his body following his first full season as a starter in 2008, but he took it too far and gained weight. The ankle injury, which sidelined him five games, was the primary reason he slumped, but Turner knew conditioning was a factor, too.

In the Falcons’ locker room Wednesday, which was filled with media, Turner had a chance to perhaps chortle and stiff arm some of the critics. Instead, after practice, he went right to his regular routine of lifting weights.

When he came back to his locker, there were only four minutes left for the media’s allowed time in the locker room. At first, he shrugged off the notion that he was motivated this season by criticism.

“I was so focused on this year and so focused on finishing strong I haven’t had a chance to sit back and think about what I’m accomplishing this year,” Turner said.

Asked if was satisfying to see his career get back on track, Turner said: “It sticks with you, that’s something you keep in the back of your mind because you want to prove people wrong. As a competitor that’s your nature; to prove people wrong. You know you have the ability to do something and people are still out there saying you can’t do it.

“I think that’s behind me now,” he said. “I don’t think people can say I was a one-hit wonder.”

Against Green Bay, when the Atlanta offense comes to the line, receivers and backs will shift and go in motion, all designed to slow the Packers’ reactions because the defenders are considering where the ball might go.

If the Falcons have their way, it will not be complicated. The ball will go straight ahead with Turner.

Bookmark and Share

Falcons’ RB Turner Not Concerned About Fumbles

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Having showered and dressed after practice, Michael Turner is heading for a weekend off Friday when Roddy White nails his Atlanta Falcons teammate with a cupcake to the side of the face.

“Man, I almost made it, too,” Turner said, breaking into his distinctive, squeaky laugh as he goes in search of a towel to clean himself up.

Turner sure didn’t seem bothered by his teammate’s prank, which pretty well sums up the attitude he’s taking toward a pair of fumbles in the last two games of the regular season.

“I’ve fumbled before,” he said. “Some people act like the whole world’s coming down. No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t my first fumble. It probably won’t be my last. Hopefully, it won’t happen again anytime soon.”

The Falcons certainly share that sentiment, since their next game comes in the second round of the playoffs.

Atlanta, which has a bye this weekend and home-field advantage in the NFC, will be counting heavily on its battering ram of a Pro Bowl running back to help control the clock and open up things in the passing game for Matt Ryan and his favorite receivers, White and tight end Tony Gonzalez.

Coach Mike Smith also expects Turner to hang on to the ball, something he did every time he got it through the first 14 games of the season. Then — boom! One fumble, and another, both in the red zone with the Falcons in position to score.

The first came on a second-and-goal play at the 1 against New Orleans, a mistake that looked especially glaring when the rallied for a 17-14 victory. Last week, Turner coughed it up again at the 13 against Carolina, but the Falcons had no trouble overcoming the mistake in a 31-10 rout of the hapless .

The margin for error will be much slimmer in the playoffs.

“The emphasis on ball security is something we always talk about,” Smith said. “Michael had gone a long time without putting the ball on the ground. We’ve just got to make sure we continue to drill our guys in the fundamentals of the game of football. At this point in time, the emotion and energy and attitude is all going to be there. The teams that go out there and execute the fundamentals of the game the best, those are the teams that are going to move on to the next round.”

The Falcons have been fundamentally sound all season — especially Turner. Over the first 14 games, he carried the ball exactly 300 times without fumbling once. Overall, Atlanta has a plus-14 turnover margin, which leads the NFC and trails only AFC powers New England and Pittsburgh.

Turner is also a major reason the Falcons have averaged nearly 33 minutes in time of possession, another key part of their offensive strategy. He usually gets around 20 handoffs a game, putting up the league’s third-highest rushing total (1,371 yards) and earning his second Pro Bowl appearance.

No wonder his teammates don’t sound too concerned.

“It’s part of football,” White said. “He rarely fumbles the ball. It’s not like it’s been a problem throughout his career or anything like that. We’ll just let him do what he does, which is run the ball well. We need that guy to be successful in the playoffs. We’ve got to let him do his thing.”

Turner isn’t doing anything different in practice, and he insists the turnovers aren’t weighing on him mentally.

Defenders “are going to make plays on the ball. They get paid, too,” he said. “It had been so long since the last one, so many carries. It’s going to happen. It’s part of football. It’s just one of those things. It’s not an issue.”

Bookmark and Share

N.F.L. Is on Pace for a Season Record for Touchdown Passes

The empty backfield, the freakishly athletic tight end, the pinpoint pass: they all add up to the league’s being on pace to smash its season record for touchdown passes. With 16 games to be played Sunday, there have been 714 passing touchdowns this season, almost three per game. That is 18 short of the record, 732, set in 2004. If the average holds up, the record will be broken by 30 touchdowns.

Football has unmistakably tilted toward the passing game for two decades, with rules to protect quarterbacks and downfield receivers generating fast-break points that appeal to the short-attention-span set. But the eruption in passing touchdowns — 714 is four more than were scored in all of 2009, and a whopping 68 more than in 2008 — may signal a sea change in strategy rather than a one-year statistical spike.

The drastic rise in passing touchdowns is not being accompanied by similar jumps in passing attempts or points. Rather, coaches seem to be skipping right over the running plays on their color-coded play cards. There have been 377 rushing touchdowns, putting the league on pace for 402. That would be the second-lowest total since 2002, when the league expanded to its current 32 teams.

“You see teams at first-and-goal from the 2, and they’re in the shotgun,” said the Hall of Fame quarterback , a Fox analyst. “I don’t think I did that one time in my career.”

Aikman retired after the 2000 season, before the spread offense swallowed football. But when Aikman watches youth football games, he said, he notices the one trend that has unmistakably altered the calculus of play-calling all the way up the football ranks. Even in Texas, the birthplace of the run-intensive wishbone formation, junior high school teams use no-huddle, spread-out offenses.

That, inevitably, means quarterbacks throw better because they have been throwing more, for as long as they have played football. By the time elite quarterbacks reach the N.F.L., they are better prepared to play immediately, flattening the learning curve that used to accompany even the most talented college quarterbacks during the transition to the league.

Now, the professional game looks more like the college game and, for the quarterbacks who have entered the league most recently, the high school game. The N.F.L. has been flooded by game-ready throwers — the ’ Sam Bradford, the most recent example. Even for a team with a rookie quarterback, a short draw up the middle from near the goal line is no longer a higher-percentage play than a timing pattern into the end zone.

Howie Long, a Hall of Fame defensive lineman and “Fox NFL Sunday” analyst, said that about 10 years ago, he and some colleagues identified five “quarterbacks on the face of the earth who are really good.” That number, Long said, would be nearly triple now and would include young quarterbacks like Bradford, Josh Freeman, Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan, in addition to stalwarts like , and .

“What you are seeing now is a lot of really good play from the quarterback position,” said Brees, who has 32 touchdown passes this season, second only to Brady’s 34. “You could say that the rules protect the players down the field, and certainly the quarterbacks, from taking unnecessarily rough hits, but you still have to have the time to get back there, make the right decisions and deliver the ball into pretty tight areas, and that’s something that I have noticed throughout the season.”

The command and accuracy are facilitated by intensified off-season programs. Spring workouts have proliferated, although most of them are conducted without pads. There are only a few weeks of the off-season in which no football activity takes place. (Off-season workouts are likely to be limited by a new collective bargaining agreement.) That lends itself to more time spent on the intricate ballet of the passing game than the bruising battles of the run.

“Many teams spend a great deal of time on red-zone passing,” said the former coach , ’s “Football Night in America” analyst. “More creative thinking down there now by offenses.”

The near extinction of the true fullback and big running backs — colleges running spread offenses do not use them, so there are few in the pipeline — means offenses have many more players available for the passing game.

Brady’s season has been a clinic in the short passing game, and two of his primary touchdown targets are the pass-catching tight ends Aaron Hernandez (six touchdowns) and Rob Gronkowski (nine).

The lead the league with 2,512 rushing yards, but have 27 passing touchdowns compared with 12 rushing ones. Indianapolis is an even starker example: Peyton Manning has thrown 31 touchdown passes, and the Colts have run for just 13 scores.

Bookmark and Share