The Falcons have a weapon not named Julio
Or the coming coronation of Mohamed Sanu
It’s a fact that the best player in the Atlanta Falcons is Julio Jones. In fact he’s the best player in the Super Bowl. In fact he’s the best player in the league. Bill Belichick knows this better than anyone. That is why Bill Belichick is going to come up with some deceptively simple ingenious scheme to make his decrepit secondary(except for McCourty) look like the Legion of Boom out there and nullify him. I mean, as much as one can contain a centaur like Julio Jones which means he’ll STILL go for 100 yds and at least 1 TD. So Matty Ice is going to be using all of his OTHER weapons for the rest of the game and THAT is why Mohamed Sanu is going to go for over 150 yds and score 3 TDs.
Being a Bengals fan I’ve known Sanu for a long time. He was drafted twice by the Bengals in 2012, once as a prank in the first round then for real in the third round. He was drafted a year after AJ Green and was meant to complement him and he did so to perfection for four years. Whenever teams would inevitably double or triple team Green, Sanu was there to be a pressure release valve for Andy Dalton. He ended his first year with the team short having to undergo surgery but was a great #2 receiver for the next two years. He played in all 16 games of the 2013 NFL season finishing with 47 receptions, 455 yards, and 2 touchdowns. 2014 was even better with 56 receptions, 790 yards, and 5 touchdowns. In his last year with the Bengals he had 33 receptions for 394 yards and no touchdowns. You might look at these numbers and think, that’s nothing. Remember this is as the #2 WR, in a team with AJ Green and Tyler Eifert. Perhaps the thing that most impressed me about Sanu is the number of game changing receptions he had. In 2015 he had 8 receptions of more than 20 yards,in 2014 that number was 9 in fact each year he was with the Bengals he had at least one reception of more than 20. He also frequently took part in the rushing game and most impressively was a hell of a QB. He had a PASSING QB before he had a receiving TD. He threw a TD to the QB once! The Sanu Canoe always provided safe passage while he was in Cinci so seeing him leave was sad.
This year Sanu kept on being a great release valve, but in the playoffs I feel he took the next step in his career. I think that might be related to him adopting the “Sr.” suffix on his jersey; but in any case in his performance against the Seahawks Sanu was constantly being physical, providing great blocking, and whenever he would make a catch(easy or not) he’d bounce up and be chippy against the notoriously handsy Seahawks secondary. When he scored a TD against the Seahawks he was up jawing at the camera with a swagger that was rarely seen in Cincinnati. I love it. Why shouldn’t he have that swagger, the man is averaging a first down every time he catches the ball both in the regular season AND in the playoffs. What the Falcons have BARELY scratched the surface on Sanu is his rushing and passing abilities and that’s what makes him exciting for the upcoming Super Bowl. Against the Packers he took one snap from the wildcat and ran for 7 yards, in the regular season he only had ONE rush. While I don’t doubt that Belichick and the Patriots staff have film on him and his 4 passes with the Bengals(maybe even his passes in Rutgers), I still think the Falcons will be able to deploy him in those packages in super interesting situations. There’s so many things that he can do, but even if he doesn’t with Julio Jones constantly being double teamed and Matt Ryan playing at an MVP level Mohamed Sanu WILL make plays this game.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that Sanu is really good. Like really good. He’s been on teams with freaks of nature as #1WRs but he’s a very good football player. I fully expect OC Kyle Shanahan to use Mohamed Sanu in super creative ways when BB and the Pats have nearly nullified Julio Jones. He’s extremely dynamic and he’s playing with the highest level of confidence I’ve ever seen. All of this in my opinion points to him having a coming out party in Houston. You heard it here first! Sanu Canoe!
