Atlanta Falcons 2011 Preview – Part 2: The Defense | NFL and College Football | NFL and College Football Previews, Predictions, and Recaps

Aug 31, 2011

Today I will continue my series previewing the Falcons upcoming season. First I will begin with something that was forgotten in the last article pertaining to the offense. Maybe the most effective thing that Atlanta does on offense is their no-huddle offense. This allows them to get plays off quickly without allowing the defense to make substitutions. This would all not be possible without the wonderful Matt Ryan, however. His ability to read defenses is absolutely crucial in this offense (luckily, he watches loads of tape, so this kid knows what he is doing). When playing bigger defensive teams that do a lot of blitzing, bringing out this kind of offense will tire out the bigger guy, which will provide Matt Ryan a longer time in the pocket and ultimately stimulate the Falcons’ deep-passing offense. Unfortunately, they did not do much at all of this against Pittsburgh last week (though it was only preseason, so they might just be saving some of their bigger guns for later). It is also the Falcons’ ability to run this offense that will keep them in contention all the way until the final second has ticked away from the clock. Ryan has already shown his ability to make 4^th Quarter comebacks in his young career, and as he develops, this ability will only improve.

Now on to the real topic of today’s article: the defense. Last year the Falcons easily had one of the best offenses in all of football, but their defense faltered. Quite frankly, their pass rush was ineffective, they had difficult times against the run when playing above average running backs, and their secondary was downright pitiful. All of this combined into the pitiful showing of football that the Falcons put out on the field against Green Bay in the playoffs. The Falcons have improved upon their defense quite a bit with the addition of DE Ray Edwards, as well as the maturation of OLB Sean Witherspoon and the healing of MLB and defensive play caller Curtis Lofton. However, the Falcons did not improve upon their biggest weakness all that much in the secondary. They have been hoping that certain guys (Christopher Owens and William Moore especially) would mature some and become the guys that they saw in the draft room. However, based on the football that the Falcons have played so far in the preseason, they are going to have to win in spite of their secondary again.

The Defense

Defensive End:

The starter(s) - John Abraham (RE), Ray Edwards (LE)

Other notables – Kroy Biermann, Chauncey Davis, Lawrence Sidbury

Position Grade – A/A+

The Falcons appear to be one of the toughest teams at this position this season with seasoned veteran John Abraham combined with free agent signee Ray Edwards (from Minnesota). Combined these two guys had 21 sacks, which is just ten fewer than the entire team had combined last season. This is going to be very important because the Falcons are not going to allow the opposing QB to create a very comfortable pocket, so immobile pocket QBs will have a lot of difficulty against this tandem. It is hard to judge right now how well these two guys will play considering both are injury prone (Edwards missed the first two preseason games recovering from an offseason surgery), but the fact that they have a guy backing up who had three sacks last season in Kroy Biermann is comforting to Falcons fans. Expect to see the Falcons up there in sack totals this season.

Defensive Tackle:

The starter(s) – Corey Peters, Jonathon Babineaux

Other notables – Vance Walker, Trey Lewis, Peria Jerry

Position Grade – B+

The Falcons have exactly what a team in looking for in their DT position in that they have big guys who can somewhat plug running holes and who occupy a few O-linemen allowing the ends and outside linebackers to get to the QB while occasionally recording sacks of their own. Both Peters and Babineaux are guys who will rack up tackles and will at least create an opportunity for the linebackers to make a tackle on a runner if they cannot handle him themselves. All-in-all, the Falcons have a serviceable group of tackles with a lot of depth. The biggest disappointment is last year’s first round pick Peria Jerry, who has still yet to do anything spectacular. He has shown a few moments of decency over the preseason, but he is still not ready to be a starter.

Outside Linebacker:

The starter(s) – Sean Weatherspoon (Strongside), Stephen Nicholas (Weakside)

Other notables – Mike Peterson

Position Grade – B

Outside Linebacker is a position for the Falcons that could go either really well or really poorly. Sean Weatherspoon had an okay season in his rookie year, but he was by no means a stand out. Reports from camp are that he has become more explosive and is going to be a player to watch this season. Quite frankly, I have not seen quite that much from the sophomore linebacker this preseason, though he has definitely showed some improvement. On the opposite side of the ball, the Falcons are going to play Stephen Nicholas, who is a player that has quickly risen in the Falcons organization over the last couple of years. Nicholas, however, is a gamble over veteran Mike Peterson, who will back him up this season. Nicholas is a better complement to Witherspoon though, as Nicholas is more of the run-stopper while Weatherspoon is more of a pass rusher. Because the Falcons are so strong on their defensive line, the linebackers are just going to be that second level assigned to stopping the run and covering the perimeter on screen passes and outside runs. All-in-all, this may not be the strongest linebacker cops in all of football this season, but they are overly capable of doing the job that they will be asked to do on defense. Do not consider either position as a defensive liability at this point.

Middle Linebacker:

The starter – Curtis Lofton

Other notables – Coy Wire

Position Grade – A-

MLB is one of the more sure positions on this Atlanta Falcons defense. Two years ago, Curtis Lofton led the league in tackles in his breakout season. Last year he took a step back after suffering some injury, but he is healthy now. Lofton serves as somewhat of a defensive captain (other than Abraham) and as the play caller, so his healthy presence is important. One of the things that both he and the coaching staff felt like he needed to work on was his leadership abilities. Lofton said that he felt like he was still learning so much about the game and the position to be a leader the last two years, but this year he feels like it is his time to step out into the spotlight. It has even been said that Lofton has gotten onto veteran John Abraham a couple of times during the preseason for not going all out; this new-found (though developing) leadership will give Lofton a little bit of a swagger that will improve his game all around if he leaves the talking to his game play.

Cornerback:

Starter(s) – Brent Grimes, Dunta Robinson

Other notables – Dominique Franks, Chris Owens

Position Rank – C+

This entire defensive backs corps is a total weakness for the Falcons. Brent Grimes is a solid corner, though he is undersized, and at times he has trouble trying to jump routes that his size does not allow him to jump. A great example of that occurred in the Pittsburgh game, which gave Pittsburgh the TD that really opened up the game. Dunta Robinson came to Atlanta with the expectation that he would provide a shutdown corner to the Falcons. However, the only thing that Robinson “shutdown” was his label as a shutdown corner. Not to mention, he’s already started off the preseason injured. If Dunta steps it up and is the player that he was the season before he got lazy, then the position rank automatically would jump up to about a B, but I have seen absolutely no indication that Robinson is going to do anything well. The real competition came between Franks and Owens for the Nickelback corner spot; neither guy played well and both will probably get playing time at the position depending on the slot receiver at the time. The big thing for Falcons corners to remember is to sit back, play their man or their zone, and not to try to jump the route for the pick six. Save the scoring for the offense and just put them into a position where they can score.

Safety:

Starter(s) – William Moore (SS), Thomas DeCoud (FS)

Other notables – N/A

Position Rank – C+

This is another hit and miss position for the Falcons defensive backfield. William Moore has not developed quite into what they want him to be yet, but he is taking steps in the right direction. DeCoud is a serviceable safety, but he is just about average. The Falcons problem is that the safeties are getting looked off of the pass and the receivers are getting in behind them (hence, the entire Green Bay game). The safeties’ number one job is keeping the play within distance. If the corners are able to do their job the right way, we may see some blitz schemes involving the safeties, but with the way coverage has been so far, don’t count on that so much.

Overall Defensive Rating: 82 (B-)

Biggest Strength: Defensive End

Biggest Weakness: Defensive Backfield (Corners and Safeties)