Falcons' defense ranked No. 11 by Touchdown Wire

[ADAMSVILLE GYM]

Falcons' defense ranked No. 11 by Touchdown Wire

Matt Urben

 

May 26, 2020 12:02 pm

 

The Atlanta Falcons stumbled out of the gate in 2019, starting the season 1-7 and frequently trailing by insurmountable deficits at halftime. The team’s 6-2 finish may have been too little, too late, but defensive coordinator Raheem Morris established a strong foundation that the Falcons can build on in 2020.

Atlanta’s defense allowed 24.9 points and 355.8 yards per game last year, numbers that reflect an average unit. However, the impressive play by this group down the stretch was enough to make the top 12 of Touchdown Wire’s defensive rankings.

Check out what Doug Farrar wrote about the Falcons’ defense below:

The Falcons had as drastic a defensive turnaround as any team in the 2019 season, which occurred when now-defensive coordinator Raheem Morris took a more pronounced role. From Weeks 10-9, Atlanta gave up 24 passing touchdowns and came up with just two interceptions. From Weeks 10-17, the difference was graphic — just nine touchdowns allowed, and 10 interceptions. The team lost cornerback Desmond Trufant in free agency, but selected Clemson cornerback A.J. Terrell in the first round, and Terrell is a much better player than he showed in his team’s loss in the College Football Championship. Expect this defense to play far more to its talent with Morris firmly in charge.

As Farrar pointed out, Morris has proven to be a great asset to the defense, and assuming he picks things up where he left off, Atlanta has a chance to be very good this season.

The team’s secondary is young and relatively untested. Plus, without De’Vondre Campbell, Desmond Trufant and Vic Beasley, it could take some time for this group to gel.

Some of the team’s early struggles in 2019 can be attributed to a painfully one-dimensional offense. The Falcons’ averaged 85.1 yards per game on the ground and often had to abandon the run game altogether by the second quarter.

Todd Gurley has a chance to turn that around this season. If Atlanta can get off to a better start, the team should be able to compete in a vastly-improved NFC South.

 

 

[ADAMSVILLE GYM]

Let's see how much Falcon-fan self-hate this generates.....

Edited May 26, 2020 by ADAMSVILLE GYM

[blkbigdog35]

9 minutes ago, ADAMSVILLE GYM said:

Let's see how must Falcon-fan self-hate this generates.....

Bruh 

[blkbigdog35]

I like the pieces we have added and I like how these boys were coached up by Morris in the second half of the season so I'm waiting to see how this defense looks with the the new pieces,  Debo fully healthy and hopefully double duece is good to go.  

[falconfansince66]

Given the 2-year (and under) players that we'll likely be using at LB and the DB positions, I don't see us ranked quite that high out of the gate but if everyone gels by mid-season, I think we could potentially have a top 10 defense by season's end. 

[NorthGaBoy]

8 minutes ago, blkbigdog35 said:

I like the pieces we have added and I like how these boys were coached up by Morris in the second half of the season so I'm waiting to see how this defense looks with the the new pieces,  Debo fully healthy and hopefully double duece is good to go.  

On the positive side, Morris really turned up the defense last season and we added some intriguing players.

On the negative side, we added some intriguing players.  Can Morris get them together as a competitive team with spring activities cancelled?  The best defense this season could be the one that had the fewest changes.  It very much depends on how Covid 19 shakes out.

[ramonezy]

Good thing late season spurts carry over.... 

[Knight of God]

Let’s hope

[The Great American]

38 minutes ago, ADAMSVILLE GYM said:

Let's see how much Falcon-fan self-hate this generates.....

Number 11 rated defense???  There's no "F" in way.  

[PittsCreek]

24 minutes ago, ramonezy said:

Good thing late season spurts carry over.... 

🤡

[ADAMSVILLE GYM]

pitiful. Yous all should turn in yer cards. I'll see if i can find a Tom Brady story for yas.

47 minutes ago, The Great American said:

Number 11 rated defense???  There's no "F" in way.  

 

59 minutes ago, ramonezy said:

Good thing late season spurts carry over.... 

 

34 minutes ago, DirtyBird2 said:

🤡

 

[Osiruz]

Sounds good on paper, gotta see it to believe it. We need players to play disciplined and do their dang job. Morris needs to instill that sense of discipline. 

[ramonezy]

46 minutes ago, ADAMSVILLE GYM said:

pitiful. Yous all should turn in yer cards. I'll see if i can find a Tom Brady story for yas.

 

 

 

LOL... Nah man, no need... I'm Brady'd out already and the season haven't even started yet. 

But honestly, a season is 16 games. You don't get to slice it up in a way that's convenient to you in order to make a favourable assessment. 

So personally I leave last season alone, and look forward to this year 

[ATLskinjob]

Just posted a similar thing about our D in another thread, but my biggest problem on defense is that the whole unit being good in completely predicated on "what-ifs".

I think that at this point, our only truly known quantity this year is Grady. We know what he does, and we know how great he is. I have questions about almost every other player on this D, even my beloved Deion Jones. He just seemed slower and less of a heat-seeking missile last season. Secondary is about 4 out of 5 question marks. Can Oliver finally adjust his game to the NFL? Can Terrell start as a CB1 this season? Can Keanu recover and be his old self? Can Kazee be consistent? Is Rico actually good? Is Foye or Mykal Walker good enough to solidify our LBers? Will we have any sort of a pass rush? Is Fowler actually a sack artist or was it just a side effect of playing with the best DT of all time? Can we generate any sort of consistent pressure to the pocket? Is Takk going to explode or implode? 

[Ergo Proxy]

If you look at the roster final 8 games last year and compare it to our roster now...why not?

Tru/Neal were on IR. Neal is back we hope. We already upgraded Beasley (DFJ) and got some coaching moves to help the young DBs while also adding AJ. Maybe between Bucannon/Foye/Walker we got enough to replace or even upgrade Vondre.

Takk's health, Marlon's rookie impact, and JC are a few key pieces around GJ and DFJ that could put the unit over the top. Means or Harris producing with regular snaps could make it a possibly special season.

IF this defense actually finishes upper 1/3 in the league? It means everything. We'll go as far as the offense can pull out the tough wins if they do that for us.

Half the battle is coaching/scheme...the other is health and peaking at the right time; at least for DQ teams most of the time. Hey, maybe we won't come out luke warm like we usually do? Got into such a hole at 1-7 last year, the season was over before the defense showed up. Imagine it being your strength entering this season. What a turn around that would be.

I think we have the roster. Can the coaches bring it all together? I'm looking at Koetter and just what exactly we're gonna be next year as the bigger question here.

If Whitt at DB coach and Morris full-time DC springboards the unit that ended 2019, then I'm not worried about the defense nearly as much as the offense.

[Dirtybird56]

Maybe this year is the year we have a legit defense 

[RYNE]

Them boys at “touchdown wire” need to put down the dope. 

[PittsCreek]

4 hours ago, ADAMSVILLE GYM said:

pitiful. Yous all should turn in yer cards. I'll see if i can find a Tom Brady story for yas.

 

 

 

Whoa whoa whoa, I agree with you haha. The clown was in reference to the whole "Carry's over to next year" because I took it as sarcasm 

[PokerSteve]

6 hours ago, blkbigdog35 said:

I like the pieces we have added and I like how these boys were coached up by Morris in the second half of the season so I'm waiting to see how this defense looks with the the new pieces,  Debo fully healthy and hopefully double duece is good to go.  

Agree. This isn't the same D that looked utterly lost in the first half of last season. Going from ranking near last in D stats in the fist half to 12th in the second is not something to just blow off as if it were meaningless. If I didn't think this team had a legit shot at being the NFC South Champ, I'd say so. Looking forward to watching this team, especially this defense, battle for the play-offs.

[ADAMSVILLE GYM]

9 minutes ago, DirtyBird2 said:

Whoa whoa whoa, I agree with you haha. The clown was in reference to the whole "Carry's over to next year" because I took it as sarcasm 

My bad!!!!!!

Sometimes i'm like a 20 year old or a baby rattlesnake. Just letting loose with no control!!!

My apologies good friend.

[Ergo Proxy]

Saw this graph on efficiency from last year, helps contrast the Falcons defensive turnaround. This is some true Jekyll and Hyde level stuff. We finished 23rd overall due to the bad start being SO bad but we can work with the second half efficiency.

^Basically, 5 or 6 bad showings in 8 games to 1 in 8....I’ll take 2 bad defensive showings a year and 14(15?) games of having a shot or even being carried by the defense.

Here are the rankings for offense, we finished 11th:

Edited May 27, 2020 by Schwarzwald

[Atl Falcon]

3 hours ago, ATLskinjob said:

Just posted a similar thing about our D in another thread, but my biggest problem on defense is that the whole unit being good in completely predicated on "what-ifs".

I think that at this point, our only truly known quantity this year is Grady. We know what he does, and we know how great he is. I have questions about almost every other player on this D, even my beloved Deion Jones. He just seemed slower and less of a heat-seeking missile last season. Secondary is about 4 out of 5 question marks. Can Oliver finally adjust his game to the NFL? Can Terrell start as a CB1 this season? Can Keanu recover and be his old self? Can Kazee be consistent? Is Rico actually good? Is Foye or Mykal Walker good enough to solidify our LBers? Will we have any sort of a pass rush? Is Fowler actually a sack artist or was it just a side effect of playing with the best DT of all time? Can we generate any sort of consistent pressure to the pocket? Is Takk going to explode or implode? 

The defense definitely has some question marks and your on point but I do think these questions will be answered in a positive way for the most part. I mean it’s like we’re so close to clicking On both sides of the ball

[high impact]

Maybe it was 11th from the bottom. Cause no fricken way was what I saw a 11th ranked D!!

The first 8 games looked like the three stooges football follies to me. The last 8 looked like they were playing football but still not like a 11th ranked D.

[takeitdown]

I’d take that all day

[Atlantafan21]

5 hours ago, Schwarzwald said:

Here are the rankings for offense, we finished 11th:

We scored 10 points against the Rams and they give us dark blue? Lol. Our o-line got destroyed and Matt got murdered that game too. The defensive rankings seem more accurate to me tbh.