Atlanta Falcons vs. Minnesota Vikings: Breaking Down Atlanta's Game Plan

The Atlanta Falcons travel up to Minnesota to take on the Vikings on Sunday, and the big focus of the game plan will be for the Falcons to contain rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota Vikings passing game through an attacking game plan like what they ran versus the Buccaneers.

Atlanta will also have to make sure they attack on offense as well and force the Vikings into playing from behind. In doing this, it helps not just the offense but the defense. In breaking down every aspect of both the offensive and defensive game plans, certain things stood out as the keys to the game.

Offense

Pass Protection

Atlanta needs their offensive line to perform like it did versus the Buccaneers and not the Bengals. Lamar Holmes looked good at right tackle and so did Gabe Carimi. The interior grouping of Justin Blalock, Joe Hawley and Jon Asamoah looked more than ready to take on better defensive tackles than they faced. Minnesota will be a real test for the Falcons there.

A healthy Jake Matthews makes a huge difference up front because he allows the interior linemen to assist the right side of the line more. He also doesn't need a running back to chip the pass rushers on his side of the field, so the Falcons are able to have an additional wide receiver—normally Devin Hester—out there running routes and causing offenses trouble.

Matthews should be able to handle Everson Griffen and Brian Robison pretty easily. They aren't dynamic athletes who can bend the edge, and he easily has the power edge over them.

Holmes and Carimi might have some issues on that side as well. Add in the fact that Anthony Barr will get rotated in at defensive end sometimes, and the Falcons might have to track that and adjust protection based on it.

On the interior, Linval Joseph and Sharrif Floyd do a great job attacking the gaps in the pass rush. Joseph draws double teams effectively and should see a lot of Hawley in his face no matter which side he lines up on. Blalock and Asamoah are good guards who can take a smaller under tackle one on one and hold them off pretty easily. Tom Johnson provides a tough task for them, but it's not as tough as Geno Atkins did.

Passing Attack

Drew Brees had a field day attacking the short field against the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. He was 16-of-16 on passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage. The Saints have some talent at receiver, but they don't have anyone on the level of Roddy White, Julio Jones or Devin Hester when it comes to their screen-game prowess.

By forcing their corners to come up and expect a short pass, the Falcons can attack them deep with the speed mismatch that should be apparent all game long. Attacking Robert Blanton should be the ideal situation on every single passing down. He's not very good as a coverage player and tends to make his bones against the run game.

The biggest weakness in the Vikings pass defense tends to be against slot receivers and tight ends. Atlanta has some of the best slot receivers in the NFL with Harry Douglas and Devin Hester. But this could be Levine Toilolo's coming out party as an NFL tight end. Toilolo has been disappointing for the first few weeks of the season with just a handful or receptions.

Toilolo needs to be targeted early and often in the intermediate routes to force the Vikings defense to cover and focus on him over the wide receivers. Matt Ryan hasn't been focusing his targets towards Toilolo as he has just 11 targets thrown his way. Two drops and a fumble could be a reason why, but the former Stanford product needs to be a key versus the Vikings.

Rushing the Ball

The Minnesota defense has some solid run defenders on the interior of their defense in Linval Joseph and Sharrif Floyd. The Falcons will have to get good push up the middle against these two in order to have a solid run offense on the day.

Steven Jackson will have to look like the Jackson of old, or this could be a long day for the Falcons rushing attack.

The Falcons could also opt to attack the edges of the Vikings defense. They don't have the speed outside with Anthony Barr and Chad Greenway to stop sweeps if they are properly blocked. The Falcons could opt to run more of Jacquizz Rodgers and Devonta Freeman against the Vikings in hopes that they finally start to show flashes of starting potential.

Rodgers and Freeman have the speed to attack the edges of the Vikings defense and wear them down to open up the passing lanes even more. Should they play effectively, the lanes could wind up being wide open for a screen pass of sweep to Antone Smith.

Smith ran a sweep against the Buccaneers defense that looked like it would be effective against the Vikings if the Falcons want to keep the same play design.

In the end, it will all come down to blocking. Atlanta doesn't have a running back with dynamic vision or dynamic abilities in all aspects. Continuing to run their four-headed monster of an attack should yield the same kind of results that has them in the top 10 in the NFL this year at 4.6 yards per carry.

After averaging just 3.9 yards per carry in 2013, it's a big improvement and could potentially improve even more.

John Bazemore/Associated Press

Defense

Pass Rush

The Falcons need to use their pass rush as their greatest asset against rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who is starting in his first game. They need to show all sorts of different stunts, blitzes and amoeba looks to confuse and attack a quarterback seeing his first real action in the NFL. Bridgewater can be pretty slippery at times, though, so the Falcons will have to make sure to contain.

Ideally, pressure should come through the middle instead of the edge with guys like Paul Soliai, Ra'Shede Hageman, Corey Peters and Jonathan Babineaux attacking a weak interior Vikings offensive line that is now missing its best player in right guard Brandon Fusco.

Fusco's replacement is the subpar Vladimir Ducasse, and Phil Loadholt doesn't do well with speed off the edge at right tackle.

Atlanta should attack Loadholt all day with a rotating combination of Jonathan Massaquoi and Stansly Maponga. However, expect to see some Kroy Biermann in there at least as a decoy to force Loadholt wide so that they can blitz a linebacker behind him. Atlanta should force Loadholt to exhaust himself all day so that they can attack Ducasse at right guard.

The best way to attack poor interior play from guards like Charlie Johnson and Ducasse is to run some double A-Gap blitzes. Prince Shembo and Paul Worrilow have been able to create pressure on those this year. If there was a time to really use this wrinkle of a Mike Nolan scheme, it'd be against a quarterback that needs to be attacked with speed and not power.

Run Defense

With Adrian Peterson out due to issues off the field, the Falcons will have to take on the underwhelming combination of Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon. As with the pass rushing, this battle comes down to the quality of the Minnesota offensive line. Much like in pass protection, the biggest holes on the offensive line in run blocking are going to be the poor guards for the Vikings.

Charlie Johnson and Vladimir Ducasse will be overmatched with their assignments of Corey Peters, Paul Soliai, Tyson Jackson and Jonathan Babineaux.

The Falcons need to make sure that they continually rotate their defensive tackles and attack the gaps because it could cause yet another game like the one against the Buccaneers where the Falcons allowed just 3.0 yards per carry on runs designed for the tailbacks.

The Falcons were turning their run defense into a brick wall on early downs and forcing third and long passing plays. They can do the same with gap control defense. The Vikings don't have a running back with the speed or shiftiness to miss tackles or the power to bust through the line the way that Cincinnati and New Orleans did.

Coverage

In what looks to be the best matchup for the Vikings when they are healthy, the Falcons will have their hands full with the supremely talented Cordarrelle Patterson. He has a unique blend of Julio Jones' and Devin Hester's skill sets. He's not the best wide receiver in the league, but he is a dynamic talent who can make a defense pay if he wins his matchup. They also have their own version of Roddy White in Greg Jennings.

Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford should match up well, but safety help over the top would be nice to give them. This shouldn't be too tough to do since Kyle Rudolph looks to be injured for at least this week's game due to sports hernia surgery. Without Rudolph, the Falcons can send more linebackers at Teddy Bridgewater and safeties to help the receivers.

Atlanta has a great matchup with the Vikings, despite the game being on the latter's turf. The Falcons should be able to win the game in all facets as long as they stick with the game plans that make the most sense for their talent.

And if the Falcons can make sure to keep that attacking mindset, it could be the game that really makes a statement nationally that the Falcons are back.

All stats used are from Pro Football Focus' Premium Stats (subscription required), ESPN.com, CFBStats or NFL.com. All combine and pro day info is courtesy of NFLDraftScout.com. All contract information is courtesy of Spotrac and Rotoworld.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He covers the Atlanta Falcons, college football, the NFL and the NFL draft. He also runs DraftFalcons.com.