What the Atlanta Falcons Must Improve Most Coming out of Week 9 Bye
The Atlanta Falcons have a 2-6 record heading into the Week 9 bye and look like they need a bye week right now. They have some banged up players throughout the team but improvement along key units needs to be the focus for the team moving forward.
Atlanta has been plagued by a combination of bad pass rush on defense and abysmal pass protection on offense at times. The front seven on defense as a whole needs to play better because the Falcons allow way too many big plays for anyone to feel comfortable with that defense.
Allowing Too Many Big Plays on Defense
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Atlanta's biggest issue on defense comes from allowing way too many big plays. Through eight games, Atlanta has allowed way too many explosive plays. Explosive plays are essentially runs over 12 yards or passes over 16 yards. When these explosive plays happen, the Falcons tend to give up a touchdown on the drive more often than not.
Atlanta has allowed 59 explosive plays through the first eight games of the season. Forty-three of those have been through the air while just 16 of them have been on the ground. On 27 of the opponent's 43 scoring drives, the defense has allowed an explosive play, while on 16 of them, the drive scored without one. Atlanta can stop the methodical offenses pretty well.
They just can't stuff an offense that relies on explosive plays. If Atlanta can clean up these big plays on defense, the Falcons could wind up turning their season around. But they need to get better pressure on the quarterbacks—more on that later—and better coverage on receivers. If the Falcons can turn things around with their pass rush and coverage, they should be much better in the second half of the season.
Front 7 Play
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Paul Worrilow has been having a rough season. While he did look good at times during the first five weeks of the year, the Falcons need to make sure they don't have guards in his face all the time. They also need to make sure to surround him with the right guy at the second linebacker spot. Because Joplo Bartu hasn't been playing well, and Worrilow looks like he's trying to overcompensate for him.
The biggest thing the Falcons could do at linebacker is get healthy. Prince Shembo needs the week off to get his knee right. With Shembo next to Worrilow inside, the Falcons defense played arguably its two best games against the run. When the Falcons put the right guys on the field at the right times, it only helps the team as a whole.
As Atlanta lined up in a 4-3 at times in England, they were using Shembo, Worrilow and Bartu as the three linebackers on the field. And it helped tremendously. But to get better linebacker play, Atlanta needs to get better production from their defensive line as well. That means playing guys due to performance and not contracts the way that they have been doing.
Atlanta needs to focus on putting the right guys in the right spots. That means playing Ra'Shede Hageman and Paul Soliai at the NT role in either front. That means playing Jonathan Babineaux, Tyson Jackson and Corey Peters in a rotation at the UT and 3-4 WDE role. That means playing Malliciah Goodman as the 4-3 SDE. That means playing Stansly Maponga and Jonathan Massaquoi as the primary edge players.
Atlanta's defense hasn't been able to hold onto leads because it continually forces the older, softer players on the field too often. The Falcons need some young hunger on the field out there. They need Hageman's attitude. They need Peters' leadership. They need Massaquoi's fire. They need someone who is fast enough to keep up with tight ends playing on the strong side like Bartu.
Most of all, they need to play the older gentlemen of the team like Kroy Biermann, Osi Umenyiora and Soliai less than 40 percent of the snaps. Atlanta is too focused on the politics of contracts. They need to worry more about winning.
Pass Protection
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One of Atlanta's biggest drop offs from its 2-1 start to the five-game losing streak that it's been going through comes from the offensive line. Atlanta went 2-1 with a group that played well together in Jake Matthews, Justin Blalock, Joe Hawley, Jon Asamoah and Lamar Holmes. They were all able to get on the same page as pass-blockers and hold off some solid rushers early in the season.
Then disaster struck in the Minnesota game the fourth week of the season. Hawley went down with an ACL tear, while Holmes was sidelined with a foot injury for the rest of the year. Atlanta had to go to Peter Konz and Gabe Carimi at center and right tackle, respectively. Then injury struck again. Konz had his ACL torn, and Carimi looks to have been battling a bum leg all year.
So the Falcons are now on their third-string center, backup left tackle and fourth-string right tackle. And while things look grim, that backup left tackle was the No. 6 overall pick in the NFL draft this year. The fourth-string right tackle Ryan Schraeder is more athletic than Carimi was and has a Tyson Clabo-level ceiling. The only real question comes from the third-string center James Stone.
The rookie undrafted free agent will have to step up. Schraeder looked good in the biggest challenge the Falcons will have for their right tackle until they face Charles Johnson and the Panthers. Stone had a rough day trying to help contain Nick Fairley and Ndamukong Suh, though. With Blalock getting healthy and Asamoah being the rock along the offensive line, Stone's worry will be more chemistry than anything.
If the Falcons can get continued, consistent good play out of Schraeder and Stone to close the year out, the offensive line could return to being a strength. And if that happens, Atlanta could turn into the team that it was in 2012 instead of the current—and closer to 2013—iteration of the Atlanta Falcons.
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Pass Rush
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Atlanta's biggest hole on the team comes from their pass rush. While most teams are able to create consistent pressure on quarterbacks, the Falcons have trouble generating anything for most games. According to Pro Football Focus' cumulative team grades, the Falcons have a -14.4 in pass rushing through their first eight games. That's good enough to be considered the 30th best team in the league.
Their combined seven sacks through eight games is also good enough for 31st in the league. Atlanta's pass rush has been putting unnecessary pressure on the defensive backfield. A defensive backfield that has been making plays on the ball all season with their 32 pass deflections (T-15th) and five interceptions (T-20th).
Atlanta adding to their pass rush would only help their secondary. There's only two real ways for the Falcons to add to their pass rush. They can modify their personnel usage. Or they can just blitz more.
Ideally, personnel usage is the route the Falcons will go. Kroy Biermann has been the weak link in the pass rush and shouldn't be playing as a defensive end in a four-man front. If Atlanta replaced him at defensive end with a combination of Stansly Maponga and Malliciah Goodman, they would get much better results from the position than they currently get.
At the other end, the Falcons seem to want to play Jonathan Babineaux as a right defensive end and he's not the right fit there. Atlanta should focus Jonathan Massaquoi and Osi Umenyiora in a rotation at that spot to give them the best possible pass-rushers at all times.
Massaquoi is proving to be the most productive pass-rusher in the NFL by Pro Football Focus' Pass Rushing Productivity stat. He needs to be on the field a lot more than he is. Atlanta needs to play him a minimum of 70 percent of the snaps through the rest of the season.
Atlanta does need to work in some more blitzes, though. Paul Worrilow, Prince Shembo and Joplo Bartu are much better pass-rushers than they are coverage defenders. If the Falcons decided to modify personnel and blitz, it'd be for the best because then there might be an actual pass rush.
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.
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