Heading into their week eight matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday the Falcons are giving up 137 rushing yards per game, and that is currently ninth most in the NFL. In their last meeting on Thursday Night Football the Buccaneers ran for 160 yards on 26 attempts and averaged 6.2 yards per attempt.
With Mike Evans and Chris Godwin both out on Sunday for the Bucs it’s safe to say they’re going to rely heavily on the run game, and test the Falcons rushing defense, and since the Falcons have struggled stopping the run so far this season, and struggled to stop Tampa Bay’s running game in their last meeting, earlier today The Morning Shift suggested the Falcons defense try something different this week.
This season the Falcons’ defense has committed to not giving up explosive plays, and that’s why the Falcons’ defensive backs play very soft coverage on opposing wide receivers. However, this play style does lend itself to giving up a lot of short and maybe intermediate throws in the passing game, and that’s been the story with Jimmy Lake’s defense all season long. They give up a lot of yards, but either force a turnover, or limit opposing offenses to field goals, but since the Falcons’ defense has also struggled with stopping the run this season, if the Bucs can have success running the ball in the red zone those field goals could turn into touchdowns.
Beau Morgan suggested dropping Justin Simmons in the box, and potentially limiting the Buccaneers rushing attack by simply having more bodies in the box.
Mike Johnson suggested the same thing but doing it in the passing game, so the Falcons could have more success getting sacks when the Falcons do have the Bucs in obvious passing situations.
“If you don’t feel like that this is the receiver group that can give them explosives then maybe you trust your DBs a little more to make those one on one tackles if they’re able to complete it and commit an extra guy to some of these blitz packages that you have and say he we’re going to bring one more than you can block, we’re going to force Baker [Mayfield] to get it out of his hands, which means he has to throw it probably in front of the sticks, and we trust our guys to make those tackles in front of the first down marker.” Mike said.
What Mike is suggesting is something the Falcons haven’t done all season long, but to his point if there was ever a time to see what your cornerbacks could do when left on a little bit of an island there’s probably no better time or team to do it against than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with no Mike Evans or Chris Godwin.
If Falcons’ Defensive Coordinator Jimmy Lake does test this out on Sunday it will make the Falcons’ defense susceptible to big plays, but it could also result in the Falcons’ defense getting some sacks and making some big plays in the backfield, it just comes down to if Jimmy Lake is okay with going with the high risk high reward game plan.
