While the Atlanta Falcons defense won’t have to worry about the Tampa Buccaneers’ two best offensive weapons in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on Sunday, it doesn’t mean the Falcons defense is going to pitch a shutout. The Morning Shift explained why the Falcons can’t sleep on the Bucs on Sunday.
“I think we could see them become a different offense, and I think they have kind of figured out that they can run the football and they’ve got a three-headed monster," Beau Morgan said. "And you can add a fourth head if you want to think that maybe Baker [Mayfield] is gonna get some scrambles.”
When the Buccaneers and Falcons matched up on Thursday Night Football just a few weeks ago in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Tampa Bay ran for 160 yards on 26 attempts and averaged 6.2 yards per attempt. So it won’t be hard to believe without their two best receivers the Buccaneers are going to test the Falcons run defense to see if they've fixed anything since their last matchup.
Now, the Falcons run defense has been better over the last couple of weeks, but it should be noted that the past two weeks the Falcons have played the Panthers, who got behind big toward the end of the game, had to throw the ball a lot, and still managed to rush for 114 yards. Atlanta also played the Seahawks last Sunday who are tied for the third least amount of rushing attempts in the NFL this season.
To sum it all up, the last two weeks the Falcons played a team that isn’t very good, and a team that doesn’t run the ball that much at all, but still gave up over 100 yards rushing to both teams. If the Buccaneers decide to commit to the running game on Sunday, we will find out just how much the Falcons’ run defense has improved.