Defense.....

[Xanthri]

Wanted to start a thread just about the Defensive play tonight as I made some observations and wondered what everyone else here thought.

We all know the goods: 5 INTs, 1 Sack, good pressure....

but the REALLY interesting things that stood out for me.

McClain and Owens play was outstanding in relief for Samuel....I am not worried about them at all anymore....and we are doing this whole year without Grimes....hoping we can get him to sign a reasonable contract in the offseason....we would then have one of the best and deepest secondary in the league....

Position...I know Brees had 350+ yards....but look at the yards after catch....VERY SMALL, meaning our guys were in the right position, Bottomline....Brees EARNED his 351 it was not bad defense as much as Brees with lots of time to hit his targets.

another sidenote...plenty of knocked down passes and more importantly defenders in positions that had they turned their head a half of a second early we may have had 8-9 ints....no lie....look at the game....I know of at least two more that spoon could have had and 2-3 more by other players.....that is impressive against Brees even more impressive.

Our front line did okay on pressure...but the truth is we gave Brees too much time....thank goodness their O-line finally got tired....

On Abe's offside....not even...he flinches but does not enter the neutral zone at all....try watching it in slo mo......that was a REALLY bad call by a ref trying to make this a game at the end.

Tackling....lots of gang tackles....the best part is from first hit (whether or not the player went down) they were held in place or only progressed a few yards before getting tackled.....

run Defense....it looked bad because they took some huge chunks but that wasn't so much tackling as it has been in the past as it was the Saints RB hitting the hole and our defenders not being able to get a solid hand on them....short yardage was good but the Saints were rarely in short yardage where they gave us a chance to tackle the runner (they passed on every one)

we need to work on plugging up the holes and not always trying to go the path of least resistance.....I think that was why the holes were so large for Saints RB....still some work to do....but overall solid performance

Moore...was great
Decoud...Fantastic
Robinson....quiet but solid play...i think they tried to exploit Owens and mcClain all night and it didn't really work....
Owens and McClain....mad respect for them...have liked mcClain from start this year....Owens I am nervous no longer

Linebackers did well....didn't hear much from Nicholas tonight.....Spoon was all over the place....

D-line.....showed their hands techniques.....2 INts almost 3 from the D-line....and don't forget Abe tipped a pass early and had he not tipped it so hard he would have likely ran it back for a pick 6.....

I liked almost all of it....the defense is showing they are almost playoff ready...the Giants and a very balanced offense will be our next test for Defense....They will get work to beat the panthers.....but panthers RBs are beat up....and all we have to do is rattle Cam and that house should crumble!

Not many penalties and both offsides were BS (the first one was closer to offsides....i would not have called it...) we did get away with a couple of PI.....one of them it looked like our defender fish hooked the guy and got away with it....but they got away with at least 2 also....

Anyone else have other comments....about defense?

[NCFalconfan]

All I will add is Nic did a good job on Graham last night and the difference between Biermann and Edwards is so obvious that even Ray Charles could see it.

[Jesus]

Brees forced a lot of throws last night, which means coverage was there most of the time. Owens really impressed me last night. I don't see a repeat of the Packers playoff game where he was wrecked happening again.

All 6, yes I believe there were six, of the picks were a result of pressure or great coverage. Can't ask for more than that.

Also the Red Zone pass D can't be cheered enough. Brees had one shot at the endzone and it was dropped. Other than that the team did a great job of keeping all the catches out of the endzone. Even on the called back Sproles TD he had to work his way into the endzone. There was no freebee there.

Biermann looked great too. So did Robertson, Peters and even Matthews.

[Xanthri]

Interesting negative stat about our defense for the season....think tackling wasn't/isn't our biggest issue....take a look at yards given up after first contact (IE the aboility to not make the tackle)

Falcons Rush Defense
This Season NFL Rank
Yards per rush 4.8 30th
Yards after contact per rush 2.2 Last
Rushes per first down 3.98 28th
TD 10 T-27th

[motorcityfalcon]

The two biggest stats in the NFL are explovice plays and turnovers, that is why teams have won SB's without having all the number one stats on defense.

[ViperXX79]

This defense is an average MLB away from being elite. Dent is literally a non factor against the run. He might as well stay on the sideline and let us play with 10 guys.

[RnB]

Viper, you are right; Dent is no Lofton, that is for sure. He may come around though.

I think another significant factor is how much Nolan likes having five DBs on the field. We drop ends into coverage pretty often as well. The tackling and YAC on rushing plays is pretty rough but it seems like when we have one missed tackle, we end up missing multiples on the same play, letting backs get huge chunks of yardage when we have a rush defense breakdown. I would like to see a little more consistency in the tackling so that half the opponents rushing stats aren't coming from one or two plays. Its inevitable that you are going to give up some medium to long passes in a game but I think giving up medium to long runs is much, much worse.

However, our rushing defense stats have been steadily climbing for a few weeks now. I think we can get it worked out, and get better at run fits, before the playoffs get here.

[Xanthri]

(12-03-2012 08:07 AM)RnB Wrote:  However, our rushing defense stats have been steadily climbing for a few weeks now. I think we can get it worked out, and get better at run fits, before the playoffs get here.

This all equates to tackling.....the last two weeks have been much better....look at the stats for yards after first contact....we did a fantastic job versus the Saints in that category