The Falcons’ offense grabbed the spotlight on Thursday night, but Jeff Ulbrich’s defense was every bit as responsible for the result.
One week after the second-half collapse against the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta went into Lambeau Field and made Jordan Love uncomfortable from the opening snaps. The Packers managed only 17 rushing yards, and the Falcons piled up a 41.8% pressure rate while squeezing the life out of Green Bay’s offense.
That pressure started up front. Atlanta’s defensive line controlled the game at the point of attack, and the Packers rarely had room to breathe after their second-possession touchdown drive in the first quarter.
Outside of that series, Green Bay was held to four plays or fewer on five of its other possessions. The Packers still finished with 328 total yards, but they posted an expected points added per play of -0.05 and held the ball for just 22:55, well behind the Falcons’ 37:05.
“We really wanted to set the tone and make them one-dimensional,” inside linebacker Divine Deablo said after the game. “The guys up front made my life easy. They really set the tone. 17 rushing yards is a big statement.”
Atlanta’s front has been doing this all season. The Falcons lead the NFL in pass-rush win rate at 67.2% and rank sixth in quarterback pressure rate at 41.6%, even though they blitz on just 19.0% of plays, the third-lowest mark in the league. They’ve gotten there without heavy blitzing and without the pair of star pass rushers they lost before the season started.
A year after leaning on the league’s second-highest blitz rate, the Falcons are winning with four-man pressure.
Next Gen Stats credited Gervon Dexter Sr. with five pressures on 27 pass rushes, good for an 18.5% pressure rate. It was the second time this season he’s had five or more pressures in a game, and the first time he has done that multiple times in the same season.
Through Thursday, Dexter has the most pressures of any interior defender with 15. Brandon Dorlus added six pressures and now has 12 on the season, which ranks third among interior defenders.
Together, Dexter and Dorlus have combined for 27 pressures, the most of any interior defensive duo in the NFL. That kind of disruption has made life miserable for opposing offensive lines. As a team, the Falcons are allowing a total time to throw of 2.79 seconds, the eighth-best figure in the NFL, and they own the league’s second-best get-off mark at 0.75.
The sack total is still just five, but head coach Kevin Stefanski liked what he saw after Thursday’s performance.
“Outstanding,” he said of the pass rush on Thursday. “They harassed the quarterback.
I don't know what the sacks say, and I think sacks can be liars. We love to get the sacks whenever we can, but you want to pressure the quarterback, and I thought (Love) was under pressure quite a bit.”
The run defense has been just as important. By keeping more bodies out of the box and not needing to overcommit to the pass rush, Atlanta has been able to stay sound on the back end and clamp down against the run. That showed up in a big way Thursday, when the Packers’ 17 rushing yards became the fewest the Falcons have allowed in a game in franchise history.
“When you can run the ball like that (the Falcons accounted for 242 yards on the ground) and stop the run how we did, we're going to win a lot of ball games,” safety Jessie Bates III said. “We finally put it together in a complementary game, and that's what we're about here in Atlanta. I can't wait to see what we continue to do.”
Through three games, Atlanta is allowing a league-best 47.7 rushing yards per game. That’s a strong start, but the next stretch will tell a lot more about what this defense really is. Over the next six weeks, the Falcons will face the Saints, Ravens, Bears, 49ers, Buccaneers, and Bengals, and five of those teams rank in the top 10 in scoring offense.
Thursday offered the blueprint. If Atlanta can keep generating pressure without sending extra bodies, Ulbrich will have far more freedom to work with the rest of the defense. That means more coverage help, more aggressive play from the secondary, and more chances to make quarterbacks win without a numbers edge.
For now, the Falcons have something they did not have in the same way before: a defense that can dictate the terms.
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