The Falcons walked out of Week 5 with a harsh reminder about what can go wrong when their run defense slips out of character. Atlanta entered the game as the NFL’s best run defense by yards allowed, but Baltimore tore into that reputation with 208 rushing yards in the Ravens’ 30-23 overtime win.
That kind of night doesn’t happen without clean execution from the other side, and it also doesn’t get repaired without honesty inside the locker room. Veteran linebacker Divine Deablo owned his piece of the breakdown right away, saying he sometimes chased a play and drifted out of his responsibility. For a defense that had been giving up just 48.3 rushing yards per game before Sunday, the drop-off was impossible to ignore.
“Defensively, we just got to do better job of stopping the run. Clearly, they had 200.
I'll put that on me for real," Deablo said. "We got to be better as a whole, but I definitely got to be better myself.”
He was even more direct when explaining what went wrong.
“Sometimes trying to make a play. Getting out of my gap. I got to stay in my gap, make sure I do my job plus one,” Deablo said.
That’s the fix Atlanta has to carry into Week 6 against Chicago. Baltimore found room all afternoon, and Derrick Henry did the heavy lifting with 102 yards on 24 carries. The Falcons won’t be facing Henry this time, but the Bears bring their own ground threat with D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, and Caleb Williams adds another layer with his mobility.
Chicago has led the NFL in rushing yards per game, including nearly 300 and six touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 and more than 200 against the New York Jets. Even so, the Bears were held to a season-low 84 rushing yards in their 31-7 Week 5 loss to the Packers.
Atlanta can’t afford to let one breakdown turn into a trend. The Falcons’ run defense has already shown it can be stingy, but the Baltimore loss exposed the crack in the foundation: a gap missed here, an assignment abandoned there, and suddenly the whole thing starts to leak.
Deablo’s accountability gives the Falcons a starting point. Now the challenge is turning that into a cleaner showing against a Ben Johnson offense that’s ready to test them on the ground again.
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