Beasley has breakout game with 3.5 sacks
Falcons defensive end Vic Beasley turned in his best game as a NFL player against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Beasley finished with 3.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two quarterback hits to lead the Falcons’ much maligned pass rush.
“Today was a breakout game,” Beasley said. “It felt great. I was due for it. I was just continuously working hard at practice. I put my team first. Today, I reaped what I sowed.”
The Broncos used an assortment of tackles against Beasley as the Falcons registered six sacks overall. Late in the game, they were sending a running back over to chip block Beasley.
It was the type of game that the Falcons envisioned when they selected Beasley with the eighth overall pick out of Clemson in the 2015 draft.
However, Beasley finished with just four sacks as a rookie and entered the Denver game with one sack. After his showing against Denver, he surpassed last season’s total and the Falcons are hoping there or more dominating days to come.
“It’s a great feeling, Beasley said.
Defensive end Dwight Freeney and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett had a sack each. Defensive end Adrian Clayborn shared a sack with Beasley.
Freeney was elated to see Beasley get some sack action.
“That’s what you want to do, you want to kind of sync it up together,” Freeney said. “It’s like a machine and you have to have all of the parts and the engine working together. Inside, outside and coverage. When you have that, you can have success like we are having.”
The Falcons finished with 19 sacks last season, last in the league.
“It’s coming together, but we don’t want to say anything too soon,” Freeney said. “It’s just this week and we played great this game this week. Hopefully, we can build momentum from this.”
About the Author
Honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his "long and distinguished reporting in the field of pro football," D. Orlando Ledbetter, Esq. has covered the NFL 28 seasons. A graduate of Howard University, he's a winner of Georgia Sportswriter of the Year and three Associated Press Sports Editor awards.
