Beasley hopes to pick up the sack pace

“I will say this: The one thing that I have a lot … respect for is the amount of time he wants to put into being really good,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “Although some of the numbers haven’t been there for him and for a lot of the other guys as well, so that part is about continuing to keep grinding.”

Beasley boldly predicted that he would have double-digit sacks as a rookie shortly after being drafted. He’ll have to find another gear over the final eight games to hit that mark.

“It’s going decent for me,” Beasley said when asked to assess his first half. “My production on the field can improve a lot. There are a lot of areas for improvement for me. I’m just trying to finish strong, have more of a focus and pay attention to detail.”

In his rookie season in 2011, Houston’s J.J. Watt had just two sacks over his first nine games. Denver’s Von Miller had 6.5 sacks over his first eight games and finished with 11.5 as a rookie in 2011.

But when it was pointed out that some pass-rushers start off slow, Beasley didn’t want to hear about it.

“I don’t allow for that,” Beasley said. “I feel like I can be just as good as all of the other rushers are in my rookie year. I’m not trying to wait to increase my production.”

Falcons defensive coordinator Richard Smith was Denver’s linebackers coach when Miller splashed onto the NFL scene.

“I think everybody, like last week, (Beasley) improved, but you’re not seeing it in the terms of the numbers or the sacks,” Smith said. “Overall, I thought he played pretty well.”

Smith didn’t want to single out Beasley, not on a team that has only 10 sacks, which ranks 31st in the league.

“It’s not just him, it’s everybody,” Smith said. “Of course, we’d like to have more sacks. We are working extremely hard on it.”

Beasley is still working on the finer points of pass rushing.

“I think he’s a lot better on his get-off and his hand use,” Smith said. “But what we just need to do as a whole is, not just Vic, we need to finish better.”

“It’s wanting to be the best that I can be,” Beasley said. “I want to put everything on the line for my team. I know that they need me. I’m just trying to put the best foot forward and help the rest of my teammates as best I can.”

In addition to some technical aspects, Beasley is also working on finishing his rushes.

“There are a lot of times where I just didn’t finish as well as I should have,” Beasley said. “I’m going into the second half of the season just trying to finish. There have been lights and flashes, when I have put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. I’m just trying to improve in both of those areas.”

Quinn and Smith move Beasley around to both sides of the line, but do not have any plans to flex him out wider.

“We’ll play with the style that we like to play,” Quinn said. “In our system, he does move in and out a lot. So that’s not a consideration. Left and right some, for sure, but not wider.”

Quinn equated Beasley’s development to an elite basketball shooter.

“Like a good shooter that’s missed a few, I’ve got a sense that he’ll likely get hot,” Quinn said.