Vic Beasley’s return to full-time defensive end hasn’t quite been a full-time return to defensive end.
Also, those bushels of sacks that were to result in the move, well, they haven’t come yet, either.
Beasley got a sack against the Saints, his fourth over his past 15 games, including the playoffs.
In the opener against the Eagles, Beasley still was dropping into coverage. Against the Panthers, he was used to spy quarterback Cam Newton.
“Oh, I think I’m doing well,” Beasley said to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution when told that the fans were looking for the pass rush. “There are a lot more opportunities out there for me, but I’m going to keep working.”
Beasley had his weekly sit-down meeting with Falcons coach Dan Quinn, in which they look at his film together.
“I was really pleased with his get-off,” Quinn said. “That part looked like him. The second week against Carolina we had to have him to spy some. Moving forward we’ll just get him into his normal groove and really get him up the field. … We’ll see that impact.”
Beasley has to keep working on using his hands and crafting his counter moves to add to his dynamic speed rushes.
“Most of the discussions are on the pass rush,” Quinn said. “We dig into the game plan for the week. We’ll talk about who he’s going to matchup with and how do we play him. We are making progress for sure.”
Beasley had a sack against the Saints and was disruptive while primarily going against right tackle Ryan Ramcyck.
His sack came when he blasted by Ramcyzk. He had four other pressures despite getting chipped six times by tight ends and receivers.
Beasley, while playing defensive end, led the NFL in sacks with 15.5 in 2016 and was named All-Pro. Last season, his sacks dropped to 5.5 while he split time moving back and forth to linebacker.
“I’m thinking in the Carolina game, just spy Cam (Newton) and keep him in the pocket,” Beasley said. “With (Drew) Brees, he wasn’t running around a lot, so they left me off the hook and let me rush straight ahead for the most part.”
Brees was getting the ball off quickly, and when the Falcons rushed only three players, Beasley had a natural double-team to contend with.
“They did put the tight end on my side a couple of times to help slow me down,” Beasley said. “We tried to get as much pressure as we could with the three-men that we had rushing on numerous plays. For the most part, I felt like we did get a couple of pressures on Brees. But we could have done a little bit better job.”
Just three games into the season, the Falcons’ rush numbers don’t mean much. However, they are not sparkling on the stat sheet.
The team’s five sacks (28th) rank near the bottom of the league rankings, which is tied to their inability to get off the field on third down. Teams have converted 49 percent (20 of 41) of their third downs, which ranks 31st in the league.
“I think we were trying to get as much pressure as we could,” Beasley said. “We were not blitzing as much because we understand (Brees’) ability to pick us apart. But against the Bengals, I think it will be a different game plan.
Each week presents a different challenge, and we are aware of that.”
Grady Jarrett, Deadrin Senat and Brooks Reed had two pressures each, Brian Poole and De’Vondre Campbell had one each and Isaiah Oliver and Steven Means each had one half against the Saints.
“If we all do our job, we have a chance to be successful as we want to be,” Beasley said. “If we hone into the details and go out there and try to execute the game plan as best that you possible can, I think we will be able to get pressure this week.”
The Falcons must find their pass rush while working to replace three key starters in linebacker Deion Jones (broken right foot), strong safety Keanu Neal (knee) and free safety Ricardo Allen (left Achilles).
“The organization is like next man up, next man up,” Beasley said. “It’s an opportunity for you to try to go out there and try to execute the game plan. Obviously, the missed tackles that we had against the Saints, is definitely, individually something you have to criticize yourself about, go back out on the practice field and try to correct.”
Beasley had one of the key misses when backup Saints quarterback Taysom Hill eluded him on a zone-read play and got loose for a 35-yard gain.
“I feel like we are all good tacklers,” Beasley said. “We all just made a couple of mistakes. We know we are better than that. We’ll do better. We’ll do better.”
The defense will receive a boost with the return of defensive end Takk McKinley, who has two sacks on the season.
“No doubt, Takk brings great energy to the defense,” Beasley said. “We love having that energy on the defense and on the sidelines. That definitely makes a difference in the game.”
Subscribe to "The Bow Tie Chronicles" podcast with the AJC's D. Orlando Ledbetter on iTunes or on the new AJC sports podcasts page.
