The Falcons offense will get the accolades. The unit seemingly scored at will in Thursday night’s 56-14 rout of the Buccaneers.
Don’t forget the defense.
The Falcons forced five turnovers, three sacks and didn’t allow a point until they had put up 56 of their own in the victory.
In the first half alone, the Falcons:
- Forced three turnovers, including Kemal Ishmael's 23-yard interception for a touchdown.
- Limited the Buccaneers to two first downs, the first coming with seven minutes remaining in the second quarter.
- Held the Buccaneers to 63 yards of offense, 36 of those yards coming on one pass reception.
- Oh, and they finally got a sack.The Falcons entered the game as the only team in the NFL yet to register a sack.
Jonathan Massaquoi broke the dreaded drought by dropping Josh McCown for an 8-yard loss with 5:49 left the second quarter. Corey Peters dropped Mike Glennon, who replaced McCown after a thumb injury, three minutes later for a 7-yard loss.
“We’ve been hearing a lot about it,” Peters said of the team’s lack of sacks. “(Defensive line) coach (Brian) Cox has been getting on us about pushing the pocket, rushing and kind of crushing the pocket around the quarterback. I think tonight was a good start. We still need to improve some.”
The Falcons much-maligned rush defense was even stout. It entered the game 26th in the league by allowing 154.4 yards per game. The Buccaneers had just eight yards on the ground in the first half.
Last season, Bobby Rainey ran all over the Falcons for 163 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught a touchdown pass. He would have no such success Thursday. Rainey was held to one yard on two carries, including a fumble, in the first half. For the game, the running back finished 33 yards on 10 carries and two lost fumbles.
Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan was not been happy with the run defense in the first two games. He questioned his team’s ability to shed blockers and make tackles.
“As you see, the good players don’t get blocked,” Nolan said this week. “They get off the block, in order to make a play.”
The Falcons piled it on late and the Buccaneers couldn’t get out of their own way. Stansly Maponga recovered a botched Buccaneers snap near the goal line early in the third quarter. One play and seven seconds later, Steven Jackson scored from 2 yards out to give the Falcons a 49-0 lead with 8:11 remaining in the period.
“Coming into the game, we knew they were going to try to run the ball,” Maponga said. “We made a point this week of stopping the run. By us stopping the run, it was going to give us more chances for third-down rushes (on the quarterback).”
Down 56 points, the Buccaneers finally scored with a more-than-meaningless touchdown with 8:46 remaining. The Buccaneers defense scored the other touchdown on an interception return later in the final period with T.J. Yates subbing for Matt Ryan at quarterback.
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