The Falcons’ defense is hoping to have a sack-breakthrough against the Rams and quarterback Jared Goff when the teams meet at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The unit is looking forward to getting after Goff, a traditional drop-back quarterback, after unsuccessfully chasing around mobile quarterbacks the past three games. Goff has been sacked 12 times this season, which ranks tied for 12th fewest sacks in the NFL. Tennessee leads the league with 29 sacks allowed, but the Falcons couldn’t get to Marcus Mariota.
The Falcons’ defense has not had a sack since the 9:50 mark of the third quarter of the Colts’ game.
Defensive ends Vic Beasley and Takk McKinley sacked Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett on second-and-13 from the Colts’ 22.
In subsequent games, the Falcons recorded no sacks against Mariota, Houston’s Deshaun Watson and Arizona’s Kyler Murray.
Overall, it’s been 242 defensive snaps since the Falcons had a sack.
The Colts ran 21 more plays after the Beasley-McKinley sack. There were 69 defensive snaps in the Arizona game, 73 against Houston and 79 against Tennessee.
“For instance, in our pass rush, we had a meeting about not being on the same level, or one guy too high and allows the quarterback just to hitch up enough to throw,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said.
The Falcons tried to fabricate a pass rush by blitzing against the Cardinals.
“I ended up calling 17 of them in the game, so on them, maybe 13 or 14 out of that on that number,” Quinn said. “Not everyone was a pass, but the ones that were, I thought the guys did a good job of covering and playing it. It’s definitely part of it. If you don’t affect the quarterback, the game is really hard.”
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