Circumstances have forced Falcons safety Kemal Ishmael to make the rapid climb from seventh-round pick to special-teams player to starter.
His growing pains were on full display as the Falcons (2-6) staggered to five consecutive losses.
“He’s done some good things,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “Unfortunately, when a safety makes a mistake, it’s kind of like when the punter or the kicker or the quarterback or the coach makes it: Everybody knows it.”
And so the spotlight shined harshly on Ishmael when he was in coverage for deep pass plays by the Bears and Lions. Both came at critical points of those Falcons losses.
Ishmael certainly isn’t the only Falcons defender to make a back-breaking mistake but, as Smith said, his have been noticeable. The key for Ishmael is to learn from his errors.
He has room to grow as a 23-year old prospect who played only three defensive snaps as a rookie in 2013, but already has 408 snaps this season. Ishmael was forced into the starting lineup for Week 5 when William Moore suffered a shoulder injury that will keep him out a minimum of three more games.
“It’s all about experience,” Ishmael said. “Once I get everything down and correct my mistakes and keep working hard in practice, I will come around.”
Ishmael’s first turn in the limelight was a positive one. He returned an interception 23 yards for a touchdown in the Falcons’ 56-14 loss to the Buccaneers.
But Ishmael got his first taste of real adversity against the Bears, when he made his second start.
Ishmael was in deep coverage on Alshon Jeffery’s 74-yard catch that led to a touchdown that broke a 13-13 tie and put the Bears ahead for good. Two weeks later he was in coverage when Golden Tate’s 59-yard score fueled Detroit’s rally from a 21-0 deficit.
Ishmael was trailing the receivers on both plays, but Falcons coaches caution that he wasn’t the only one at fault. For one, an ineffectual pass rush on both plays allowed the quarterback to scramble out of the pocket and make a deep pass without pressure.
When the quarterback leaves the pocket and the Falcons are playing zone coverage, the defensive backs are supposed to start “plastering.”
“When you have a zone defense and the integrity of the play breaks down and the quarterback starts to scramble, you match the guy in your zone and it turns from a zone defense into a man defense,” Smith said.
It’s essentially changing the coverage on the fly. The defensive backs have a few seconds to recognize that the quarterback is out of the pocket, find all receivers and cover them.
“When the quarterback gets out of the pocket, you plaster and you just lock on to him,” Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant said. “It’s hard. It’s hard in the secondary because (receivers) can go anywhere. They are running all over the place. But I know the offense teaches the receivers (for) one man to go deep and one man go to the quarterback.”
Ishmael is still learning such nuances in coverage. Less obvious than Ishmael’s mistakes in coverage is the solid work he’s done in run support, where he’s proved to be a sure tackler and physical hitter.
Officially Ishmael has 48 tackles, second-most on the team. Pro Football Focus credits him with nine stops (solo tackles that lead to offensive failure), second to Dwight Lowery’s 10 among Falcons defensive backs.
“I think his skill set is best suited to being close to the line,” Smith said. “He’s done some really good things in terms of playing the run and being part of our run defense. I think we will go through a learning curve the farther he gets from the line of scrimmage.”
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