Falcons defensive end/linebacker Jonathan Massaquoi’s got increased playing time against the Bears (58 percent of snaps) and had his best game of the season. He got more playing time the next week at Baltimore (76.5 percent) and was even better.
But Massaquoi’s playing time dipped in Week 8 against Detroit to 49.3 percent of the defensive snaps.
“Not by design, more by mistake if that’s the case,” Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said. “’Mass’ has done a good job so far. He’s been active. We’ve got a lot of things we are working on to get better. It’s unfortunate he got fewer (snaps). But he didn’t have like so few he didn’t play. He might have been 10 less than he expected.”
Massaquoi played 37 snaps against the Lions and had no sacks in 20 pass-rush attempts and no tackles. Pro Football Focus credited him with one quarterback hurry.
“It would have been nice to get him in the 40s, but that’s not a huge thing,” Nolan said. “We’d like to have a few more but that wasn’t the reason we lost the game.”
Massaquoi had injected some life into the Falcons’ anemic pass rush in his previous two games.
Massaquoi played 52 snaps against the Ravens and had three quarterback hits and two hurries in 19 pass-rush attempts, according to Pro Football Focus. Massaquoi played 44 snaps against the Bears and had a sack, two quarterback hits and three hurries in 19 rushes.
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