Tampa Bay coach and former Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter thinks that both the Falcons and the Buccaneers are run-first football teams.
With Falcons’ running back Devonta Freeman and Buccaneers’ running back Doug Martin leading the way, each NFC South team relied on their respective run games throughout the season.
"I don't think there is much secret that both teams want to try to run the ball and then play-action off of their run game," Koetter said. "Of course, in Doug we have a guy who had a tremendous season last year. He's powerful. He's a good inside runner. He's explosive. He can take a play that's not blocked exactly right and turn it into a good if not spectacular gain. He can make people miss. He can run through tackles. He can carry it 25 times and we also have a really good change-of-pace back in Charles Sims. Fans of good runners are in for a treat on Sunday because both teams have them."
With Martin and Sims, the Buccaneers finished near the top of the NFL in total years rushed, averaging 135.1 rushing yards per game last season.
The Falcons averaged 100.7 rushing yards per game, which should only improve in 2016 with more experience gained by Freeman and improvement of the Falcons’ offensive line.
While the Falcons are committed to the run game with Freeman, coach Dan Quinn admitted that, for the Falcons, not every game is as heavily committed to the run as others.
“Certain games we’ll ask for more than others in terms of the run, when the keepers come in, when does play action come in,” Quinn said said. “I want to make sure that’s a big part of our game, but the hardest ones to go against are the teams who can run it and have the ability to do all the play action that goes with it. When you’re so much one way or another, defenses can generally play well, but when you have the ability to do both (run and play action), that’s what makes it really challenging.”
Last season, Martin averaged 4.9 yards per carry, totalling 1,402 yards and six touchdowns. Freeman averaged 3.8 yards per carry totalling 1,056 yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.
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