The Falcons elected to beef up the interior of their defensive line this offseason.
The rationale behind the move was that a stouter interior line would then lead to better rushes off the edge by their defensive ends. But in the season opener, a thrilling 37-34 victory over the New Orleans Saints in overtime, the defensive front was shut out in the sack department.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said Monday when asked about the team’s pass rush. “I thought there were times where we moved the quarterback and it was maybe one (defender) getting a win.”
He’d like to see more than one player coming free after defeating a block on his way to the quarterback.
“We’ve got to have much more production from our guys up front in terms of affecting the game,” Smith said. “We did not have the type of production that we (wanted.) We made plays throughout the course of the game, but the consistency was not where we need it to be.”
Defensive tackles Paul Soliai and Tyson Jackson were acquired during free agency. They attacked the Saints and were generally disruptive.
The Falcons edge rushers couldn’t shake free. Jonathan Babineaux did record a sack in the third quarter, but it was nullified by a penalty when cornerback Robert McClain was called for illegal use of hands.
Babineaux was the only member of the defensive line with a positive grade for pass rushing by film-review/analytics website profootballfocus.com.
The Falcons also featured Osi Umenyiora in a designated pass-rushing role. He was only able to manage one hurry in 27 pass rushing snaps, according to profootballfocus.com.
“It’s not just pass rush, we’ve got to affect the quarterback,” Smith said. “Move the quarterback. We’ve got to make sure that we stay with the receivers and have tight coverage.”
It was an uphill battle for the Falcons’ pass rushers because Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who passed for 333 yards and one touchdowns, was releasing the ball on an average of 2.85 seconds.
“That is a factor,” Smith said of Brees’ release time. “But we’ve got to be able to have some production up front with our defensive front. At the end of the day, we didn’t have a sack. We did move him off his spot.”
With no meaningful pressure, Brees and the Saints were able to convert on 8 of 13 (62 percent) third-down situations. The Cincinnati Bengals, the Falcons’ next opponent, converted just 4 of 14 (29 percent) third down situations in their 23-16 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
“It is a big concern,” Smith said. “We had four penalties on defense. Three of the four penalties on defense were on third down. We’ve got to be more efficient on third down.
“We gave up, third-and-8, which is in the defense’s advantage. We had a sack taken away on third down because of a (penalty). We have got to be better in a lot of areas, especially on third downs.”
One of the positives for Smith was that some of the young players received some action against the Saints.
He pointed out defensive that tackle Ra’Shede Hageman (15 snaps), safety Kemal Ishmael (14 snaps) and linebacker Prince Shembo (10 snaps) all received some action.
Despite the pass rush being sub-par, Smith noted that the turnovers made up for some of the unit’s shortcomings. McClain had a big interception in the end zone in the third quarter when Brees was trying to connect with Brandin Cooks.
Safety William Moore stripped Saints wide receiver Marques Colston in overtime to get the Falcons the ball in field goal range.
“One of the things that we really worked on over the offseason was attacking the football and creating turnovers,” Smith said. “The New Orleans Saints were 36-1 under Sean Payton in the last four seasons that he was the head coach when they did not lose the turnover battle. We won the turnover battle.”
