When the Falcons played for the NFC title four years ago, their starting linebackers were Sean Weatherspoon, Akeem Dent and Stephen Nicholas. They weren’t untalented men. They’d been picked in Rounds 1, 3 and 4 of their respective drafts — roughly the same as Vic Beasley Jr. (1), Deion Jones (2) and De’Vondre Campbell (4), the starting linebackers for this conference championship. But there’s a difference.
The current linebackers are faster. That’s not to say the previous crew was ponderous, but Beasley, Jones and Campbell can flat-out motor. That’s not a function of happenstance.
If you can't play fast, you're not "a DQ guy," to invoke the label coined by the Falcons scouts. And Dan Quinn, the coach with final say over his roster, doesn't just want DQ guys playing linebacker. He wants them everywhere.
Quinn was asked this week about the need for … well, you know. “It has been in the front of our thinking,” he said. “And when you have that speed on your team, it takes another level: You have to have the communication part. It’s one thing to be fast; it’s another thing to play fast.”
For the record, this isn't a shutdown defense. It's not even an average one. The Falcons ranked 25th among 32 NFL teams in yards against, 27th in points yielded. According to NFL Research, they've surrendered touchdowns eight times in 17 games on the opponent's first drive, which ties them with wretched Cleveland for last place in that motley stat. Sure enough, the postseason began with Seattle moving 89 yards in 8 1/2 minutes to take a 7-0 lead.
But — and this is a sizable "but" — the Seahawks managed only one more touchdown, that with 3:21 remaining. The same had happened Nov. 28 when the Cardinals came here: The first drive spawned a touchdown; the next touchdown came with 4:44 left and the game long gone. If we credit Albert Wilson's 44-yard run off a fake punt to special teams, Kansas City did something similar Dec. 5: touchdown on the opening series, one offensive TD thereafter. On Nov. 14, the Eagles did it, too — touchdown on Drive No. 1, no more until Drive No. 8.
Quinn again: “You need that time, you need that experience to play fast. We are playing faster now. You’ve heard me say we’re a better version of ourselves than we were when we played Green Bay earlier. Our speed hasn’t changed as players. Our speed has changed as a defense.”
On a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel podcast, the esteemed NFL watcher Bob McGinn said the scouts with whom he'd spoken ahead of Falcons-Packers II called Beasley this unit's best defender, then Jones, then strong safety Keanu Neal. Beasley is in his second NFL season; Jones and Neal are in their first. (As is Campbell, about whom McGinn raved at length.) Without the superb cornerback Desmond Trufant, lost to injury in November, the young Falcons aren't apt to stonewall anybody. But they're fast enough to make plays.
Jones has four interceptions, counting one against Seattle last week, and a forced fumble. Campbell has one interception and a forced fumble. Beasley led the NFL in sacks with 15 1/2 and tied for the lead in forced fumbles with six. Neal, imported by Quinn to be the Falcons’ Kam Chancellor, induced five fumbles.
Neal's drafting set off an outcry among draft savants and Falcons fans — "They could've gotten him two rounds later!" — but there can be no second-guessing now. If any acquisition is the epitome of "a DQ guy," it's Neal, who laughed this week when asked if he considered himself a prototype. "I'm here to play hard and hit hard," he said, which is the precisely the point.
Given that the Falcons' offense has played at a historic level, the defense doesn't have to hold teams to 10 points, though it's worth noting they've held the opponent under 20 four times in the past seven games. They probably won't hold Aaron Rodgers under 30, but Green Bay scored 32 points when these teams met Oct. 30 and lost. And even that game saw the Packers score 24 points in the first half, eight thereafter.
The point being: This defense is better than it was in September. It still misses too many tackles, but its runs fast and, when it isn’t missing, hits hard. The offense has always moved at warp speed — speedy backs and speedier receivers in motion every which way, the line firing off the ball. Said center Alex Mack, never to be confused with Carl Lewis: “From Day 1 we were trying to go as fast as we could.”
No football coach ever wants a slow, weak team. Mike Smith used to lead his Falcons from drill to drill shouting, “On the hop!”, and he wasn’t herding rabbits. (He did, however, once have a farm that grew Christmas trees.) But the DQ effect, which is essentially the Seattle effect transplanted, is palpable. There has never been a Falcons team so swift, and seldom one so good.
About the Author
