The Falcons’ revamped defense, which has given up five touchdowns in each of the past three games and leads the NFL in points allowed, will attempt to slow the Buccaneers in a big NFC South game at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Falcons (1-4) and Bucs (2-2) are struggling mightily on defense, in part because of varying degrees of injuries. The Falcons have not been meeting their standard of "defending every blade of grass" while trying to replace Pro Bowl defenders Keanu Neal (four games) and Deion Jones (four games) along with free safety Ricardo Allen (two games) and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett (one game).
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The Bucs rank 32nd in the NFL scoring defense at 34.8 points per game, and the Falcons are 31st at 32.6 points per game, but have yielded a league-high 163 points.
The Falcons haven’t seen a stretch this bad on defense since 1987, which has to be troubling to coach Dan Quinn, a former defensive coordinator.
The Falcons have given up at least 37 points in three consecutive games. Before giving up 43 to the Saints, 37 to the Bengals and 41 to the Steelers, the Falcons hadn’t done that since 1987. In games 6, 7 and 8 of the 1987 season, they gave up 37, 38 and 38 to the Oilers, Saints and Browns. In the first of those games, the Falcons were using replacement players because NFL players were on strike.
Under Quinn, the 38-0 flogging in Carolina in 2015 was the only time the Falcons had given up that many points in a game.
The Falcons, who’ve had double-digit missed tackles in two of their losses, spent time in pads and extra time working on tackling.
The Falcons believe gang-tackling will help the plight.
"We have to consistently get there," defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel said. "I'm not waiting on someone else to make the tackle. I'm going to make it. The more people you can have around (the ball), two things comes alive; the football and the opportunity to win on that down. (When you gang tackle) you intimidate the other team."
The Bucs have not received much from first-round pick defensive tackle Vita Vea, who was the 12th pick in the draft. He suffered a calf injury during the first padded practice of training camp in late July. He was inactive for three games before playing 33 of 60 defensive snaps (54 percent) against Chicago.
"You take any young player, especially and you miss seven weeks of time, it's going to take you a little bit of time to get back," Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said. "Vita is definitely working at it. I think as the season goes along here, he'll get more and more involved."
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