Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant basically grew up with the Seattle Seahawks.
As a 12-year-old, Trufant, a native of Tacoma, Wash., used to attend practices with his older brother Marcus Trufant, a former Seattle Seahawk.
The two-time Pro Bowl cornerback is set for a return visit wth the Falcons (5-4) face the Seahawks (6-3) at 8:30 p.m. Monday at CenturyLink Field.
“I remember going in the locker and everybody coming to the house,” Trufant said. “They use to play me in Madden and NBA 2k.”
Trufant said he was a expert gamer.
“I was playing 20 of 24 hours back then,” said Trufant, indicating that he was thrashing the pros players on video games.
Trufant and the Falcons left Friday for Seattle. The team is set to practice at a local high school Saturday and hold team meetings.
“It’s definitely cool to go back and play in front my people that watch me play growing up,” said Trufant, who played at the University of Washington, which is in Seattle. “It’s a cool moment. I’m excited, but I’m trying to treat it just like any other game and any other week.”
While the Falcons play mostly zone coverage and Seattle’s top receiver Doug Baldwin works a lot of the slot, the two will be matched on some plays.
Baldwin, who played at Stanford, leads the Seahawks in receiving with 54 catches for 633 yards and three touchdowns.
“The two know each other well over the years from their Pac-12 days of playing against one another,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “Both of them are excellent competitors.”
Baldwin’s ability to change directions quickly makes the 5-foot-10, 192-pound receiver dangerous.
“Trufant can really match up to that scenario,” Quinn said. “One of those games within the game, for sure.”
Seattle wide receiver Paul Richardson has 28 catches for 458 yards and five touchdowns. They also have Tyler Lockett, who has 29 catches for 371 yards.
“We know they’ve got talent,” Trufant said. “They’ve got talent everywhere at all positions. They got speed. They play with confidence. They feed off the crowd and each other and stuff like that. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.”
In addition to the receivers, the Falcons must defend Seattle tight end Jimmy Graham, who leads the team with six touchdowns. Linebacker DeVondre Campbell and safety Keanu Neal will see time on Graham.
“He’s a key target and big threat,” Trufant said. “He’s a big body to get around to try to make plays on. They feed him a lot. We definitely have to be aware of him. They have a lot of guys that we have to be aware of.”
The Falcons are preparing for Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson to try to extend plays while scrambling.
“It definitely makes it more difficult to cover because he can extend so much time and he’s still going to make an accurate throw after all of that,” Trufant said. “We have a plan. We are going to follow it and we are going execute.”
Right cornerback Robert Alford has the plan, too.
It’s the Velcro plan?
“Plastering is the word that coach uses,” Alford said. “That’s something that we’ve got to do. What we keep seeing from Russell Wilson is that he is keeping plays alive and (receivers) are just getting open for him. We have stick on the guy that we are on until the play is over.
“There is always going to be two plays in one. When he starts scrambling that’s when the second play starts.”
Alford will spend some time on Baldwin, but is ready for Richardson and Lockett, too.
“They have a good group over there,” Alford said. “We got to play them twice last year. Pretty much we have to watch the film from last year when we played them and then watch the film from this season. We just have to break them down, piece by piece. They are all different receivers. They are valuable to the offense and to Russell.”
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