The Atlanta Falcons got a nice house-warming gift from the Green Bay Packers on Sunday for the grand opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Falcons defense highlighted the ribbon cutting ceremony by sacking Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers three times, forcing an interception and fumble out of the MVP and Super Bowl winning quarterback and keeping him under constant duress all night in their 34-23 victory.
Atlanta (2-0) received Green Bay’s (1-1) gift 90 minutes prior to kickoff when the Packers announced both of their starting tackles would not play in the Week 2 matchup. Left tackle David Bakhtiari was sidelined with a hamstring injury and right tackle Bryan Bulaga was out with an ankle injury.
Between Bakhtiari and Bulaga, the two have logged 138 combined starts for the Packers over the last seven seasons. The two gentlemen replacing them tonight had one career combined NFL start. Kyle Murphy got the nod at right tackle and Justin McCray, who is listed as the backup center and backup right guard, got the start at left tackle.
“It was a tough situation with their defense line and the noise,” Rodgers said after the game. “(Murphy and McCray) just haven’t been in those spots before for us.”
Tough situation was an understatement. Murphy and McCray faced a heavy dose of defensive ends Brooks Reed, Adrian Clayborn (one sack) and Takk McKinley and linebackers Vic Beasley, Deion Jones and De’Vondre Campbell (one sack) all night long.
“We knew they were a high effort team, discipline within their scheme, play hard. That is exactly what they did. They came out and didn’t really give us a whole lot of room for error,” Murphy said.
Rodgers said his internal clock was moving a bit quicker on Sunday night to account for Atlanta’s pressure. Head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel decided to rush four players and use one linebacker to spy Rodgers most the time because of his ability to escape the pocket.
Despite not bringing more bodies, the defensive ends were able to get around the inexperienced tackles, forcing Rodgers to step up in the pocket. At the same time, Dontari Poe and Grady Jarrett pushed the center and guards backwards. With nowhere to run and the pocket collapsing, Rodgers was forced to throw into tight windows nor could he step into his throws.
“We have plenty of guys that can rush the passer,” Reed said. “That’s the way we want to be, just relentless. We have a set of fresh legs in there and we had the depth to do that.”
Beasley, who had the play of the game, made McCray look like the rookie he is in the third quarter.
Less than a minute into the second half, McCray attempted to cut block Beasley, but the third-year player brushed him aside and laid a monstrous hit on Rodgers, which forced the Packers quarterback to throw a backwards pass. The fumble was picked by cornerback Desmond Trufant and returned for a 15-yard touchdown. Trufant also had the interception on Rodgers that set up Atlanta’s touchdown right before the end of the first half.
“Marquand is a great coach and so is Dan and they got great players who have gotten older and play really well together over there,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers and the Packers did eventually begin to find a rhythm in the fourth quarter. Green Bay went on two lengthy scoring drives to cut the lead from 34-10 to 34-23. During those drives, the Green Bay passing game employed several quick throws in the forms of bubble screens and wide receiver slants. Rodgers also made many of his throws outside of the pocket to alleviate the pressure his tackles were facing.
Rodgers finished 33-of-50 for 345 yards two touchdowns and one interception. Both touchdowns and 149 of those yards came in the fourth quarter.
If these two teams do happen to see each other again in the playoffs the Falcons will need to find a similar strategy for pressuring Rodgers, but probably won’t have the luxury of facing two backup tackles -- one of which isn’t even a tackle by trade.
