New York Giants Week 16: A Look at the Atlanta Falcons Defense

How will the New York Giants look to attack the Atlanta Falcons defense?

Brandon Olsen | 9 Hours Ago

Nov 10, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (10) scores a touchdown against Atlanta Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell (24) during the first half at Caesars Superdome. / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

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New York Giants

The New York Giants will once again start Drew Lock as they take on an Atlanta Falcons defense that seems to finally be figuring things out.

Personnel

The Falcons defense, led by both Raheem Morris and Jimmy Lake, has five players that they run through with limited rotation.

Their secondary features a heavy dose of AJ Terrell and Mike Hughes as their outside cornerbacks with Jessie Bates III and Justin Cimmons as their safeties.

This is one of the rare defenses now that operates through their secondary more than their pass-rush and for good reason, all of those players are well above average.

The versatility of Simmons and Bates III is what allows this defense to be as creative as they are coverage-wise, which we’ll talk about in the next section.

The other player that played every single snap for the Falcons last week against the Raiders was linebacker Kaden Elliss.

Elliss went from depth piece and special teamer with the Saints to genuinely good starter for the Falcons this past week and has been playing good ball as of late specifically - his versatility as a pass-rusher as well helps the defense maintain their identity.

When the Falcons blitz, also something we’ll talk about next section, Elliss is usually the man they choose to send on the rush. They have no issue lining him up off-ball or on the edge and either rushing or dropping him from any alignment.

Elliss has the most pressures on the team this season with 34, Arnold Ebiketie has 32 so far for a team that really struggled to rush the passer for the first half of the season.

On the defensive line, Grady Jarrett is no longer looked at as “the next big thing” like he once was but he’s still a productive pass-rusher on the interior with 28 pressures, placing him right behind Elliss and Ebiketie.

The other significant contributors on the line are Matthew Judon, David Onyemata, and Eddie Goldman, although Goldman is mostly someone the Falcons use when they expect rushing plays to be a legitimate possibility.

Scheme

The Falcons defense, similar to the Giants, are comfortable giving opposing offenses light boxes, essentially putting less defenders in the box than the offense has players in the box.

The reasoning for this is that it allows defenses to prioritize pass defense, acknowledging that teams throw the ball more than they run now and essentially daring the offense to take the less effective play and run the ball.

The Falcons use a versatile coverage scheme that features Cover 3, Cover 4, Cover 6, and Cover 1 mostly, giving them consistent looks with single-high and two-high safeties.

Cover 6 is a hybrid coverage that’s been gaining popularity in recent years. It’s Cover 4 played to the strong side of the offense and Cover 2 played to the weak side, giving the defense players overtop to limit the deep ball while also allowing defenses to run it from single-high or two-high shells.

The Falcons are middle of the pack in terms of blitz-rate and that’s been because they adjust it based on who they face and the game script.

Against the Raiders last week while leading, they barely blitzed. A month ago against the Saints they blitzed on almost 50% of their passing downs.

Overview

I would expect the Falcons not to dial up too many blitzes this week as they seem content on playing coverage against teams with unimpressive offensive lines.

With Drew Lock named the starter this week, the hope is he will be able to navigate against a below-average pass-rush and won’t fall victim to disguised coverages.

The Giants run game should be able to gain ground this week but I don’t think it will be enough to secure a win, Lock needs to perform better than we’ve seen this year to walk away victorious.