Give this defense all the credit in the world.
We have spent weeks justifiably beating up on this defense for their failings, which culminated in an embarrassing loss to the Denver Broncos right before the bye. The Atlanta Falcons brass told us they would be addressing that, and we hoped for some modest improvement coming out of the layoff.
It came in a losing effort, but I can’t stress enough how impressive this effort against the Los Angeles Chargers was. This was not just the small lift we crossed our fingers for, but this defense stepping up to levels we hadn’t seen all year. They were wire-to-wire good, with the fact that J.K. Dobbins was out and Ladd McConkey ate serving as the only caveats to the day.
Consider this:
- The defense allowed just 11 points to the Chargers offense (three field goals and a two point conversion); the last time Los Angeles scored under 23 points was Week 7 against the Cardinals.
- They had five sacks on the day working against Justin Herbert, a terrific quarterback, and limited him to 147 yards passing. That was the second-lowest total of the season, with the lowest coming back in Week 1 against the still-feeling-it-out Arthur Smith and Justin Fields-led Steelers, not a passer who had been surging coming into the week. The Falcons literally picked up half of their 2024 sack total coming into this one in a single game.
- They limited the Chargers, who had an uninspiring but solid duo in Kimani Vidal and Gus Edwards who might have gashed them earlier in the year, to 56 yards on the ground. A full half of those yards came on two carries; the other 15 carries the Chargers were credited went for just 28 yards.
- This defense had not allowed under 300 yards to an offense since Week 1, again versus the Steelers; this was actual a season low for them.
The criticism of Jimmy Lake, Raheem Morris, and this defense writ large was both vicious and fair heading into this week. The work they clearly put in over the course of the bye week, whether it was things clicking into place while players got healthy or a more elaborate series of tweaks that a re-watch might help reveal, deserves an enormous amount of credit. The Falcons should have won this game running away with that sort of defensive effort; it speaks volumes how awful the offense was that they lost.
Still, give this defense and the coaching staff their flowers for coaxing massive improvement out of this defense. If we can expect anything remotely within the same stadium as the effort we just saw, the Falcons should have a fighting chance down the stretch…assuming the offense doesn’t torpedo those hopes.