Atlanta Falcons Defense: Week 13 Grades Vs Baltimore
The Atlanta Falcons are almost mathematically eliminated from playoff contention following an embarrassing 26-16 loss, at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Let’s look at what defensive Dirty Birds flew high and those that were grounded, in the crushing defeat.
There were positives and negatives to the play of the Atlanta Falcons defense against the Baltimore Ravens. On the positive side, the Dirty Birds defense allowed only 19 points. They gave up only 159 yards through the air, and only allowed the Ravens to covert 46.6 percent on third down.
On the negative side, the Falcons allowed the Ravens to grind out 207 yards on the ground. This helped Baltimore dominate the time of possession 39:39 to 20:21. Atlanta also allowed Baltimore to convert both fourth down attempts in the game, and to rack up a total of 21 first downs.
Here are the defenders who played well, and who struggled in the Baltimore beat down of Atlanta.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Grady Jarrett – Defensive Tackle
Grady Jarrett had a whale of a game, making seven tackles, an unusually high number for an interior lineman. That placed him as the Atlanta Falcons third leading tackler for the game. Two of the three tackles Jarrett made, resulted in a loss of yardage for the Ravens.
On a day that the Atlanta Falcons struggled to stop the run, Grady Jarrett received a respectable 76.0 run defense grade from Pro Football Focus. That ranked second on the Dirty Birds. The one drawback, is he did have a missed tackle.
Grady Jarrett was very disruptive as a pass rusher. He had four total pressures in week 13, including three quarterback hurries and a sack.
What’s even better is he forced Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson to fumble on the sack. This lead to defensive end Vic Beasley recovering the fumble and returning it 74 yards for a touchdown. It was the Atlanta Falcons first fumble recovery of the season, making them the last team in the NFL to recover a fumble this year.
The pressure that Grady Jarrett put on Baltimore earned him a strong PFF pass rush grade of 90.2. The numbers and impact he had for the Falcons defense, makes Grady Jarrett our Defensive Player of the Week.