While the Falcons' defense is off to its hottest start in years their coordinator believes there's more to achieve.
Tori McElhaney
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. Five weeks into the season, the Atlanta Falcons have the top defense in the league. They rank No. 1 in total yards allowed per game (244), passing yards allowed per game (135) and first downs allowed per game (15). They've only given up eight touchdowns. They're getting off the field, too: With a third-down stop rate of 34.1%, which ranked sixth-best in the league.
The Falcons defense also leads the NFL in limiting explosive plays. According to TruMedia, Atlanta has allowed just 32 plays of 10-or-more yards this season, compared to the NFL average of 58.
What's more, through four games played this defense has recorded 10 sacks. That is the most sacks a Falcons team has totaled through its first four games since 2017.
Those accomplishments have resulted in the Falconsranking first in defensive DVOA, a metric that "measures a team's efficiency by comparing success on every single play to a league average based on situation and opponent," according to creator Aaron Schatz.
Xavier Watts is the reigning rookie of the month. Ruke Orhorhoro ranks third among all defensive tackles in quarterback pressure rate. James Pearce Jr. leads all rookies is splash play percentage. A.J. Terrell is expected to return from a hamstring injury against the Bills on Monday night.
By all measures, things are good. Great, even.
You'd never know any of this, though, when talking to defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich a diligent self-scouter.
"I'm very aware of statistics, more to shine a light on things that we might not be doing as well, and there's a lot of areas we need to improve still. We've got a long way to go as a team."
Fortunately, the defensive coordinator added, the Falcons have the group that's ready to grow.
"There are some groups that you shine a light on some of the flaws or some of the deficiencies or some of the things we're struggling with, and there's a level of sensitivity," Ulbrich explained. "Whereas this group is not that group. They want to know where they're struggling. They want to know where they can get better. They want to be challenged and held to a standard. It makes it really fun to come to work every day working with these guys because they want to be coached, they want to be developed, they want to be the best of the league."
There are three specific areas in which Ulbrich wants to see improvement: Run defense, turnovers and pressure rate.
The third was the most curious.As Will McFadden pointed out in his mailbag Thursday, the Falcons have the highest blitz rate in the league, rushing more than five at a rate of 47%. That's good, right? They're providing pressure off of that blitz rate. A win, yes? Not exactly.
"I don't want to be a big pressure team," Ulbrich said. "I don't."
Wait huh?
"I want us to rely on our front four to win and do their thing and play coverage behind it," he continued. "But right now, we're just not quite there yet."
Ahh gotcha.
For Ulbrich, an impactful defense is one that doesn't have to rely on elaborate blitz concepts to move a quarterback off his spot. Looking at his last year as the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets, Ulbrich's unit had the league's lowest blitz rate at 17.4%, and yet, they were one of the most successful pressure units in the game.
"I'd really like to get to that," he said. "When you get guys that can win one on ones, the athletic quarterbacks, the mobile quarterbacks, they become less of an issue.
"... When you can get really creative on your back end, you don't have to sacrifice the back end and the coverage and some of those principles because you've got to bring that fifth element. It can make it really hard on offenses, and that's where eventually I'd like to get to with this group."
So, while the Falcons defense is off to its hottest start in years led by young players poised to anchor this unit for years to come their coordinator isn't just hopeful, but hungry, that there is so much still left for this group to achieve together.
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