Super Bowl 51: How Atlanta Falcons Can Defend New England Patriots

Here’s how the Atlanta Falcons can defend Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ explosive offense in Super Bowl 51.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots offense has been a dominant force for over a decade. Brady has been the constant, but his running backs and wide receivers have faced quite the turnover. Regardless of who’s playing with him, however, it seems like Brady is nearly unbeatable.

Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels does a terrific job of switching up his gameplans from week to week. One week, the Patriots may pass the ball 40 times. The next week, they may run the ball forty times. Gameplans even change from possession to possession within a game.

A prime example of this came in the team’s Divisional Round victory against the Houston Texans. On the first possession, the Patriots ran a quick, up-tempo offense. Whenever they got the ball next, though, they huddled-up before nearly every snap. Trying to plan for this offense can be a nightmare for defenses, and coaches and players must be able to adapt on the fly.

The Patriots offense thrives on short, quick passes. This allows the offensive line to have to only protect Brady for a handful of seconds. In general, most NFL defenses often are willing to give up these short passes, as with this, offenses have to oftentimes run eight or more plays per possession to score. The more plays run, the more chances the defense has to make impact plays such as sacks or takeaways. However, the biggest key is that the Patriots don’t commit these mistakes often. They were tied (with Atlanta) for fewest turnovers (11) , and fifth in fewest sacks allowed this season (24).

With these short passes come yards after the catch, and this is the first step to slowing New England’s offense down. The Patriots rank second in generating yards after the catch (the Falcons are actually first), with Julian Edelman ranking among the league’s best. In the simplest terms, if the Falcons defense can’t limit the YAC, they probably don’t win. The Falcons are a sound tackling team, and their cornerbacks, linebackers, and safeties must tackle and prevent these 5-yard routes from turning into 10- or 15-yard gains.

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The second thing Atlanta must have success with is their disguises. If Brady sees what coverage a team is in before the snap, he will chew them apart. The Falcons don’t show a ton of exotic schemes on defense, but they do blitz occasionally. In the NFC Championship Game, the Falcons did a great job of not tipping their hand before the snap. As a result, the team was able to get some hits on Aaron Rodgers, including a well-timed corner blitz from slot corner Brian Poole.

Atlanta plays a lot of zone, and leans on the Cover-3 often. The Patriots have been brilliant against zone defenses this season, including in the AFC Championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the short crossing routes that the Patriots run, it puts pressure on defenders to “pass” their man from one zone to the next. The Falcons have had trouble with this concept on some occasions this season, and obviously must be able to correct this. The inexperience in the linebacker corps has been one reason for the slip ups, but Deion Jones and De’Vondre Campbell have improved as of late.

When the Falcons do play man coverage, it’s vital that they run hip-to-hip with backs and receivers. If the littlest of separation is gained by a Patriots receiver, Brady will pounce. New England runs stacked combinations and “legal” pick plays to gain separation. Subsequently, the Falcons must use their speed on defense to close these gaps and throwing lanes.

Furthermore, as the Denver Broncos showed in last season’s AFC Championship game, if Brady is under constant pressure, he does appear human. Now, generating pressure is hard to do against New England because of the aforementioned quick passes and the wonderful job offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia has done this season. Generating pressure with just the front four is hard for most teams to do, and if teams blitz, Brady will oftentimes hit the “hot” receiver and make the defense pay.

This is where NFL regular season sack leader Vic Beasley must come up big. While his individual matchup against Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon isn’t the greatest, Beasley has the speed to get around the edge quickly. As noted, Brady gets the ball out of his hands quick. However, it wasn’t quick enough against Von Miller and the Broncos last season, and the Falcons must hope that Beasley can have the same impact.

In all, whenever a defense goes up against the Patriots, mental mistakes must be eliminated. Defenders cannot jump offsides on the hard count, commit silly pass interference penalties down the field, and on top of this, must be disciplined. That means staying in assigned gaps against the run, being alert in zone, and just knowing assignments. Teams simply cannot give the Patriots anything easy; everything must be earned.

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The challenge the Falcons defense face this week is the hardest one of the season. However, they did have success against Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game, and that alone should give the team all the confidence they need. Head coach Dan Quinn will have his team ready to play, and like the Patriots, will probably throw some wrinkles in the gameplan. It won’t be easy, but the Falcons have slowed down elite offenses before and they can do it again.