NFL 2018: Every team’s biggest bust this season
By Randy Gurzi
Atlanta Falcons: The defense as a whole
With Dan Quinn as the Atlanta Falcons, this team has been steadily improving each season on the defensive side of the ball. That had a lot to do with them making the Super Bowl following the 2016 season. It also had a lot to do with them becoming the only team in 2017 to make the NFC playoffs for the second season in a row in that span.
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Thanks to the Falcons having such an explosive offense, they never needed to be a dominant defense. Instead, they just needed to be able to make stops in key situations and keep teams scoring less than their own offense.
That formula was working until this year. The Falcons defense has become one that’s easy to move the ball on, which has a lot to do with them being on the bottom of the standings in the NFC South.
Not all was their fault as injuries played a part. Safety Keanu Neal and linebacker Deion Jones both were injured early in the season, which took two key players out of the mix for them.
Still, the rest of the defense was unable to rise up (pun intended) and get the job done. They may need to do a lot of work this offseason to make up for the ways this side of the ball let them down.