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The Falcons D didn't look too great last week. They gave up 258 yards passing to Matt Cassel, 152 total yards on the ground, and 24 points. They did however, pick off Cassel twice, and sacked him three times. They added former Broncos Defensive Coordinator Mike Nolan to coach up the defense. It will be interesting to see how this unit looks against Peyton Manning.
Now take a look at the starters for the Atlanta Falcons Defense...
DE: Ray Edwards, John Abraham
DT: Jonathan Babineaux, Peria Jerry
OLB's: Sean Weatherspoon, Stephen Nicholas
MLB: Akeem Dent
CB: Asante Samuel, Dunta Robinson
FS: Thomas DeCoud
SS: William Moore
- The Falcons will be without top corner Brent Grimes.
Defensive Line:
Falcons:
The Falcons have a decent D-Line. John Abraham is solid, but he's 34 years old. Ray Edwards, their prize free agent signing a year ago has been disappointing. In the middle, DT Jonathan Babineaux is again solid, but not great. This certainly won't be the best D-Line we go against this year, but don't under estimate them. I'm interested to see if they will be able to get a pass rush against us. The Broncos O-Line did well against the Steelers, so we will see.
Broncos:
RUSH. MATT. RYAN.
That's what the Broncos have to do if they want to win this game. Dumervil, Ayers, Wolfe and Von have to get after and pressure Ryan. The Broncos were after Big Ben all game, but Ben is the best in the league to avoid the rush. Matt Ryan is no Big Ben when it comes to that. He can scramble, but it's not going to strike fear into our D. Michael Turner shouldn't be an issue, at least i don't think. He's lost a step or two, and just isn't the same back. He can push the pile and be solid in short yardage though. But the key for the Broncos D-Line is to sack, pressure and hit Matt Ryan.
Linebackers:
Falcons:
The Falcons have a young unit at LB. Sean Weatherspoon, a favorite of MHR a few years back leads this unit. Stephen Nichols did lead the team in tackles last week with 12, while Weatherspoon had 7. Dent is a youngster they like, so we'll see how he does.
Overall i do not know this unit to well to give much insight in. It's a fairly young starting unit, outside of Nichols. Will be interesting to see how the Broncos pass and run offense fair against these guys.
Broncos:
Von Miller, continue what you're doing.
Now the rest have to tackle better. Woodyard did look good last week. He was all over the place making tackles and lead the team with 12 tackles and added a sack. Joe Mays played alright, but he needs to tackle better. Seems like a broken record with Mays. He can hit people hard, or just flat out whiff. Lets hope Mays gets that corrected. We need Woodyard to be all over the field and the ball, and Mays to tackle better on D if we want to have a good defense this year. Also Miller, Mays or Woodyard has to help out on Gonzo. We struggle against good tight ends, and Gonzo is a Bronco killer, so lets hope on of these guys steps up.
Secondary: