New England Patriots vs Atlanta Falcons: 5 Matchups to Watch in Super Bowl 51
By Hal Bent
Marcus Cannon and Nate Solder vs Dwight Freeney and Vic Beasley
The big question for the Atlanta Falcons’ defense is how they choose to attack quarterback Tom Brady. Brady, at age 39, appears more mobile than ever and has continued his unparalleled success. There still seems to be one tried and true method to slow the New England passing offense.
In 2007 and 2011 the New York Giants provided the groundwork on how to slow the Patriots: pressure with three or four pass rushers and flood the secondary with tight man coverage and additional defenders dropped to disrupt passing lanes. Of course, other than Baltimore in 2012 and 2013 and Denver last year (with Jason Wolfe and Von Miller playing out of their minds), few teams have the strong coverage secondary and ferocious interior pass rush to carry out the plan.
Atlanta is already missing their top interior pass rusher with defensive tackle/end Adrian Clayborn having injured his biceps and out for the playoffs. Amazingly, without Clayborn (and cornerback Desmond Trufant) healthy, the Falcons’ defense has 15.5 sacks from edge rusher Vic Beasley and 11.5 sacks from the rest of the defense.
Beasley is a talented edge-rusher but he is not often used as a mobile piece in the defense. In fact, he spends an inordinate time on the sidelines when teams are not in an obvious passing look or in an obvious passing down. With their formations and hurry-up offense, the Patriots could easily keep Beasley on the sidelines or run the ball at him non-stop.
The Falcons combatted their lack of pass rush (Beasley feasted on weak offensive lines and was invisible against good teams with all his sacks in nine games and being shutout seven times) with a blitz-happy attack designed to keep Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers from extending the pocket and giving their receivers time to get open downfield.
Tom Brady is at the point of his career where blitzing him is suicide for a defense. Wilson and Rodgers were blitzed to make them get rid of the ball quickly–Brady wants to get rid of the ball quickly: the New England offense is a matchup nightmare for the Falcons’ defensive style.
The only chance the Falcons have on defense is to have the secondary smother the receivers and get intense pressure from the pass rush. The two best pass rushers are past-his-prime Dwight Freeney and Beasley.
Freeney had just three sacks in 2016 and going against Nate Solder is a tough matchup for him where his edge speed has been negated by age. Solder has been a rock in 2016 holding up in pass rush and devastating as a run blocker. Freeney (and Brooks Reed) will have his work cut out for him against Solder.
On the other side, Marcus Cannon has been one of the best right tackles in the league after a broken toe robbed him of his mobility last season. After being a turnstile against Von Miller in the 2015 AFC Championship game, two weeks ago he he was a stonewall in shutting out Pittsburgh’s Bud Dupree in the 2016 AFC Championship game.
Beasley has struggled against big and athletic tackles and Cannon is the prototype. Cannon is massive and with Dante Scarnecchia coaching him up has learned to use his long arms to redirect edge rushers out of the play. Inside moves allow Cannon to use his excellent footwork to get his huge body in position to simply overpower edge rushers who are usually 100 pounds lighter.
Without inside pressure, Beasley and Freeney are the best hope for Atlanta to disrupt Brady. Otherwise, it could be a long game with Grady Jarrett (three sacks), Jonathan Babineaux (0 sacks) and Ra’Shede Hageman (two sacks) being counted on to collapse the pocket. If Atlanta has to start blitzing, New England will test the young secondary of the Falcons and likely succeed.