The Atlanta Falcons’ opening game in 2016 comes against their NFC South division rival, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The two teams have always had unique challenges when they faced against each other but this season, the Falcons will find that one of their biggest will be the Bucs’ pass-catchers.
In 2015 Atlanta found itself in a similar conundrum when the team had to face Tampa Bay receivers Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson. Both tall and wide, they stand at a towering 6-5. As well there is Russell Shepard who, at 6-1, joins Evans and Jackson in posing a problem for the shorter cornerbacks of the Dirty Birds.
With Atlanta’s lack of a pass rush last year, the lack of successful blitzing meant a tremendous amount of pressure on its young secondary.
“We’re prepared to go that way on certain matchups as it goes through,” Atlanta Head Coach Dan Quinn said during one of his pressers with reporters. “We think they’ve got a terrific group and guys that have been proven [to be] very good competitors who’ve played outside. And they’ll move them around too. They’re not just going to stay at one stationary spot, so that’s a challenge in itself too. We’ll have to have [to do] a number of things defensively to make sure we’re at our best on third down and the different down-and-distances that we’ve featured different ways to play. It’s still going to come back to our run and hit factor and the energy that we play with. That’s what we’re counting on first.”
It will be imperative that the Falcons’ defensive unit get a consistent level of pressure on Bucs second-year QB Jameis Winston. Doing so will force him to get the ball out of his hands quickly, cutting down on the likelihood that he makes big plays with those big receivers.
This will be an intriguing season opener between the two NFC South division foes.