The Falcons run defense continues to slide in the league rankings.
After giving up 162 yards to New England, the Falcons dropped from 11th in the league to 16th. They are now giving up 112 yards a game.
Over the past three games, all losses, the Falcons have given up 117, 138 and 162 yards to drop from ninth in the rankings to 16th.
The New York Jets, who feature running backs Bilal Powell (4.7 per carry), Matt Forte (4.4 per carry) and Elijah McGuire (4.0 per carry), average 103.3 yards per game, which is ranked 19th in the league.
“Like a lot of runs that happen, somebody is in the wrong spot, in the wrong gap,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said.
When means they got blocked out of their spot. They aren’t trying to give up their spot. The players must defeat the blocker to stay in their gap.
“That’s usually what takes place when a run gets manufactured, especially an explosive one,” Quinn said. “We’re more of an eight-man front team. When you get out of the gap, there are going to be consequences to that. When we get to playing, it’s better to be on third down, but also stop some drives too. Then they get another shot at it, another shot at it, and another shot at it.”
The Bills were led by LeSean McCoy and quarterback Tyrod Taylor as they rushed for 117 yards.
Against Miami, Jay Ajayi had 130 of the 138 yards.
Against New England, running backs Dion Lewis (76), Rex Burkhead (31), Mike Gillislee (31) and James White (19) all did some damage against the Falcons’ run defense.
Quinn doesn’t believe its an issue of not being physical enough up front on defense.
“I know you certainly could see it that way when you look at just a stat number as it goes,” Quinn said. “But I thought Ish (Kemal Ishmael) really tackled well, and I thought Keke (Keanu Neal) really tackled well.
“Inside, I thought Grady (Jarrett) and (Dontari) Poe were square and strong inside. So those things are what I was looking for in the game. At the end, no, I’m not happy with the result of the numbers of rushes and the yards, but the tackling was improved.”
