Falcons: Grading each defensive position vs. Lions
Defensive line – Anthony Rush, Grady Jarrett, Ade Ogundeji, Lorenzo Carter, Ta’Quon Graham, Darrion Daniels, Derrick Tangelo, Arnold Ebiketie, Abdullah Anderson, Kuony Deng, Timmy Horne, Quinton Bell, DeAngelo Malone, Nick Thurman
That’s is a lot of Falcons players, but you expect that on the defensive line during the preseason.
The starters on the line got manhandled to open up the game, it was not pretty. The Lions were able to do what they wanted, whether that be running the ball or throwing the ball from a clean pocket.
If there is a ‘but’ in this conversation, it is that Detroit legitimately has a really good offensive line. Frank Ragnow and Penei Sewell are two of their best at their positions, then they also have Taylor Decker, Jonah Jackson, and Halapoulivaati Vaitai who are also great players. So, maybe it was more about how good the Lions were and not how bad the Falcons were.
Past the starters, Ta’Quon Graham and Arnold Ebiketie both showed some great potential, but no one else really stood out too much. Quinton Bell had a couple of hurries but struggled as a run defender.
When it comes to run defense overall, they did a decent job as they held Detroit to 101 rushing yards on 28 attempts.
The Lions dropped back 52 times and the Falcons only managed one sack, three QB hits, and six QB hurries. That is not good enough.
We need to see this position improve or else we are in for a similar ride as we had last year.