Falcons' elite pass-rush sent Packers scrambling for answers in the trenches

I'm not sure if you had this one on your NFL bingo card, but the Atlanta Falcons' defensive line has been one of the best units in football this year. Without Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., they've turned a pass-rush riddled with red flags into a group that currently leads the league in pressure rate.

The moment we really got to see this Falcons' defensive line shine was in the Week 3 victory over the Green Bay Packers. The 35-14 blowout win only saw them sack Jordan Love once, but they pressured him 32 times despite blitzing just 18% of the time and Jeff Ulbrich only sending four.

That's also a testament to how bad the Packers' offensive line is.

We knew the Green Bay offensive line was bad after they struggled in both Weeks 1 and 2, but this defensive line evidently offered the straw that broke the camel's back. Love was running for his life all game and Atlanta held them to just 17 rushing yards--their lowest allowed total in franchise history.

In the days following this matchup, Green Bay turned to the free agent market to try and fix these woes--which is a test of just how much they were scrambling. First they signed OG Laken Tomlinson to the active roster off Dallas' practice squad, but evidently that wasn't enough after the beating

In the days since signing Tomlinson, the Packers signed Mekhi Becton to their practice squad yet still weren't done. On Wednesday, Adam Schefter reported they signed 36-year-old guard Kevin Zeitler, so it's safe to say getting destroyed by the Falcons saw them try to confront their issues up front.

The Atlanta Falcons sent the Packers to free agency to look for OL help

The Dirty Birds' pass rush was all over the place in this one. Cameron Thomas logged a team-high seven pressures, and Brandon Dorlus and Gervon Dexter Sr. weren't far behind with six, but here's the real kicker: 10 different defenders recorded at least one pressure of Love in the Thursday night win.

For starters, there was this play in the second quarter where Divine Deablo got into the backfield untouched, lit up Love for a sack and forced a fumble before it was overturned on replay review. And it was on third down, so their offensive line having no clue what to do effectively ended this drive.

One of the most important plays came on the opening drive of the second half. The Falcons were leading 17-7, but the Packers were in the red zone--though they stopped Christian Watson short of the line to gain on the previous down.

And instead of taking the points, they went for it on fourth and short, where Dexter easily bulldozed his way into the backfield and gave chase, forcing Love to throw it across his body to Watson, which was incomplete and immediately set up a 10-play, 92-yard touchdown drive for the Falcons.

Even on the game-sealing pick from Xavier Watts, pressure from the defensive line (and the offensive line melting down) played a part in it. Dorlus used a nice swim move to shed a block to get to the backfield, setting Love up to just get rid of it--where Watts jumped the pass for Matthew Golden.

All night long the Falcons getting pressure on Jordan Love and controlling the line of scrimmage played a difference in this game, and you can see through the free-agent moves they made that they're hoping Zeitler, Becton, and Tomlinson won't get beat as badly as the OL did last Thursday.

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