With Cooper Rush starting, the Atlanta Falcons' offense struggled to show up in the season opener against the Steelers, but they still managed to stay in the game. And no I'm not referring to Bijan Robinson carrying the unit on his shoulders because the Falcons' defense looked stronger than ever.
Entering the season, it seemed like Jeff Ulbrich's group was due for regression. They were coming off a franchise-record 59 sacks and are down their two best pass-rushers: Jalon Walker is out for the season due to an ACL tear and James Pearce Jr. is facing an eight-game suspension after an offseason arrest.
Even still, the defense still came to play despite the 20-13 loss, silencing many of the questions about whether or not this group would be able to overcome the adversity.
For starters, Ulbrich and the defense held Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers to just 226 total yards, which is their fewest in a Week 1 game since 1977. So if you didn't already believe it, you should know by now that the Falcons have one of the best defensive coordinators in the business at their disposal.
Jeff Ulbrich has the Atlanta Falcons' defense looking as dominant as ever
The effectiveness of this defense is something that has flown under the radar because of the mess at quarterback, but if you take a look at the advanced stats, it'll confirm what you already knew: Jeff Ulbrich is working his magic on this Atlanta defense regardless of the personnel he is working with.
The Falcons' defensive EPA rankings after the Week 1 loss
- -0.36 EPA per play (3rd in NFL)
- -22.73 total EPA (1st in NFL)
- 31.25% EPA success rate (1st in NFL)
- -0.38 EPA per pass (6th in NFL)
- -0.31 EPA per rush (3rd in NFL)
The Dirty Birds were top 10 in basically every since EPA defensive metric, and given that's meant to measure how efficient an offense or defense is, that's particularly telling. In fact, they were ahead of their former head coach and new 49ers DC Raheem Morris in most of these statistics.
And yes, this was against a geriatric Steelers offense, but that's not the point. Even 42-year-old Rodgers can still be a threat, and an offense with Rico Dowdle, Jaylen Warren, DK Metcalf, and Michael Pittman Jr. shouldn't be easy to stop--especially for a highly-depleted defense.
It's particularly impressive that this was done without both Walker and Pearce. The pass-rush was relying upon Cameron Thomas, Za'Darius Smith, Samson Ebukam, and Bralen Trice, yet they still rushed four against Aaron Rodgers and the pressure still managed to get home on a consistent basis.
The Falcons also had one of the worst run defenses in football in 2025, but 2026 has already seen a noticeable improvement in that area. Even with Maason Smith instead of Ruke Orhorhoro and Da'Shawn Hand and Gervon Dexter instead of David Onyemata, Ulbrich and Nate Ollie have gotten more out of the DT room.
Last season, the 49-year-old led a defense that was able to rack up sacks and get to the quarterback, but 2026 is a lot more than that. The performance in the season opener proved that this defense is going to be ore complete this season and that Jeff Ulbrich can always do more with less.
Jeff Ulbrich is someone who was starting to get on the head coaching radar, so as long as the Atlanta Falcons' defense stays woefully efficient through the rest of the year, that coaching buzz will only grow louder.
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