FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Falcons Head Coach Mike Smith is a former defensive coordinator who is a disciple of physical football.
Obviously, it must have worn on him last season when the Falcons forced only 10 fumbles (tied for 29th in the NFL). The team recovered just six of those.
One day after his team forced three fumbles, recovering all of them -- 37.5 percent of last year’s total in the first game alone -- Smith spoke about how creating turnovers became a point of emphasis from the time last season ended.
“I thought we were attacking the ball as well we have since we’ve been here,” the second-year coach said. “It was evident with the turnovers with the ball being on the ground. It wasn’t just the linebackers. [Defensive end] Kroy Biermann had the forced fumble.
“We knew we had to improve on that. It’s something we’ve been preaching since the beginning of [offseason team activities]. We had to attack the ball and create more turnovers. This was some fruits of the hard work the guys have put in during the offseason.”’
Linebacker Mike Peterson said the team practiced creating turnovers and the coaches preached it.
“They stressed all during camp getting turnovers,” he said.
Smith talked about how one of the aspects of the Falcons’ 19-7 season-opening victory over Miami that he liked best was how the Falcons played with “a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of intensity” and how that makes up for deficiencies in other areas.
It would seem natural that defenses that play with intensity are going to hit harder and cause more fumbles.
“Running to the ball has been a big point for the defense,” said linebacker Stephen Nicholas, who, in his first career start, made six tackles. “If you can get a lot of guys around the ball, anything’s bound to happen. Good things happen when you run to the ball.”
Another change in the defense’s performance came in terms of who made the tackles. On Sunday, all three leading tacklers were the starting linebackers: Curtis Lofton (11), Mike Peterson (7) and Nicholas (6).
Last year Keith Brooking lead the team with 133 and safety Erik Coleman ranked second on the team with 127. Smith said it’s better for the defense when the safety position is not making the bulk of the tackles.
“We’d like to keep those tackles in front of our safeties,” he said. “That’s a definite unless you’re putting a safety in the box. You don’t want your safeties to be your leading tacklers.”
Smith also said the linebackers were able to be active because of the defensive line’s play. The defensive line had four sacks, two apiece by Biermann and John Abraham.
“Those three guys were very active and I think that says a lot about what the guys up front of them were doing,” he said. “We pride ourselves on controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and I thought our defensive line did a great job penetrating, creating double-teams and that allowed our linebackers to make some plays and when they were presented with plays they were very, very successful. It was fun to watch those plays because they were playing with a lot of energy the whole game.”
It all three units on the defense -- line, linebackers and secondary -- all fed off each other.
“When a quarterback doesn’t have time to go to his second and third option, I think it enhances your chances to being successful and defending the pass,” Smith said. “The pass rush made our pass defense a lot more efficient yesterday.”
Nicholas summed it up similarly.
“If everybody does their job, everything’s going to work out for the best,” he said. “What makes good coverage is pass rush. What makes sacks is good coverage.”
