Did the Falcons Discover A Blueprint Against the Bucs Defense?
Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
In our Bucs Takeaways after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their Thursday Night Football matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, we mentioned that Atlanta cranked up the pace to grind down the defense. Atlanta ran a play every 25.2 seconds in regulation, and the rapid strike offense helped Kirk Cousins to a career-high 509 yards.
A big question coming out of this game is whether Atlanta figured anything out that might serve as a blueprint for teams looking to beat Tampa in the future. Did the Falcons figure out something new for Thursday to intentionally spring on the Bucs, or did we just witness Atlanta’s regular offense?
Let’s answer this by looking at how fast-paced Atlanta has been from week-to-week.
Seconds Between Snaps; Atlanta
Week 1, Pittsburgh: 29.3
Week 2, Philadelphia: 25.2
Week 3, Kansas City: 26.8
Week 4, New Orleans: 28.6
Week 5, Tampa Bay: 25.2
While the Atlanta offense seems to run fast, especially compared to the Bucs (31.5 seconds between snaps this season), it seems Cousins and company turned up the tempo as a strategy. To make their intentions even more apparent, ESPN’s play-by-play has Atlanta running a no-huddle on 21 of their 81 plays, almost double their previous season-high (11 vs. Philadelphia). They ran the no-huddle as early as the second and third play of the game.
So, yeah, the Falcons set to run the Bucs out of Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Thursday. And it made sense to keep throwing at Tampa’s secondary. Still without Antoine Winfield Jr. and on a short week, the Buccaneers were primed to get worn down in a game of attrition.
Though, looking back at the previous four games, it might have been a cumulative effect that the Falcons exploited. Teams haven’t been afraid to speed things up against the Bucs defense all season long. Heck, Detroit played an even faster game against Tampa than the Falcons did.
Seconds Between Snaps; Tampa Opponents:
Week 1, Washington: 28.2
Week 2, Detroit: 24.5
Week 3, Denver: 30.1
Week 4, Philadelphia: 25.4
Week 5, Atlanta: 25.2
The one team that didn’t look to pump up the tempo was the Broncos, and being up by multiple scores early, there was no reason for them to do anything but run out the clock. The good news is, that fast-paced offense didn’t break the Buccaneers when the Lions or Eagles tried it.
In addition, two other crucial factors that helped Atlanta are going away soon. Winfield should be coming back from his ankle injury soon, a possibility made more likely with a 10-day gap between games. The next, speaking of days between games, is that Week 5 is Tampa’s only Thursday Night Football match-up of the season, meaning the Bucs won’t be exposed to this short-week mayhem going forward.
So while the Falcons figured out a good gameplan to go after Tampa’s defense on Thursday night, specifically, they didn’t exactly break new ground, and it might not be as effective going forward. Still, Tampa will want to clean up their secondary with the slate of quarterbacks heading their way. Not only is Cousins coming back for Week 8, he’s sandwiched between dates against Derek Carr (W6) and Lamar Jackson (W7), then Patrick Mahomes (W9) and Brock Purdy (W10). If the Falcons did find out something repeatable, Tampa’s upcoming opponents suggest they’re in real trouble.
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