–Grady Jarrett has been the salvation for a defensive line that has underachieved this year. Jarrett, in his fourth year from Clemson, has 38 tackles, four for loss, and four sacks.
Jarrett, who grew up in Atlanta, had seven solo tackles and four assists last week against the Ravens. He also forced two fumbles in the loss.
“We all see how hard he plays and the strain that he puts in behind the scenes,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “Grady’s put in a lot of work to get to that space that he’s at. He’s one of the hardest workers that we have and that I’ve been around.”
Although Jarrett is a 300-pounder, he has remarkable quickness at the line.
“He’s somebody we rely on and based on his quickness, he’s able to cause some tackles for losses,” Quinn said. “He’s able to cause some forced fumbles against running backs based on his ability to shoot the gap. His relentlessness is something I always appreciate.”
The rest of the defensive line got a poor rating from Quinn.
“Terrible,” he said. “No. 1, when we play our eight-man fronts, I expect us to stack the box and play really good, aggressive, single-gap football. I expect us to hit the quarterback and create takeaways that way.”
The Atlanta defense ranks 24th in passing yards allowed and 27th in rushing yards allowed. They are 31st in third-down defense.
–Matt Ryan joked about this week’s cold weather might help the team get ready for Green Bay, where temperatures are expected to be in the 20s.
“A little bit of wind and a little bit of cooler weather, which is good because we’ll be seeing that this weekend,” Ryan said.
Cool is a word that extends to the way Ryan played on Sunday against the Ravens. He completed a season-low 16 passes for 131 yards, the fewest of his career, and was sacked three times.
Ryan has been sacked 36 times this season and is in danger of setting a career high in that dubious category. He was sacked 44 times in 2013.
“I’m concerned about it because if we’re not protecting him in the way that we can, then that gets hard,” Quinn said. “There are some games that the score is out of whack and it turns into a drop-back game, there are going to be more chances for a defense to go after them, you know that. But at the end of it, yeah, I’m concerned.”
Ryan has enjoyed success against the Packers. In seven games – four of them wins – he has thrown for 1,679 yards and 14 touchdowns. He threw for 252 yards against Green Bay in 2017 and went for 288 and three touchdowns in beating the Packers in the 2016 NFC title game.
“I think one, we got to get from my position get us into the right spots, the right looks that we want to,” Ryan said. “We all have to pull our weight and execute better and perform the tasks that we’re asked to do better.”
BY THE NUMBERS: 7 — The Falcons had seven players make a reception against the Ravens. That’s the 11th straight game with at least six different receivers catching a pass.
