Corey Peters is one of the few Atlanta Falcons with a sack to his credit this season, but the defensive tackle would be the first to say one sack means nothing in the big picture.

The defense has struggled miserably in terms of generating pressure, and those woes continued in Sunday's 30-20 loss to the New York Giants. The Falcons had one sack and one quarterback hit on Eli Manning.

"It's not adequate," Peters said of defensive pressure. "We've got to step it up. We've got to do a better job, whatever it takes.

"[Sunday], we had a lot of quick [passes], a lot max protection, a lot of play-action. But we've got to find a way to get it done. Whatever it takes, we've got to do."

The options for jump-starting the pass rush are thin. Of course, everyone knows the Falcons lack an elite pass-rusher. Veteran Osi Umenyiora is not happy with his overall production as the designated pass-rusher, although Umenyiora had the lone sack against his former teammate Manning.

"I always feel like I could help the team more," Umenyiora said following Sunday's game. "But whatever they ask me to do is what I'm going to go out there and do."

From the outset of the season, the pass rush was supposed to be about more about a collective effort. The coaches figured beefing up the run defense with Paul Soliai and Tyson Jackson would lead to more third-and-long situations for opponents and, thus, allow defensive coordinator Mike Nolan to be creative with his pressures. But so far, the 56-14 blowout of Tampa Bay -- when the Falcons had three sacks and seven quarterback hits -- was the only game during which the Falcons truly got after the quarterback.

"We've got to put pressure on the quarterback," Falcons coach Mike Smith said. "We have to do that in this league because you are going to play elite quarterbacks the majority of the time in the NFL. Because I've said it a dozen to 16 times: If you don't put pressure on them, they are going to make it hard on your defense."

Nolan incorporated more blitzes Sunday, although the results were minimal. He even used rookie inside linebacker Prince Shembo on the edge at least once. Shembo rushed the passer in college at Notre Dame. And Malliciah Goodman probably brought the most consistent pressure of anybody on defense.

The Giants were able to convert 9 of 15 third-down opportunities as Manning sometimes had an eternity to throw. Not to mention starting cornerbacks Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford found themselves struggling, in part, because they had to work a little harder without pressure on Manning.

"Everything works together so whenever we take longer, [the cornerbacks] have to cover longer," Peters said. "It all works together, so the whole defense has to play better."

Outside linebacker Jonathan Massaquoi was one of the players the Falcons expected would take another step as a pass-rusher this season. Although Massaquoi has one of the team's four sacks, he hasn't emerged just yet.

"There's a lot of things going where we, as an organization, don't see ourselves living up to our full potential," Massaquoi said. "All we've got to do is go back this week and evaluate them film, give Giants their due, and move forward and get ready for Chicago.

"Is the pass rush adequate? A lot of things aren't adequate. If it was adequate, we'd be 5-0."