Pass rush combinations that work

The improvement in the secondary has undoubtedly helped the Falcons' pass rush, and vice versa. By more effectively jamming receivers at the line of scrimmage and working conjointly more often in zone coverage, the Falcons' coverage defenders are giving the pass rush just a bit more time.

"We are just doing it at all levels," Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant said. "The defensive line is rushing. The linebackers are hitting and covering. The backend, we're covering and tackling in space. We are just doing what we practice. What the game plan is, we just execute. Playing with energy and having fun. You can see it out there. It's starting to come together for us."

Lately, however, Atlanta's pass rush hasn't necessarily needed that extra time. With 11 sacks in their last two games, the Falcons have taken the quarterback down four more times than they did in the entire eight games prior to the bye week.

A team's pass rush can be a bit more susceptible to the natural ebbs and flows of an NFL season, because, even when factoring twists and stunts, it's often a one-on-one matchup without much help. The Falcons, in their last two games, seem to have found a couple of winning combination along their defensive line.

The Falcons recorded seven sacks in the first eight weeks of the season, and they used five different combinations of players on the front line to record a sack during that time. That doesn't point a single unit of pass rushers consistently getting the quarterback on the ground. Since the bye week, they've found a couple of combinations that have worked tremendously.

Atlanta has still deployed five different combinations of pass rushers on their path to recording 11 sacks during the last two games, but eight of those sacks have come courtesy of two different sets of personnel. The Falcons have five sacks since the bye week when the combination of Adrian Clayborn, Grady Jarrett, Takk McKinley and Vic Beasley are on the field together. They also have three sacks when Jack Crawford is in there alongside Clayborn, Jarrett and Beasley.

Like a basketball team needs to know which five players to have on the court in the closing minutes of a game, an NFL team needs to know which collection of players to have on the field on passing downs. Those guys are beginning to emerge for Atlanta.

Whatever Raheem Morris has done is working

There was one other notable adjustment that occurred before the start of the second half of the season: Raheem Morris moved from coaching the wide receivers to coaching the secondary. Now, he's been very elusive when asked to discuss what he's changed since taking over that unit, saying that he isn't able to compare anything before the switch was made because he doesn't know what they were doing.

Well, maybe it doesn't matter what was being done before Morris arrived, because whatever he's doing now is working out very well.

Morris is a confident and energetic coach who relates well to his players in addition to demanding a lot from them. He is not afraid to hold those under his watch accountable, and he seeks to leave no stone unturned in his preparation for an opponent, asking his players to do the same. That preparation leading up to the game, allows Atlanta's defensive backs to focus solely on playing on Sundays.

"You always tell your guys, 'My job is done from Monday till Sunday,'" Morris said. "'And then, on Sunday, when we go and we break that individual part, I enjoy watching you guys play the game. And then I can, in watching you guys enjoy it, I can help out where I can help out.'"

Notably, Morris has begun to call the defensive plays on third down and inside of the red zone. As we just discussed, the Falcons' pass rush has found remarkable consistency in the past two weeks. Eight of the team's 11 sacks since they bye have come on third and fourth down, meaning Morris has been the maestro leading the way.