The Falcons had a pretty tough slate to start the season. While the Eagles were a team that a lot of people were low on to start, they have shown they are a frisky bunch that could challenge for the NFC East crown. Atlanta then went toe-to-toe with the reigning Super Bowl Champions and Tom Brady before fading late. After a win against the Giants, the Falcons have a difficult matchup — on paper — with a very talented Washington front seven. However, they haven’t played like the unit they are so far in 2021:
The Washington Football Team defense surrendered 390+ total yards of offense just three times in 2020.
Through three games in 2021 Washington has surrendered over 390 yards of total offense in every single game.
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) September 26, 2021
Washington has given up 30.7 points per game this year, and they only have six sacks (the same as the Falcons). I expect them to improve, but the question is, can Taylor Heinicke carry them while their defense figures things out? I really like him as a quarterback, but he is a bit limited. Dean Pees should be able to confuse him and create a lot of issues for Washington’s offense. Speaking of which, Jets rookie Zach Wilson will face off against the Falcons in London. He is off to a miserable start to his NFL career. However, a lot of that can be attributed to facing off against Bill Belichick and Vic Fangio in back to back weeks.
At time of his fourth interception of the day, Zach Wilson had the same number of completions. pic.twitter.com/6PCPLUf8yR
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 19, 2021
In Wilson’s defense, Mehki Becton is out, and he is running for his life. He didn’t do much better against the Broncos, as Vic Fangio’s defense shut out the Jets 26-0. Wilson finished with 19 completions on 35 attempts with 160 yards and two interceptions. He was also sacked five times. Dean Pees is part of that old guard of good defensive coordinators, and hopefully, he has the same success against Wilson.
The Falcons didn’t look amazing in Week 3, but they got the win. Perhaps they can do enough against these two young quarterbacks to get them to 3-2.
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