Defense sparks the Falcons’ resurgence
SEATTLE – The Atlanta Falcons don’t entertain much talk about last season, but for two key players on the defense, there is no comparison.
Cornerback Desmond Trufant and defensive end Adrian Clayborn spent the final portion of last year on injured reserve, missing out on both the Falcons’ greatest playoff successes and the Super Bowl collapse.
Now, however, the two are leading a defensive resurgence amid Atlanta’s climb back into playoff contention. The Falcons rank 10th in total defense and seventh against the pass.
More important than those stats, players said, was a growing confidence after a dominating performance last week in a win against the Dallas Cow- boys and a hard-earned victory Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks. The Falcons defense held up in the game’s final minutes to force a potentially tying 52-yard field goal attempt that fell short.
“We are moving in the right direction,” Clayborn said Monday. “We keep proving that we can finish games and we can beat guys. We just have to take the momentum and keep rolling with it.”
Trufant said the defense is a “confident group” and was encouraged by its takeaways, both leading to touchdowns.
Trufant intercepted a Russell Wilson pass in the first quarter to set up the Falcons’ second TD and give Atlanta a 14-0 lead. In the second quarter, Clayborn recovered a fumble by Wilson, forced on a tandem sack by Takkarist McKinley and Courtney Upshaw, and returned it for a TD. It was the second score of his sevenyear career, and it provided an exclama- tion point on a surreal stretch for the soft-spoken defensive end.
Clayborn sacked Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott six times in a 27-7 Falcons win in Week 10, bringing his season total to eight. His previous season high was 71⁄ sacks in 2011 as a rookie. Clayborn 2 celebrated his touchdown Monday night with an emphatic spike but afterward was deferential to the teammates who forced the turnover. When he saw the ball come loose, he thought Wilson might have been down, but he ran into the end zone anyway. Sure enough, the touchdown was upheld upon review.
“The guys did a good job of getting after him, and I was just around the ball, so I picked it up and scored. Nothing special I did. It was all those guys,” Clayborn said. “I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.”
But it’s more than luck, Trufant said. The cornerback described Clayborn as one of the team’s hardest workers, something he saw firsthand as the two spent time rehabbing their injuries in the offseason. “Not super vocal, but he’s going to show up on Sundays and Mondays. I’ve got a lot of respect for him because he grinds. He goes about his business,” Trufant told USA TODAY. “A lot of the offseason we were working out together with the trainers, so I’m glad that he’s back to his level, I’m back to my level. Now we’ve got to just keep it rolling.”
The win Monday moved the Falcons back into the No. 6 seed in the NFC.
“We just have to keep building what we’re doing,” Trufant said. “We know we’ve got talent, we just have to put it together, and we’ve done that the last two weeks. There is still another level we can go to, and that’s what I’m excited about.”