Kroy Biermann lead the team with most 3rd down run stops.
Photo credit: Football Schedule / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Despite ranking in the bottom half of the overall defense in NFL last year, the Falcons were slightly better on third downs and disruption percentage (Tackles for loss or No gain /Tackles) compared to 2011. The Falcons defense overall ranking suffered because of poor tackling, as discussed in the earlier post: Fixing the Falcons defense. In this article, lets look at the most disruptive defenders and the third down run stoppers. Both solo tackles and combined tackles are taken into consideration, as the player had a part in the stop.

Disruptive Run Defenders: 

A disruptive run play is a tackle for loss or no gain for the offense. The Defensive line has the best chance of disrupting a play in the back field or at the line of scrimmage, followed by Line backers. The Defensive backs, usually strong Safeties and CB also chip in with disruptive plays on run blitzes or obvious run plays. Jonathan Babineuax, Stephen Nicholas, Akeem Dent and Peria Jerry excelled in disrupting the run game at their positions.  Continue reading →