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WATCH: Adrian Clayborn playing a bigger role in defensive line rotation

Adrian Clayborn has been a big reason the Atlanta Falcons have produced more pressure on the quarterback lately.

From a strategic standpoint, the Falcons aren't doing much differently on defense the last two weeks from what they did during the first half of the season. But new playcallers Jeff Ulbrich and Raheem Morris have changed the defensive line rotation, and it's yielded fantastic results.

The Falcons have been better across the board defensive, especially rushing the passer. In the first eight games, the Falcons had seven sacks, but in the last two weeks, they have 11. Atlanta has 13 sacks in the last 10 quarters.

What's very interesting is how the Falcons have produced these results. In the first eight games, the Falcons had the third-worst pressure rate without blitzing in the NFL. One would assume that with this large increase in sacks, the Falcons have brought more blitzes, but actually, that's not true. If anything, particularly against Carolina, the Falcons have blitzed less often during its two recent wins than they did in the first eight games. 

One way Atlanta has produced more pressure has been utilizing Adrian Clayborn more while using Tyeler Davison and Allen Bailey each as rotational defenders. 

In the first half of the season, Clayborn played about 31 percent of Atlanta's defensive snaps. Over the last two weeks, he's been on the field for 54 percent of the Falcons' defensive plays. Meanwhile, Davison and Bailey have seen a similar change but in the opposite direction. Both played their fewest percentage of snaps over the last two games.

The results have been staggering. Clayborn has 3.0 sacks in the last two weeks, and in Week 11 versus the Panthers, he led the Falcons in average separation from the quarterback, which is an analytic measurement of how close a pass rusher comes to affecting the throw.

As for Bailey and Davison, they have been able to produce more with less. Bailey recorded his first sack of the season Sunday against the Panthers.

This is hardly the only change for Atlanta's defense. A lot has to go right to go 10 quarters without giving up a touchdown, but moving Clayborn into a bigger role and using Bailey and Davison more sparingly is one of the key reasons the Falcons have produced more pressure on the quarterback the last two weeks.