Falcons LBs Benched or Rested vs. Panthers? Coach Arthur Smith Reveals Answer
During Thursday night's 22-15 loss to the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta Falcons defense struggled mightily to stop the run.
Entering as a top-10 rushing defense, the Falcons allowed a season-high 232 yards on the ground, with bruising running back D'Onta Foreman leading Carolina's charge, recording 130 yards and a score on 31 carries.
As Atlanta's defense trudged through the first half, it began to change personnel - most notably at linebacker, where rookie Troy Andersen first replaced Mykal Walker early in the second quarter, followed by Walker entering for Rashaan Evans a few series later.
After the game, Falcons coach Arthur Smith expressed displeasure with his team's gap discipline, mentioning that the Panthers' wide zone rushing scheme opened up cutback lanes that his unit wasn't ready to defend.
However, even though he wasn't thrilled with the overall effort, the rotation of linebackers was not performance related, Smith revealed postgame. Instead, it had more to do with keeping the big picture in mind, as Atlanta was playing its second game in five days.
"There was a lot of guys we were cycling up front," Smith said. "You're on a short week. Guys played a lot of snaps on Sunday. We're trying to keep guys fresh on the short week, so we didn't have injuries pile up either - that's a big part of it as well. We'll look at everything, whether it was a good strategy or not, but that was the reason behind it."
Smith added that the constant flux is "pretty common" - and it's only further supported by the snap count. Both Evans and Walker played every snap last Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, but Thursday marked Evans' lowest snap share since Week 2, and Walker's lowest of the season when at full health.
The quality of play may have been lower than what Atlanta wanted, but it certainly does appear that the primary motive behind the rotation was to keep its defenders fresh and healthy, as Smith said.
Regardless, it'll be noteworthy to keep an eye on moving forward, because Andersen is highly regarded as a key cog up the middle in the future of the Falcons' defense. But for now, it's Evans and Walker's time - and Atlanta doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry to shorten it.
You can follow Daniel Flick on Twitter @DFlickDraft
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