Falcons’ Sunday challenge starts with stopping Mike Evans, and the history isn’t good

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The prospect of facing Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans in a critical game can’t be comforting for the Atlanta Falcons.

Evans, the Buccaneers’ 10th-year wide receiver who last week recorded his 10th consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season, has feasted on the Falcons throughout his career. In 17 career games, he has never been held below 46 receiving yards. Thirteen times he has gone over 60 yards. Four times he has gone over 100.

“Evans is playing fantastic, so they’re getting the ball to him as many times as possible,” Falcons defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen said.

Evans had six catches for 82 yards when the teams met in Week 7, a 16-13 Falcons win.

“He’s putting together a Hall of Fame career,” Atlanta assistant head coach for defense Jerry Gray said. “The biggest thing we have to do is keep eyes on him. We have to make sure we keep the top on top of him and not let him get behind us. We did a couple times in the first game, but we have to be more attentive of understanding who he is and what he’s about. You can see the last three or four games, they have come on strong.”

Evans is averaging 101 receiving yards in the past five games. For the season, he is 10th in the NFL with 84.3 yards per game. He has 1,399 career yards and 11 career touchdowns against the Falcons.

“He’s a great player,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said. “It’s going to be a challenge anytime you’re playing a great player. It’s great matchups every week in the NFL. We have our plan, and they’ll have one, too. It doesn’t matter who’s out there, we have to go win.”

GO DEEPER

A 5-step plan to get the Falcons from here to their first playoff berth in 6 seasons

The Falcons’ challenge against Evans could be heightened if cornerbacks A.J. Terrell (concussion) and Jeff Okudah (ankle) can’t play Sunday. Okudah was held out of practice Wednesday and Thursday, and Terrell must progress through the league’s concussion protocol before he can play.

“Look, we talk to our guys all the time that if you have a jersey on and you’re up for game day, you’re going to play in the defense,” Nielsen said of the potential of playing without Terrell and Okudah. “That’s really held true the whole season. We play a lot of guys. It keeps guys fresh at the end of games, and you never know. It is a long season. If you have a nick here or there, the next guy is ready to step up and make a play. That was a great example of that.”

Rookie cornerback Clark Phillips III played a season-high 65 snaps Sunday against the New York Jets.

“I thought he played pretty good, played tough,” Nielsen said. “He executed. Really, really fast football. When you watch the tape, he flew around. He had some really big tackles. The punchout, he was the one on the tackle on the draw play. It was good to see. He played a couple of games earlier in the season. He played OK then. He raised his performance, his level, and we need to continue to do that with him.”

More secondary concerns

Safeties Jessie Bates, Richie Grant and DeMarcco Hellams all played more than 74 percent of the snaps Sunday against the Jets as the Falcons continue to experiment with a three-safety formation. The personnel group could come in handy this week if Nate Landman can’t return and the Falcons are thin at linebacker. Atlanta is playing dime defense (six defensive backs on the field) at the sixth-highest rate in the NFL (18.2 percent), according to TruMedia.

“You can see Richie is having a bigger role closer to the line of scrimmage,” Gray said.

Bates leads the Falcons with 92 tackles, and Grant is fourth with 74 stops. Hellams, who played only 17 snaps the first time these teams played, has 10 tackles. He has played at least 40 snaps in three of the Falcons’ past four games.

Tight end targets

In what will come as no surprise to Falcons fans, no team in the NFL throws to its tight ends at a higher rate. The Falcons target their tight ends on 35.2 percent of their passing attempts, according to TruMedia. They target their running backs on 23 percent of attempts, which is the fourth-highest rate in the NFL. And the wide receivers? The Falcons target them 41.5 percent of the time, the lowest rate in the league.

It makes sense, then, that Atlanta’s tight ends have combined for 83 catches for 989 yards, while only one wide receiver, Drake London, has more than 17 catches.

Tight end MyCole Pruitt scored the game’s only touchdown Sunday with an athletic 20-yard grab.

This is how we Pruitt 🕺
📺 FOX | NFL+
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) December 3, 2023

“He’s become a damn good blocking tight end, but he’s got a great feel in the passing game, so when his number was called, he was able to take advantage of it,” Smith said.

GO DEEPER

Falcons leave New York with division lead safe, but offensive issues persist

What, us worry?

The Falcons are trying to act brave at the prospect of playing Sunday’s game without two starting offensive linemen. Right tackle Kaleb McGary (knee) missed practice Wednesday and Thursday. Center Drew Dalman (ankle) missed practice Wednesday and was limited Thursday.

“I think what we’ve been able to do, really since coach Smith has taken over this program, the way that we go about practice, there’s constant changing of parts within the practice of people, regardless of what your designation is, going in and getting reps,” offensive coordinator Dave Ragone said.

Storm Norton replaced McGary against the Jets and has worked with the starters this week at right tackle, while Ryan Neuzil would fill in for Dalman at center. Starting quarterback Desmond Ridder and Neuzil have already had plenty of practice reps in their careers because they worked together with the scout team for most of last year.

“There are a lot of guys banged up, but Neuzil does a good job of preparing just like he’s the starter,” Ridder said. “He does a great job of staying on top of the game plan.”

Redemption Sunday

Although Atlanta won the first meeting, Ridder still feels like he has plenty to prove after losing three fumbles against the Buccaneers in Week 7. On a positive note, the Falcons rolled up 401 yards of offense and averaged 6.3 yards per play.

“They also do a great job (in the secondary) of just being sticky with the guys and staying on them, making the quarterback hang on to it for a tick longer,” Ridder said. “But as long as we’re able to do what we do and play fast, play clean, we should be able to go out there and do our thing.”

(Photo: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)

“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, is on sale now. Order it here.