The Falcons entered the 2019 season as a potential contender but if they don’t win their Week 4 matchup with the Tennessee Titans, they’ll be in a dangerous 1-3 hole.
While it’s certainly a winnable game for Atlanta, it will have to better in a number of areas to get back to .500 on the year.
Here are three keys for the Falcons to defeat the Titans.
Slow down RB Derrick Henry and TE Delanie Walker
The Titans are a talented football team, however, they lack the offensive play-makers to have a really dominant offense. What they do have is a physically dominant running back in Derrick Henry, and one of the best tight ends in the league in Delanie Walker. Walker leads the team with 158 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, while Henry has rushed for 210 yards and three touchdowns on 4.1 yards per carry. The Titans don’t have much outside of these two, so slowing them down will be critical for the Falcons.
No interceptions from Matt Ryan
Ryan needs just one more interception to match his total for the entire 2018 campaign. Having already thrown six picks in three games, the former MVP quarterback will need to be more conservative with the ball in what should be a defensive battle. As we pointed out earlier this week, Ryan’s not playing as bad as his interception total would indicate. If he can clean things up a bit against a good Titans defense, it could be the springboard this offense needs to finally get going.
Fewer penalties
Some of last week’s penalties were worse than others for the Falcons, like Keanu Neal’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he received while writhing in pain from a torn Achilles, But putting that aside, the team has not been very disciplined in 2019. Through three weeks, Atlanta has been penalized 35 times, including 16 times in its Week 3 loss to the Colts. We will see if Dan Quinn’s decision to add more referees in practice will pay off for the Falcons on Sunday.
