Winning in epic comeback fashion is great. Needing an epic comeback to beat a one-win Falcons team with an interim coaching staff means the Detroit Lions still have some work to do. And one of the biggest chores is to shore up the A-gap blitz protection in front of Matthew Stafford.
The Falcons exploited the Lions weakness in the Week 7 matchup and did it very well. Deion Jones and Keanu Neal each recorded devastatingly quick sacks on Stafford right up the gut. In fact, their sacks rank among the fastest sacks recorded all season, per Next Gen Stats tracking.
Neal’s sack happened in just 2.2 seconds from the snap. It’s the fastest sack in Week 7 and the second-quickest sack recorded all season. Only Aaron Donald in Week 5 got the QB on the ground faster.
Keanu Neal off the Falcons right side has been wreaking havoc vs #Lions. Beats D’Andre Swift for the sack. pic.twitter.com/FLBFibq1wC
— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) October 25, 2020
Jones finished off Stafford in 2.44 seconds, the second-fastest sack of the week and the 8th-fastest all season. Like Neal, Jones was untouched going right through the middle of the line.
On the more positive side, Romeo Okwara’s sack of Matt Ryan in 2.8 seconds was the fourth-fastest, and he did it without benefit of the schematic blitz.
