Seahawks should attack Matt Ryan-less Falcons

The Falcons announced on Saturday Matt Ryan would not play against the Seahawks. Now Seattle needs to be extremely aggressive.

Atlanta will be without Matt Ryan on Sunday versus the Seahawks. Ryan injured his ankle against the Rams last week in a 37-10 loss.  Veteran Matt Schaub replaced Ryan and went 6 for 6 for 65 yards and a touchdown, but the game was over by the time he entered so Los Angeles wasn’t worried about a comeback.

Schaub isn’t a bad quarterback. He has played in a bunch of games and started a lot of them. But for the last five years he has been a backup. There is a big difference between practicing a lot and being involved in live action. Ryan is a good quarterback; Schaub is a decent backup, but he isn’t Ryan.

The Seahawks used to be loathe to blitz. This year? Not as loathe. Seattle’s blitz percentage is one of the highest in the league. With a huge lack of defensive live pass rush, Seattle needs to make Schaub uncomfortable on Sunday. Likely, the Seahawks will sit back and let Schaub complete short passes against them while gaining confidence. This seems to be the Seattle way lately.

Seattle shouldn’t, though. The Seahawks need to use their linebackers and defensive backs to blitz and blitz some more. Seattle needs to help out its young safeties in Marquise Blair and Tedric Thompson and try to force mistakes.

Seattle needs a win to keep their playoff drive alive. A loss to the Falcons on Sunday with their bad defense and backup quarterback would be extremely unacceptable for the Seahawks. In fact, that kind of loss would be rightfully detrimental to Seattle’s playoff hopes in 2019.

But should Seattle send wave after wave of linebacker and corner against Schaub, the Seahawks would control the tempo and give their unhealthy secondary a chance to make plays and possibly those turnovers will make for a blowout.