If anyone wasn’t surprised to see Taylor Heinicke emerge the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons and deliver with the season on the line last week, it’s Montez Sweat.The Bears defensive end was on a 2020 playoff team with Heinicke starting that gave a good scare to Tom Brady’s Buccaneers, before losing 31-23. So Sweat knows what the Falcons QB is capable of doing.
“He’s a gritty guy,” Sweat said of Heinicke. “He’s really tough as nails and he’s smart. Before he started back playing he was actually thinking about getting into coaching.
“But yeah, Taylor is a really good friend of mine. We both are from the Atlanta area. I mean, he’s going to be a hard guy to deal with, honestly. I mean he brings a lot to the table. People rally around him so he’s a great leader.”
The 29-10 win over AFC wild card contender Indianapolis last week with Heinicke at QB definitely caught the attention of the Bears. The Falcons have a ton of talent but hadn’t really put it together with Desmond Ridder at QB. He had 10 TD passes and 10 interceptions in 354 attempts.
It was time to go back to Heinicke, who had started three other games without a win. In their desperation, the Falcons found success. Heinicke had a 99.2 rating with 229 yards passing, a TD and 23 of 33 completions (69.7%)
If Heinicke has found something in the passing game to go with running backs Bijan Robinson and Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier, the Bears defense could have trouble.
It’s still Robinson who is the main Falcons threat, though, and coach Matt Eberflus said the best way to stop him is with “population,” or numerous tacklers.
“Bijan is a great running back, pretty fast, he can break a lot of tackles,” Sweat said. “But, I mean, we always want 11 hats to the ball wherever the ball is honestly.”
Robinson is tough to stop as a runner, but his receiving has been a back breaker for some defenses, particularly on screen passes.
Falcons RBs are averaging 7.2 targets a game, the fifth most in the NFL. The Bears are allowing 6.4 receptions per game to RBs, second most in the NFL.
“Our goal is to get seven-plus guys on the screen in any given play,” safeties coach Andre Curtis said. “If we hold true to that, we’ll be OK. He’s a special player, and he’s going to be hard to stop, but we’re up for the challenge, I think.”
Working on the side of the Bears is the venue. The Bears have won four straight at home and average 21.7 points at home, while Atlanta has lost six out of seven on the road this year and averaged only 13.6 points in those games.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson sees the need for a shutout in the final two games to send a message about the Bears’ defensive rise.
In this NFL keeping anyone from scoring seems like an impossible dream.
“I think we just need to keep building upon what we’ve been doing, just getting turnovers, getting sack-fumbles, just turning the ball over on downs, getting off the field on third down,” Sweat said. “But a goose egg would be nice man, but that’s very hard to do in the NFL. I’m not saying we’re not capable of it but it’s very hard to do.”
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