ATLANTA — Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank expressed disappointment with the team’s 1-3 start despite the rash of injuries that have obviously impacted the lineup, particularly on defense.
“Well, I am concerned about a 1-3 start,” Blank told ESPN on Tuesday. “I don’t know anyone who would say that’s where we had planned on being or that’s where we had hoped to be, but we are 1-3.”
The Falcons lost Pro Bowl strong safety Keanu Neal to a season-ending torn ACL and lost Pro Bowl middle linebacker Deion Jones until at least Week 11 following foot surgery. Then the team saw starting free safety and defensive leader Ricardo Allen go down with a season-ending Achilles tear.
“This is not excuses, but reality is reality,” Blank said. “We’ve had some very difficult injuries to really good players. All three of the players, people talk in baseball when the middle has to be good: your catch, your pitcher, your second baseman, and then the center fielder. So when you lose Allen and Neal and Deion Jones, those are kind of the middle of that defense. So that hurts.
“And all three of those guys are really good communicators. They not only play at a very high level in their own right, but they get everybody else in the right positions. They make everybody else better.”
The Falcons enter Sunday’s matchup at Pittsburgh (1-2-1) with the league’s third-worst scoring defense, allowing 30.5 points per game. They are second-to-last in the league in both first downs allowed per game (26.8) and third-down defense (50.94 percent).
“We have plenty of talent on defense to play well,” Blank said. “It’s trying to put people in the positions where they can maximize their strengths and not expose any lack of experience that they may have. And that’s what the coaches are in the process of doing.”