I don't think those overall season numbers are helpful. They don't take into account how a defense can improve, especially one that is as young as Atlanta's. The median age of the Falcons' 11 most-used defenders is 24, and seven of those guys — Beasley, Jones, Neal, tackle Grady Jarrett, linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, and cornerbacks Brian Poole and Jalen Collins — are in their first or second seasons in the NFL.
Their head coach, Dan Quinn, is only in his second year in Atlanta, and has had to help rebuild their defense on the fly, implementing new schemes and making personnel adjustment. You also have to consider how they lost their star cornerback (Desmond Trufant ) to a season-ending injury in Week 9. So this is basically a defense that has had to be rebuilt and find its identity over the course of the season.
To get a better sense of their potential or the threat they can pose in the Super Bowl, you would have to look at how they've improved after the Week 11 bye.
Falcons Defense (Before Bye)
385.9 yards allowed per game
28.3 points allowed per game
1.57 turnovers per game
Falcons Defense (After Bye)
346.67 allowed per game
20.4 points allowed per game
1.83 turnovers per game
The post-bye 1.83 turnover rate would place them in the top-5 for the season had they maintained that pace all year, their points allowed per game would have them inside the top-12, and their yards allowed would have them in the top-16.
This post-bye trajectory has also continued into the postseason. Since the Nov. 20 bye week, they have won seven of their last eight games, and allowed 21 or fewer points six of those eight outings. In that stretch of eight games, Atlanta has also forced 15 turnovers — four more than it managed over the first 10 weeks of the regular season.
Collins and Poole have helped keep the secondary afloat after Trufant suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 9. Their progression is such that their secondary got even better. From Week 1 to Week 9, the Falcons were 23rd in pass defense DVOA; but from that point on, they were 11th (ending at 19th on the season) and their defensive passer rating had fallen from nearly 101 to under 78. Meanwhile, linebackers Jones and Campbell are playing faster and smarter in all phases, which has stabilized many of the personnel packages Quinn spent the first half of the season tinkering with.
Overall, the Falcons defense has been a solid complement to their offense. They are not an elite defense by any means (ranking dead last in run-defense DVOA over the second half of the season) but they are playing good complementary football, particularly when playing with a significant lead.
This was evident last night in the NFC Championship Game. While their offense got off to a quick start, Atlanta's young defense succeeded in pressuring Aaron Rodgers with six quarterback hits, two sacks; they also generated two turnovers, including an interception. Indeed, for the first 35 minutes of the game, the Falcons had kept Green Bay entirely out of the endzone. By the time the Packers finally got on the scoreboard, Atlanta had already amassed a 31-0 lead.
The point is, when other teams are forced to pass the ball to keep up with their offense, the Falcons have been able to aggressively get after the quarterback and generate turnovers.
