National Football League

Falcons must find ways to stop a now dual-threat Matt Forte

Published Oct. 9, 2014 11:39 p.m. ET

foxsports

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Paul Worrilow expects to be busy on Sunday, very busy.

With the Chicago Bears in Atlanta on Sunday, the Falcons are going to have to worry about an explosive offense led by quarterback Jay Cutler, and targets on the outside like Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. While all three can wreak havoc on a defense, Worrilow has the majority of his attention elsewhere.

"Obviously going into the game as a linebacker, tight ends and running backs," said Worrilow. "That's usually what we're dealing with, what we're watching in film and stuff. It's a big part of their offense."

Martellus Bennett has 32 catches this season, good for sixth in the NFL and the second-highest number for a tight end. The middle of the Falcons' defense will keep an eye on him.

Last week in New York, Atlanta held tight end Larry Donnell -- who had averaged 6.25 catches per game -- to zero catches. If the Falcons can hold a second great pass-catching tight end to little or no damage done on Sunday, it will be a huge win for the defense.

After Bennett, Worrilow and fellow linebacker Prince Shembo will also have to figure out how to stop Bears running back Matt Forte.

That may be more difficult to get done.

Forte finished the 2013 season with 1,339 yards on the ground, second only to LeSean McCoy. He gained an average of 4.6 yards per carry. This season Forte is averaging just 3.9 yards per carry, and is eighth in the NFL in rushing with 319 yards.

After five games last season rushing for more than 100 yards, including four in his last five games, Forte has only eclipsed the century mark once in 2014, a 122-yard outpouring in Week 4 against the Packers.

Still among the league's top 10 in rushing, Forte could have been satisfied with just a slight decline in numbers. Instead, he's found ways to produce outside of Chicago's rushing attack.

Forte has turned into a potent receiving threat. He's pulled in 36 passes thus far in 2014, tops among running backs and only four receptions behind the league leader, Julio Jones.

Atlanta's head coach Mike Smith called Forte the engine that drives Chicago's offense, and knows his defense is going to have to find ways to stop him, both when he's running the football and when he's catching passes.

"It's going to be very important for us to have very good run fits, and then we're going to have to make sure that we leverage him on the check-down, because if you don't leverage him properly it ends up being like a run outside your defense," said Smith. "It's going to be very important that we leverage in the passing game, the short underneath passes."

Smith wants his defense to stay in the run lanes the Atlanta coaching staff has identified as crucial for stopping Forte from running the football. Clogging those lanes, and staying gap sound, is important because Forte does massive damage by cutting back against the grain when he's sees an opening.

Against the Panthers, Forte had five carries of seven yards or more. Three of those carries started with him going in one direction, and then cutting back as he read what was happening in front of him.

If the Falcons "fit" into the wrong run lanes, or get too aggressive and over pursue, Forte is adept enough to change his running assignment and make a defense pay when he changes direction.

Forte was also targeted 12 times last week by Cutler. And he caught all 12 passes.

"You can shut him down in the run game maybe," said Worrilow. "How good is that if you let him loose in the pass game? You've got to be good on both ends of the game when you play someone like him. He can make you pay either way."

He made Carolina pay in Week 5. And had Forte not coughed the ball up in the fourth quarter, he probably would have been the game's most valuable player (and Chicago would have won the game). His 61 yards on the ground were augmented by 105 receiving yards and a touchdown catch.

The Falcons are going to have to trust cornerbacks Robert Alford and Desmond Trufant to handle Marshall and Jeffery, and focus a lot of their defensive efforts on slowing Forte.

In the middle of those efforts, both tackling the runner and covering him as a receiver, will be Worrilow.