ATLANTA, GA – On a warm Sunday afternoon, the Atlanta Falcons faced off against the Tennessee Titans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Headed into the game, the Falcons had a 1-2 record and struggled with slow starts in games, which led to losses against Minnesota and Indianapolis last week. Atlanta was looking to improve in there and get the win, in order to close out the first quarter of the NFL season on a good note. However, that was not the case as the Falcons lost 24-10 to the Titans.
Falcons head coach Dan Quinn spoke after the game about the loss.
“It is a tough loss, and we’re as disappointed as our fans are,” said a disappointed Quinn. “This is a tough loss and a team that has a lot of pride and had the preparation right to go. We haven’t delivered on our performances. I told them we’ve been through one quarter. Where we sit is at 1-3, and that’s not acceptable for the standards we set for one another. We intend on getting that fixed. It will be work to do that, but that’s what we intend on doing.”
Early on, the Titans showed that this wasn’t going to be an easy, layup win for the Falcons. On their second drive of the game, Tennessee was able to get a touchdown immediately on a 55-yard pass from quarterback Marcus Mariota to rookie wide receiver A.J. Brown for the score. It was a short slant pattern and Brown was able to beat Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant and sped past the rest of the defense for the score.
The Falcons quickly responded, with a six-play, 85-yard scoring drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by running back Ito Smith. The drive was highlighted by a 20-yard pass from quarterback Matt Ryan to wide receiver Julio Jones and a 28-yard pass from Ryan to tight end Austin Hooper. After the score, the stadium was rocking and it felt like the Falcons had exorcised their slow start demons. Once again though, they reared their ugly heads on both offense and defense.
The Titans responded with a 13 play, 75-yard scoring drive capped off with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Mariota to Brown. The Titans methodically made their way down the field, having their way both rushing and passing the ball. Additionally, the Falcons had two defensive penalties on the drive that helped keep it going. By this point, Tennessee led 14-7 and one could almost feel the air being sucked out of the building. One got the feeling that the next drive was going to be key for the Falcons.
On the next drive, it looked like the Falcons were going to answer the Titans right back with a score their own. The drive started off well with a 20-yard pass from Ryan to Jones, followed shortly by a 16-yard completion to Hooper. Two plays later though, disaster struck.
Atlanta was at the Tennessee 34-yard line, looking like they were well on their way to at least kicking a field goal when Ryan was sacked for a 10-yard loss by Titans defensive tackle Jurrell Casey. However, the worst part of the play was that Ryan fumbled and the Titans recovered it with great field position, on their 44-yard line.
The Titans then proceed to rip off two back-to-back scoring drives, one drive ending in a 45-yard field goal from kicker Cairo Santos and the other drive ending with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Mariota to wide receiver Corey Davis. This gave the Titans a 24-7 lead with 2:23 left to play in the second quarter.
The Falcons seemed to recognize and feel that the pressure was on them as they seemed to be in more of a rhythm and were playing with much more urgency. They proceeded to go on a 12 play 51-yard drive, when they had kicker Matt Bryant come out with35 seconds left to attempt a 32-yard field goal. Bryant trotted on to attempt the field goal, the snap and hold were both good but the kick was pushed to the left and it doinked off the left upright. This miss gave the Titans a 24-7 lead heading into the half.
In the second half, the story was pretty much the same. The only differences being that the Atlanta defense played a bit better and that Atlanta’s offense had some success and was able to kick a field goal. Most of the second half though, the offense struggled to execute and the defense struggled to stop Tennessee from running the clock out with running back Derrick Henry.
Quinn spoke about Henry’s performance late in the game and the defense’s overall struggles in the game.
“Number one, we knew that was going to be a factor for sure,” said Quinn. “We were disappointed we didn’t get some of the stops there. The touchdown passes, certainly, the long ones hurt, for sure. On some of them, even the explosive pass that wasn’t a score, it’s something we had worked in drills. Not to deliver on those definitely hurt.”
The Falcons were led offensively by Ryan who completed 35-53 passes for 397 yards and no scores. He was also sacked five times and seemed to be under duress most of the game. Hooper led the receivers with nine catches for 130 yards and wide receiver Mohamed Sanu added nine catches for 91 yards.
The Titans were led by Mariota who completed 18-27 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns. Henry led the team in rushing with 27 carries for 100 yards and Davis led the team in catches with five for 91 yards and a score. Brown had three catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
Right now, the Falcons sit at 1-3 and are about to head on a two-game road trip, starting in Houston next week against the Texans. Then they go to Arizona to face off against the Cardinals. Both of these teams have potent offenses so the Falcons cannot afford to have slow starts, or poor execution early on against these teams. Or it could get ugly fast. Quinn emphasized that this issue is something they need to fix and he wishes he knew what was the cause behind these issues.
“I wish I had a real clear answer for that, but the fact is that is the truth,” said a melancholy Quinn. “We’ll make sure — we went back to get it tied up and then went behind again at the half. We’ll look at that hard. I addressed some things on that from last week, but obviously we still have work to do. Like I told the team inside, we’re not where we want to be, and there’s things that need our attention, and we’re just the ones to do it. We’ll put that onto the list because we’re not playing like we’re capable of, and we certainly intend on doing that when we hit the road.”
Written by Erik Slaby
