Falcons concerned about red-zone breakdown

Flowery Branch — The Falcons have scored five touchdowns and six field goals on 13 trips inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.

One of the failed drives was a kneel down at the end of the Detroit game and the other was a loss on downs near the end of the Carolina game.

They would like to convert some of those field goals into touchdowns.

“Any time you get down there you want to come away with six points, whether if your at home or on the road,” center Todd McClure said. “You’d rather have a touchdown than a field goal. We have to concentrate on getting touchdowns.”

The Packers don’t have a passing touchdown in the red zone. Rookie quarterback Matt Ryan kept throwing the ball away against Tampa Bay in the red zone.

“I think it comes down to that we need to make some more plays in those situations,” Ryan said.

Offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey is clear about the Falcons’ approach in the red zone.

“Our objective every time we get the football is to score points,” Mularkey said. “If we don’t, that’s a failure. There is no gray area amongst the players or the coaches.

“We don’t say we need to have this percent or that percent, we say we need to score points or if we don’t it’s a failure. A field goal is success. No points is not a success.”

Mularkey believes the tight ends can be helpful in the red-zone passing game.

“They are involved down there,” Mularkey said. “We threw one to [Justin] Peelle early in the Detroit game. We had a chance to get him the ball, and it went off his fingers.”