They’ve gotten it going. They look like the team we expected, albeit a bit later than we expected. They’ve won three in a row. They’re in position to make the playoffs. They might muster a run at the NFC South title. It’s all good.
Well ... almost all.
For better or worse, they’re still the Falcons, which means they’ve never met a lead they couldn’t blow. This calendar year, we’ve seen them lose games they led 17-0 and 28-3. (One of those is more famous than the other.) On Sunday, they’d rained havoc on the last-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who entered with the NFL’s second-worst pass defense and without their No. 1 quarterback.
With 22 minutes to play, the Falcons led 27-6. With eight minutes to play, the Bucs – behind backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and having lost two starting offensive linemen and tailback Doug Martin to injury – were positioned to tie the game. The thing that keeps happening was happening again.
Skipping ahead to the end: The Falcons did not lose this game. They won 34-20. Keanu Neal broke up a Fitzpatrick pass on fourth-and-1 from the Atlanta 18-yard line, and the home side drove smartly to Tevin Coleman’s put-away touchdown, converting three third downs en route. This wasn’t the Miami game in October, and it sure as heck wasn’t Super Bowl 51. This was a victory, not a loss, and in the NFL there are no bad victories. That said …
Just once, you’d like to see the Falcons lay waste to somebody.
They came close Sunday. They spotted the Bucs a field goal and outscored them 27-3. If you’d ever wondered what a game would look like if the Falcons chucked it to Julio Jones on every snap, this was for you. He caught 11 passes from Matt Ryan and one from Mohamed Sanu, the former high school quarterback. Jones’ catches netted 253 yards, which would be a career best for a lot of guys but not for him. (He had 300 against Carolina last year, you’ll recall, and 259 at Lambeau Field in 2015.) Oh, and he whooshed 15 yards on a reverse.
This was fun stuff, Jones breaking out different and legitimately amusing celebrations after both his touchdowns. It was rather less fun for Mike Smith, the head coach whose Falcons drafted Jones and now the Bucs’ defensive coordinator. His secondary had been shredded by a lot of guys this season, but this was the NFL’s best at the peak of his powers.
No matter who Smitty tried – and he tried everybody – it mattered not. Safety Justin Evans was beaten on Sanu’s deep (and beautifully delivered) ball; linebacker Lavonte David kept inheriting Jones in zone coverage, meaning he had no chance, and the former Falcon Brent Grimes was brushed aside for the third-down catch that galvanized the clinching drive. It takes a village to cover Julio Jones. Tampa Bay’s citizenry failed.
Said Ryan, asked why the Falcons don’t cut the foolishness and just throw it to Jones every down: “Good point.” Then: “I thought today was perfect. We were aggressive. When he was singled up, we went to him.”
As for Sanu’s pass, on which Ryan was flanked wide: “I told him I was open. I hear that from them enough.”
This was Dan Quinn, when asked how much confidence he had in Sanu’s ability to throw the long ball: “Afterwards, a ton.”
In sum, the Falcons walked away laughing, which always beats the alternative. But here I go into party-pooping mode and note that they had 516 yards, which is great, but yielded 373 to Fitzpatrick, which isn’t. I note that Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter, once the Falcons’ offensive coordinator, might have erred in going for it on fourth-and-a-longish-1 at the 18 with 7:10 remaining. Why not take the field goal, pull within four and heighten the pressure on a team that, as we know, doesn’t handle pressure well?
Said Quinn: “We talk a lot about brotherhood, and that’s exactly the style and attitude of what this game was. We had an unfortunate turnover (Terron Ward’s red zone fumble) and the defense had to make a stop and the offense had to respond. Those are groups supporting one another and having each other’s back.”
Credit the Falcons for not letting yet another game slip away. That’s progress, I guess. But they did cut it close, and this was against a weak-and-then-weakened opponent in what figured to be the easiest game on the remaining schedule. (They do play the Bucs again, but that’s down there.)
I know this is the NFL, a league geared to comebacks, and I know leads aren’t easy to hold, but this was a chance to win without drama. Being the Falcons, they made it interesting. They always do. It’s tempting to say this is going to catch up with them someday but, if memory serves, it already has.
OK. Enough grumpiness. Go watch Julio’s highlights again. He’s outrageous.
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