Falcons are finished after blowing chance to save season

BERLIN — All the Falcons had to do was make one more winning play to save their season. Put away the Colts, one of the AFC’s top teams, to end the losing streak at three games. Start a winning streak against lesser foes.

But the Falcons didn’t make the winning play. Instead, they had all-systems failures on offense, defense and special teams. The Colts won 31-25 in overtime on Sunday at Olympic Stadium, and now the Falcons are finished.

The Falcons (3-6) are three games behind the Buccaneers (6-3) in the NFC South with eight games left. The math says the Falcons can still win the division and make the playoffs. But there’s no reason to believe they will do that considering they’ve lost four games in a row and have won back-to-back games just once.

“Treat every game like it’s the playoffs,” Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell said of the team’s attitude for the back end of the season. “That’s the position we’re in.”

For the second week in a row, the Falcons floundered at the end against a good opponent. At New England, the Falcons missed an extra point kick attempt to tie near the end of regulation. They lost to the Colts after scoring a go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes to play.

This loss “stings a little bit more because we’ve got a nine-hour flight on the way home (and) we’ve got to sit and watch this film,” Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss said.

“It’s frustrating. I know this is a very capable team. I know we’re talented. I know we’ve got coaches that work really hard and put good game plans together. I know we’ve got good players that can go out and execute.

“But, right now, it’s not happening consistently enough. It stings. It hurts. We’re close, but with six losses we can’t be close anymore. It’s time to get over the hump and start stacking some wins.”

It’s past that time. The no-show losses to Carolina and Miami are haunting the Falcons. They needed to win at least one of those games to provide some cushion for the games against better teams. The margin for error was small against the Pats and the Colts, and the Falcons made too many mistakes to win.

The Falcons came into the season with high expectations of ending their playoff drought after seven years. They had a full offseason to prepare quarterback Michael Penix Jr., a deep skill position group headed by Bijan Robinson and a revamped defense.

The hopes grew when the Falcons dominated the Bills in Week 6. That victory prompted coach Raheem Morris to say they want to be a “playoff organization.” The Falcons haven’t won a game since.

They are looking like the same losing organization they’ve been for nine of the past 12 years, though Terrell said they still believe they are better than that.

“The record speaks for itself, but the team, I don’t think we feel that way,” he said. “We come in every day with great energy and a lot of accountability for each other. The record speaks for itself but, as a team, the bond hasn’t broken.”

Maybe not but, as Terrell said, the record speaks for itself. Beating the Colts would have changed the trajectory of the season, no matter that the Falcons didn’t play well.

A lost fumble by Penix on a blindside hit set up an Indianapolis touchdown in the first quarter. Star Colts running back Jonathan Taylor broke free for an 83-yard, go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter after Falcons defenders relaxed. Colts quarterback Daniel Jones kept alive drives by running for yards when the Falcons weren’t attentive.

The Falcons still had a chance to win despite all of that. They stopped the Colts twice on fourth downs, including five yards from the end zone in the third quarter. After Taylor’s touchdown run, the longest in the NFL up to that point, the Falcons engineered their best drive of the day to regain the lead on Tyler Allgeier’s touchdown run with 1:44 left.

Then the Falcons fell apart. Ameer Abdullah ran the following kickoff 49 yards to their 48-yard line. The Falcons forced a fourth-and-two, but Tyler Warren wrestled a pass away from linebacker Kaden Elliss to gain the first down.