5 things we learned from the Falcons’ loss Sunday to the Seahawks
FLOWERY BRANCH — The Falcons made history Sunday.
With the 37-9 loss to the Seahawks, the Falcons were officially eliminated from the playoffs and tied the mark for most consecutive losing seasons in franchise history with eight.
The Falcons did not post a winning season from 1983 to 1990 in the pre-free agency and salary-cap era. The current NFL — based on parity — is built for teams to win eight or nine games, so the current period of losing is more egregious than the Dan Henning-Marion Campbell 2/Jim Hanifan interim-Jerry Glanville years.
Here are the five things we learned from the loss to the Seahawks:
1. Special teams are wretched
Actually, we didn’t learn anything new here.
It was reaffirmed that the special teams are not very good as they continued to make blunders: blocked field-goal attempt, 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a kickoff out of bounds.
“Coming out in the second half, you can’t give up the kickoff return,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said.
The score was tied 6-6 at halftime. After the return, the Seahawks snatched the momentum and commenced to beating down the Falcons.
2. Third down was a clown show
Again, nothing new was learned here.
It was another reaffirmation of the inability to execute on third downs (1-of-13, 7.7%). The excuse was they had to get out of long third-down situations. Well, they couldn’t make medium to short third-down situations and even had a fumble (by Bijan Robinson) and two interceptions (by Kirk Cousins) on third downs.
Robinson didn’t talk to media members after the game, so he was not asked about the fumble.
Cousins went to the podium and discussed his interceptions and the rash of dropped passes.
“I think the first one, Kyle (Pitts) did a good job of kind of trying to get me a quick surface to throw,” Cousins said. “I tried to (put) it on him. The (defensive back) drove on it and the ball got tipped up in the air and it goes right to the other (defensive back).”
Cousins then addressed his second interception, which happened on a third-and-7 at the Falcons’ 18-yard line.
“Then, the second one, checked to the screen,” Cousins said. “They kind of read out into the screen. It was a bang-bang play. Again, gets tipped up in the air and they come away with it.”
3. Darnell Mooney didn’t step up
With wide receiver Drake London out of the lineup with a knee injury, the Falcons needed Darnell Mooney to step up over the past two games.
He was not able to do it.
He continued to struggle with catching the ball as he caught just 1 of 4 targets against the Seahawks.
Mooney caught 60.4% of his targets last season. He’s caught just 40.7% this year.
He caught 64 of 106 targets for 992 yards and five touchdowns. This season, after breaking his collarbone on the first day of training camp, he’s caught 22 of 54 targets for 329 yards and one touchdown.
The wide receiver corps, which had position coach Ike Hilliard fired after three games, must be revamped next season.
4. Pearce continues his stellar play
With the Falcons out of the playoffs, folks will turn their attention to the NFL draft. The Falcons traded their first-round pick to the Rams, which is currently the ninth overall selection.
For the record, the draft will be held April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.
The Falcons had planned on being in the playoffs and their first-round pick in 2026 being a lower pick when they traded for outside linebacker James Pearce Jr., who is having a fabulous rookie season.
Pearce added another sack against the Seahawks and became the first rookie in franchise history to record a sack in five consecutive games. He also had two tackles.
Pearce’s six sacks are tied for the second-most by a Falcons rookie since sacks became an official stat in 1982. He joins Aundray Bruce (1988) and Takk McKinley (2017) in trailing only the seven from Mike Pitts in 1983.
He’s looking forward to playing the Bucs on Thursday night.
“It’s probably the best thing for us, to get back on the field and get right back at it,” Pearce said. “Be at the facility (Monday) in the morning, shake it off, and go get after Tampa Bay.”
5. Character of the team is being tested
How the Falcons close out the season will show the character of their team.
After facing Tampa Bay, they play at Arizona before hosting the Rams and the Saints to end the season. A 2-2 finish would be respectable. If they get swept, that would be a bad sign. If the manage 4-0 or 3-1, that would be exceeding expectations.
“I feel like, as long as we stay together, stay on our path, that’s all we can do,” Pearce said.
Unlike Pearce, most of the roster is playing for their future with the team or with other teams in the NFL.
“Obviously, the season hasn’t gone our way,” Falcons guard Chris Lindstrom said. “We are not going to the playoffs. We have the responsibility for four games to try to go out there and win. There’s a lot of pride in our team, our organization and our approach to that.”
The Falcons have to remain a team, while securing their individual space to move forward.
“The mindset is just doing our job to be the best that we can, every single day,” Lindstrom said. “That’s the approach that I’m going to take for the next month. Try to be the best guard in the NFL. To give us the best opportunities to win. I think everybody has that mindset individually.”
About the Author
Honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his "long and distinguished reporting in the field of pro football," D. Orlando Ledbetter, Esq. has covered the NFL 28 seasons. A graduate of Howard University, he's a winner of Georgia Sportswriter of the Year and three Associated Press Sports Editor awards.
