Falcons’ report card from Monday: Team earns high marks in win over Rams
With the nation watching on “Monday Night Football,” the festive holiday-season crowd was treated to the Falcons’ best game of the year.
The Falcons jumped to a 21-0 halftime lead against the playoff-bound Rams and then did enough in the second half to hold them off for the stunning 27-24 victory at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Falcons are 3-0 since being eliminated from the playoffs.
In retrospect, losses to the Panthers (two), Jets and Dolphins look really bad and very costly. Falcons coach Raheem Morris said the team has had to learn to win games.
“We have to find ways to win, and (the team) just found ways to win, and they’re doing that now,” Morris said. “When you’re talking about finding ways to win, you’re talking about people making plays.”
The Falcons leaned heavily on running back Bijan Robinson and an attacking defense that produced three interceptions, three sacks and a touchdown.
On a somber note, defensive tackle Brandon Dorlus, who was having a breakthrough season with 8.5 sacks, went down with a bad-looking knee injury.
“It didn’t look great,” Morris said. “I feel for the young man. Talking about a guy that’s been — the most sacks from an interior player that we’ve had here. I hope he’s going to get healthy very soon.”
Here are the grades for the Falcons from win:
Quarterback
Kirk Cousins understood the assignment. He said he needed to get the ball out of his hands and into Robinson’s hands as quickly as possible. He did that 27 times via 22 runs and five receptions. Cousins’ biggest contribution was not taking any sacks against a stout Rams defensive front. He got several balls out under duress, as he was hit seven times. He completed 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown. He had a passer rating of 99.2. Grade: A
Running back
Robinson was spectacular and finished with 195 yards rushing. They were not yards to nowhere. He had the 93-yard touchdown run, a 5-yard touchdown reception and a meaningful 10-yard run to get into field-goal range in the final minute of the game. Robinson had picked up 5 and 4 yards before carrying it for the third time in a row. “It was just one of them ones where I was trying to catch my breath in those split seconds,” Robinson said. “At first, they were telling me to catch a break, but ‘Z-Rob’ (offensive coordinator Zac Robinson) saw something in their defense and saw a switch, and he was like, ‘I need you in this last play right here.’“ Robinson stayed in with Tyler Allgeier at fullback. “Ty got a great block,” Robinson said. “Without Ty’s block, the play wouldn’t have happened. I just read his block and tried to use the breath that I had and got as much yardage as I could. But that was the play right there to help that field goal. We got it in, and it was a win.” Allgeier gave him a break with 10 carries for 23 yards. Grade: A
Wide receivers/tight ends
The receivers had to settle for doing the dirty work in this one. The offensive line couldn’t block the Rams’ front long enough for them to get into their routes. So everything was short and sweet, followed by a big hit from the Rams. David Sills V was the leading receiver, with three catches for 37 yards. Darnell Mooney caught 2 of 3 targets for 35 yards. Kyle Pitts caught 2 of 3 targets for 16, including a big 11-yard grab on the final drive to set up the game-winning kick. London had a big block on Robinson’s 93-yard touchdown run. Gritty effort by the group. Grade: A
Offensive line
It was an uneven effort by the line. Although they did help to spring Robinson for his 229 scrimmage yards, the pass protection was shoddy. Cousins threw several balls away to avoid sacks and took seven hits. The line committed three of the seven penalties. Chris Lindstrom had a false start, and Elijah Wilkinson had two false starts. The MNF commentators kept pointing out how left tackle Jake Matthews was getting beat. Grade: B
Defensive line
Teams can run on the Falcons’ smallish front, and the Rams did. Running back Kyren Williams rushed 13 times for 92 yards, 7.1 yards per carry. Overall the Rams rushed 20 times for 115 yards, 5.8 per carry. LaCale London finished with four tackles. Dorlus and Ruke Orhorhoro had a sack each. Grade: B
Linebackers
Divine Deablo led the defense with 10 tackles. Leonard Floyd found his way to the quarterback, as he had a sack and two quarterback hits. He hadn’t registered a sack since the Jets game and has only 3.5 on the season. James Pearce Jr.’s streak of getting at least a half a sack ended at seven games. He needs three sacks to catch Claude Humphrey for the all-time franchise record (11.5) for sacks in a season by a rookie. Grade: B-plus
Secondary
Safeties Jessie Bates III and rookie Xavier Watts were spectacular. Bates came up in run support and finished with seven tackles. He returned his interception 34 yards for a touchdown and ran over a lineman on his way into the end zone. He also had a pass breakup. Watts had two interceptions and three pass breakups. His five interceptions on the season ties him with Deion Sanders (1989) for most by a rookie in franchise history. Cornerback A.J. Terrell had two pass breakups and showed up in run support with seven tackles. C.J. Henderson started for Mike Hughes and had help from Watts. Dee Alford had a key pass breakup late on Tutu Atwell when a reception would have put the Rams in field-goal range late. Grade: A
Special teams
Zane Gonzalez made field goals of 56 and 51 yards in the second half that were key to the victory. Bradley Pinion boomed a 59-yard punt that had 4.8 seconds of hang time and a 61-yarder that had 4.83 seconds of hang time. Pinion set the franchise record for punts inside the 20 in a single season (32), breaking the record set by Michael Koenen in 2007. But the field-goal unit had an attempt blocked and returned for a touchdown. The kickoff coverage unit gave up another long return of 38 yards to Jordan Whittington to start the second half. Grade: C
Coaching
For the second game in a row, the staff came up with a plan to take away the opposition’s major weapon. The Falcons blanketed wide receiver Puka Nacua and held him to five catches for 47 yards. The Falcons were content to see if the Rams’ rushing attack could beat them, and it could not. The Falcons continued its miserable play on third downs, as they were 5-of-13 (38.5%) and had a delay-of-game penalty. Zac Robinson got caught celebrating in the referee’s restricted zone and was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. “We’ve got to stay back behind the line,” Morris said. “You can’t get excited when we get interceptions. You’ve got to act like we’ve been here before, and that was a penalty on us.” Grade: A
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.
