Grading the Falcons, who finally found a way to win in big comeback
TAMPA, Fla. — The Falcons rallied from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull out an improbable 29-28 win over the Bucs on Thursday night at Raymond James Stadium.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins played his best game of the season, and tight end Kyle Pitts was a force to be reckoned with. The defense came up with late stops when the offense needed the ball.
About the only thing that didn’t go right was the ridiculous two-point conversion tries that the invisible analytics guy ordered.
The Falcons overcame a franchise-record 19 penalties for 125 yards, a Bijan Robinson fumble and the analytics guy to pull out the victory.
“It’s a steppingstone to where we want to go,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “We talked about this, building blocks for what we got to do. What we’re talking about is next year. Bijan talked about it with our team.”
Yeah, the Falcons are talking about next year because they were eliminated from the playoffs last week. They just wanted to spoil Tampa Bay’s bid to win their fifth consecutive NFC South title.
“We been talking about it throughout the whole process,” Morris said. “We got a lot of right things that we like, a lot of things that we love, and it’s our job to go out there and prove to our fans that we can do it. Only thing we can do right now is finish.”
Here are the grades the Falcons earned in the sloppy victory over the Bucs:
Quarterback
Cousins directed two fourth-quarter touchdown drives and the game-winning field-goal drive over the final 13:34 of the game. He caught fire. Overall, he completed 30 of 44 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns, all to Pitts. Cousins finished with a passer rating 117, his highest this season. He was sacked only once and pounced on his own fumble late to keep the key drive alive. Grade: A
Running backs
Robinson had a strong game, but he must take care of the football. He had another fumble. He rushed 19 times for 93 yards and a touchdown. He also caught eight of 11 targets for 82 yards. Tyler Allgeier had only two carries for 18 yards. Overall, the Falcons had 21 carries for 111 yards and a strong 5.3 yards per carry. “When we were down 14, it was really cool to see the sideline,” Robinson said. “There was energy that injected in all of us. Even on some of the plays that we had — the adverse plays that we had and how we just came back with it and didn’t stop.” Grade: B-minus.
Wide receivers/tight ends
Pitts was a beast. He caught 11 of 12 targets for 166 yards and three touchdowns in easily his best performance of the season. With wide receiver Drake London out, Pitts had to start coming through. He had 18 targets in the two previous games and was not coming down with the contested balls. Against the Bucs, he dominated and got his foot and his body down on his last touchdown to get the Falcons within 2 points. David Sills V dropped a touchdown pass, and Darnell Mooney had a fumble. Sills bounced back and made the biggest catch of the game to keep the game-winning field-goal drive alive. Grade: B-minus
Offensive line
Center Ryan Neuzil recovered Mooney’s fumble by hustling down the field and following the play. That kept the key touchdown drive alive. The Bucs stuffed the rushing attack in the previous meeting, but the line opened some running lanes behind Jake Matthews and Matthew Bergeron. Also, the line allowed only one sack. Grade: A
Defensive line
LaCale London continued his strong play. He had a sack and a tackle for loss. David Onyemata had four tackles and had a sack erased by a penalty. Brandon Dorlus, who missed the last game against Seattle, had a sack. Ruke Orhorhoro had a blocked pass. The run defense held the Bucs to 88 yards (4 yards per game) and kept Bucky Irving from taking over the game. Grade: B-plus
Linebackers
The outside linebackers were active in the pass rush. James Pearce Jr. had two sacks and Jalon Walker had a half-sack. Inside linebacker Divine Deablo had a half-sack. They did a good job in coverage. Also, inside linebacker Kaden Elliss finished with six tackles and had a sack erased by penalties. Grade: B
Secondary
Dee Alford came up with a big interception in the fourth quarter. Rookie Cobee Bryant did the best he could on Mike Evans after Mike Hughes left the game with an ankle injury. Hughes looked fine in the locker room after the game. A.J. Terrell was called for five penalties, and three were accepted. Safety Jessie Bates III led the defense in tackles with eight. Xavier Watts had seven tackles. Grade: C
Special teams
Zane Gonzalez came through with the game-winning kick after botching an earlier kickoff to set the Bucs up with good field position. The kickoff coverage unit came through with a stop after the Falcons made it a two-point game, at 28-26. Charlie Woerner made the tackle. Deven Thompkins was steady as the returner after the Falcons benched Jamal Agnew. Thompkins had two punt returns for 20 yards. The Bucs elected to take five touchbacks. Grade: B minus
Coaching
The Falcons committed a franchise-record 19 penalties. Five were called on Terrell, and there were six false-start penalties. “We will go clean up the penalties and do whatever it is we need to do, whatever it is,” Morris said. They were 5-of-11 on third downs (45.5%), which was a major improvement. Morris has been promising that the Falcons would find a way to get a win, and they finally did. Grade: C-minus
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.
