Dirty Birds Dispatch: Falcons need to flip script on slow starts

FLOWERY BRANCH — If you were late to your seat for the past three weeks at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, congratulations, and thank you. Signed, the Atlanta Falcons’ defense.

All three games — losses to the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears and a win over the San Francisco 49ers — started the same way. The Falcons won the toss and deferred. The opponent took the ball, put together a 10-play drive and scored. Two found the end zone. One settled for a short field goal.

The Falcons are averaging 5.4 points in the first quarter, good for sixth-best in the league. That’s a positive.

Here’s the negative: Atlanta’s defense is allowing 6.3 points in the opening quarter, tied for the third-worst mark in the league. The Falcons also have the NFL’s second-worst time-of-possession share in the first quarter, holding the ball for just 38.5% of the first 15 minutes.

• Sugiura: Big win over 49ers, but proceed with caution

In layman’s terms: the Falcons need to start faster. All 32 head coaches preach it, Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said. He needs his team to start doing it. But the onus, he says, falls on his coaching staff.

“It goes back to us as coaches, giving our guys a plan early that they can execute, that they feel good about, that they can go play fast,” Stefanski said Wednesday. “We’ll continue to try to do that, and where we fall short, we’re looking for different ways to do it.

“So, it’s certainly something we want to do, certainly feel good about a lot of the calls early and feel good about the players executing.”

There are different strategies, Stefanski said, that coaches can implement. Perhaps they add a competitive period to the start of practice. Maybe they have a different game-day message or adjust the players’ body clocks.

But ultimately, faster starts come down to execution. The Falcons haven’t done it well enough. They own it. And they’ll try to get rolling sooner at 1 p.m. Sunday, when they face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Let’s dive into the Buccaneers — and much more — in this week’s Dirty Birds Dispatch.

Aaaaargh!

Here’s a similar game to the juxtaposition of the Falcons’ offense and defense in the first quarter. The Buccaneers are 2-5. That’s not ideal. But after a 30-point blowout win over the Carolina Panthers, they actually have a positive point differential this season.

• All of the Buccaneers’ losses are to teams above .500, and all are by one possession.
• The teams that have beaten them have a 24-9 record.
• Their average margin of defeat is 5.4 points.

Being competitive hasn’t been the Buccaneers’ issue. It’s finishing games. The Falcons, meanwhile, still haven’t won a game by one possession — all are by two-plus scores — and they’re 0-3 in games decided by 8 points or less, though they finished plenty strong over the final three minutes against San Francisco.

So, if Sunday’s game comes down to the final possession? Who knows how it’ll end. Neither side has proven particularly good in those situations thus far.

🔗 Read more: Falcons’ new identity: ‘resiliency to its fullest’

A reunion for Stefanski, Mayfield

During Stefanski’s first two years as the Browns’ head coach, his quarterback was Baker Mayfield, who now leads Tampa Bay. In the spring of 2022, the Browns committed to Deshaun Watson as their starter, and they traded Mayfield to the Panthers in July.

At least from Mayfield’s viewpoint, the split didn’t appear to come under good terms.

“Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage,” Mayfield said in an X post on Jan. 20, 2026. “Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach!”

Asked about it the following week at his introductory press conference, Stefanski didn’t play into the tension.

• Where the NFC South stands entering Week 8

“Baker’s somebody that I have a ton of respect for as a player and a person,” Stefanski said Jan. 27. “I love rivalries in sports, and obviously, Buccaneers-Falcons have a great rivalry. It’s something that I’m excited about.

“But I would not get into the specifics of those types of things other than to say I have a ton of respect for Baker as a player, as a person. That’s a great team with a great player.”

Now comes their first meeting. Mayfield suffered a thumb injury in Week 3 and missed the following three games. He returned to start in the Buccaneers’ victory over the Panthers last week, though his final line — he went 7-for-11 passing for 64 yards and one touchdown — perhaps doesn’t underscore his true ability.

Stefanski knows it quite well.

“He’s still a playmaker,” Stefanski said Wednesday. “No play is ever over. He’s just going to constantly make plays down the field. He can run. He’s extremely talented.”

Pitts heads to Tampa with momentum

The last time the Falcons played in Tampa Bay, tight end Kyle Pitts won NFC Offensive Player of the Week while setting career highs with 11 catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns.

The time before that, Pitts caught four passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns. Prior to his two-touchdown game in Atlanta’s loss to the Bears in Week 6, Pitts’ only multi-score games came in Tampa Bay.

And after a slow start to this season, the Falcons’ new coaching staff is starting to figure out how to use Pitts. His explosiveness hasn’t been unlocked, but he’s caught 15 passes and scored four touchdowns over the past three games.

Pitts has become one of the Falcons’ premier red-zone targets, and if history is any indicator, he very well may find pay dirt once more this weekend.

“Kyle’s been very blessed by the good Lord,” Stefanski said. “He’s got great size. He can elevate. Great hands. Listen, we all know in the red zone that separation often comes vertically and not horizontally. I’ve been around some great guys that are just big and physical who can get up and go get the ball, and Kyle’s right in the mix with those guys.”

Penix wins top weekly honor — and creates optimism

Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors after completing 25-of-34 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns against the 49ers. It’s the first such award for Penix and the second by a Falcons offensive player this season; running back Bijan Robinson earned it in a Week 3 win over the Green Bay Packers.

If this version of Penix looks different from years past, it’s because, well, it is.

• He’s aligning under center and executing designed rollouts more often.
• He’s pushing the ball downfield less and throwing fewer tight-window throws.
• The ball is leaving his left hand quicker.
• He’s thrown only one interception in five starts, and it happened on his first drive of the season.

The formula is working. Penix’s EPA — expected points added — per dropback has jumped from -0.04 last season to +0.09 this season, according to Next Gen Stats.

Penix is playing at a high level. The Falcons are starting to think it’s sustainable, both this year and beyond.

“When No. 9 is out there, this is a completely different football team,” safety Jessie Bates III said Monday. “I really, truly believe that he’s a franchise quarterback. … You can sleep good at night knowing you got Michael Penix playing quarterback for you.”

🔗 Read more: Is Penix becoming a franchise QB?

Injury report

Full Participation

• WR Beaux Collins (hip)
• OT Cameron Williams (ankle)

Limited Participation

• DE Samson Ebukam (hamstring)
• S DeMarcco Hellams (shoulder)
• DT LaCale London (chest)
• RT Jawaan Taylor (hamstring)
• CB Avieon Terrell (illness)
• WR Olamide Zaccheaus (shoulder)

Did Not Participate

• DB Billy Bowman Jr. (hamstring)
• LB Divine Deablo (forearm)
• DE Za’Darius Smith (not injury-related — resting player)
• RB Brian Robinson (hamstring)

Robinson, Deablo, Zaccheaus, Terrell and Bowman didn’t play in the Falcons’ win over the 49ers.

What I’m looking forward to, Week 8 edition …

Take a quick trip down memory lane with me, please.

I covered the Falcons’ road win over the Buccaneers in 2024. That was a Sunday afternoon. Some 25 hours before kickoff, I was in the Memorial Stadium press box at Indiana University, covering the Hoosiers’ home win over Washington in College GameDay’s first full-show trip to Bloomington … ever.