‘Gotta be better’: Falcons defense knew the Bengals’ plan. It didn’t matter.

MADRID — The Falcons’ defense doesn’t have a play recognition issue. It has an execution issue.

One week after the Falcons spent the final three quarters in Tampa Bay knowing the Buccaneers were going to run the ball and still failing to stop it, they encountered the inverse Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Nothing about the Bengals’ game plan — an explosive, pass-heavy attack anchored by quarterback Joe Burrow and receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — surprised the Falcons.

But that same, helpless feeling didn’t leave until halftime. Those emotions were all too familiar. So, too, was the result. The Bengals (6-2) cruised to a 34-17 win over the Falcons (3-6) on Sunday at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

“We knew what they were gonna do,” linebacker Kendal Daniels told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We just needed to stop them, and we didn’t stop them when we needed to stop them.”

The Bengals entered Week 9 throwing the ball on 65% of their plays, the second-highest rate in the league. Chase and Higgins had more receiving yards than any other receiving tandem in the league. Burrow ranked fourth leaguewide in passing yards.

The Falcons’ defense learned why early.

On a third-and-2 midway through the first quarter, Burrow hit Chase for a 47-yard touchdown, responding to an early punch from the Falcons’ offense to knot the game at 7-7.

Expecting a run, Xavier Watts played lower than a safety usually does. Cornerback A.J. Terrell pressed Chase at the line of scrimmage, and Chase ran past Terrell on a post route.

“When Joe saw A.J. Terrell on me, he got pretty excited,” Chase said.

Atlanta answered the score with a field goal, and after four pass plays of 10-plus yards, the Bengals came back with a touchdown. Then another. Then a field goal. Four drives, four scores. And the Falcons’ offense went silent.

Explosive. Productive. Unrelenting.

By halftime, the Bengals led 24-10. Chase had more receiving yards through four drives (142) than any other receiver has produced in an entire game against the Falcons this season. Burrow had already thrown for 239 yards, and after the Falcons spent this week hoping to make him uncomfortable, he entered the locker room having yet to be sacked.

The Bengals were simply playing pitch-and-catch at a high level. The Falcons tried different disguises, Watts said, and tried to mess with Burrow’s mind. He wasn’t fooled. Nobody was in the Bengals’ huddle.

“We knew what kind of game plan they was going to play against us,” Chase said, “and they did exactly what we was expecting.”

The Falcons couldn’t find any answers to the Bengals’ aerial assault.

“We got to do better,” Daniels said, “getting in the spaces they were throwing it, getting to the quarterback and rushing him, and just changing up the looks more, and not making him comfortable in the pocket, covering the guys that’s out there.”

Falcons safety Jessie Bates III, who posted a team-high 14 tackles, said slow starts can’t happen against teams like the Bengals, who have now won four straight games and are tied atop the AFC North.

Bates’ analysis of the Falcons’ struggles centered around missed assignments and red-zone defense. The Bengals scored touchdowns on both of their trips in the first half, while the Falcons converted on only one of their two visits.

“I’ve talked about this plenty of times, but we gotta force field goals,” Bates said. “That’s what keeps you in those types of games. When you’re playing against a really good team like that, that margin of error is really small.”

The Falcons’ defense took a step forward in the second half, holding the Bengals to 10 points and only 110 net yards. Atlanta sacked Burrow twice and held Chase and Higgins to two catches apiece. It forced two three-and-outs in Cincinnati’s first three possessions.

Halftime didn’t bring any dramatic changes. Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski implied there were a few schematic tweaks and the Falcons tackled better in the second half, but the root of the defense remained the same.

“We just got back into the game plan that we had coming into the game, man,” defensive tackle Maason Smith told the AJC. “Just trying to execute it at a higher level. First half, we must have not been executing as good as we know we can. So, we came in after halftime trying to execute, man. That’s all.”

Daniels felt defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich was “calling good calls” throughout the game. Execution lacked in the first half. It returned in the second half. But it was too late.

The Falcons’ offense didn’t have a particularly brilliant day, either.

Trailing by 14 points at halftime, the unit scored only one touchdown in the second half, though it outgained the Bengals, 133 to 110. Overall, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. went 20-for-31 passing for 162 yards, one touchdown and an interception. The team rushed for 157 yards, 100 coming from Bijan Robinson.

Bates, however, believes the Falcons’ defense didn’t do enough to help its offense.

“I felt like our offense did a hell of a job keeping drives going,” Bates said. “But we just got to keep that score down, give our offense a chance to keep it close.”

Not lost in the shuffle of Atlanta’s own ill execution is the brilliance of Chase, who showed his speed and ball skills with a deep touchdown catch and also made a one-handed grab over the middle, and Higgins, who’s now caught four touchdowns the past two weeks.

Chase finished with 10 catches for 155 yards and one touchdown. Higgins added five catches for 32 yards and a pair of scores.

“Those are two excellent football players with an excellent quarterback, good scheme,” Stefanski said. “You know you’re not going to stop them. You’re not going to take them out of the game. You’re trying to slow them down.

“We certainly didn’t do it enough, but if there’s one answer to take away those guys, obviously you’d do it. There’s not in this game. They’re very good football players.”

Falcons cornerback C.J. Henderson said the Bengals’ offensive chemistry — there were a handful of jump balls and off-script plays that netted positive gains, especially in the first half — made them particularly challenging to stop. But again, he emphasizes, Atlanta’s secondary didn’t do its job well enough.

“They just made some plays,” Henderson told the AJC.
“We got to be better on the back end.”