Falcons ‘know we’ll be able to turn it around’ with season at risk of spiraling

MADRID — The Falcons’ makeshift locker room at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was tight. Cramped, even. It was impossible to ignore the equipment bags littered at each turn within it.

And it was similarly hard to avoid seeing the blank stares and feeling the palpable tension from a team that, after a 34-17 loss to the Bengals (6-2) on Sunday in Madrid, has dropped four of its last five games.

These are the moments, safety Jessie Bates III says, where some teams start pointing fingers. They begin to splinter. But the Falcons’ unwillingness to cave to those desires gives their four-time captain reason to believe this season isn’t as over as it may seem.

“We got the right men in this locker room,” Bates said. “I know the characteristics that we got in this locker room. I feel like we’re gonna stay together and we’ll grow from this, for sure.”

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski opted against “making any proclamations on our year right now,” but his team didn’t send much of a statement that it’s headed in the right direction Sunday afternoon.

The Falcons’ defense allowed three touchdowns in as many drives to open the game. The Bengals averaged over seven yards per play. The Falcons’ offense came out hot, scoring 10 points in the first quarter, then only mustered one touchdown the rest of the way.

Nick Folk missed his fifth field goal of the season, and he’s missed a kick in four of the team’s nine games. The team committed 12 penalties, including three in the red zone and two that negated would-be first downs.

“I’m just focused on our performance today, which was not up to our standard,” Stefanski said. “I’m giving credit to our opponent first, but we had too many self-inflicted things today that are going to make it really hard to win versus anyone and then, in this case, a very good football team.”

There was once a point where the Falcons’ season contained plenty of promise.

In quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s first two starts back from last season’s torn ACL, the team scored 80 points, amassed over 900 yards of offense, rushed for 200 yards in back-to-back weeks, allowed only 67 rushing yards and won both games by 21 points.

The Falcons have played five games since then. They’ve lost four. And for good measure, as a reminder of what the Falcons are capable of when they’re clicking, their lone win came in Week 7 over a then-undefeated San Francisco 49ers team with Super Bowl aspirations.

So, what’s changed?

“There’s no short answer to that,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, the shortest answer is we have to be better, and I’m talking all of us. When you’re playing good football teams, you’ve got to be at your best, and we were not at our best.”

When he was asked if changes to personnel or other areas of the team are possible, Stefanski said the team will do as it always does — look at things it can do better. No guarantee, but no denial.

Falcons cornerback C.J. Henderson said the key to getting the season back on track is sticking to the process. The Falcons feel their habits and weekly process has been fine. Translating it to Sunday has been problematic.

Consider penalties. Every team meeting, Stefanski shows the players how many penalties they had the practice before. The number is usually as low as one or two, Penix said. Sometimes, they’re entirely clean. But it didn’t carry into Madrid.

Late in the first quarter, Penix had a six-yard scramble to the one-yard line, setting up a likely touchdown. But officials called left guard Matthew Bergeron for holding, and the Falcons’ next snap came at the 17-yard line. They were forced to settle for a field goal.

“We can’t do that,” Penix said. “Great football teams, they don’t do that. We can’t beat ourselves. We’ve got to go out there, and we’ve got to beat the other team.”

The Falcons witnessed the margin between themselves and, as Penix said, a great football team Sunday afternoon. The Bengals have won four games in a row and appear internally optimistic about the heights their postseason run can reach.

Penalties, defensive breakdowns and offensive inconsistency led to the Falcons’ third loss this season by 16-plus points. It’s a game of inches, defensive tackle Maason Smith said, and the Falcons need to get back to the basics.

They believe they have the right wiring, the right makeup, to get there.

“Seeing how hard the guys fight throughout the week and the character of every man in the locker room, I know we’ll be able to turn it around,” Smith told the AJC. ”We just gotta get back to work, execute our game plans and continue to go, man.”

Stefanski often talks about his team’s resolve and resilience. Veterans like Bates and outside linebacker Samson Ebukam have, in the past, assured that the Falcons have the right people in the building steering the ship.

Now comes the time to prove it. The Falcons have reached an inflection point. Or perhaps they’re a week removed from one, and this is the reality.

Here’s another truth: Atlanta still has eight more games. How it responds to its third two-game losing streak of the season — whether there’s a fourth later down the road, or whether this is the start of new beginnings — will tell plenty about the strength of the Falcons’ armor.

“This type of season right now, it shows a lot about character (and) who the people are around you,” Smith said. “We got the guys to just continue to grind, man. Can’t tuck your tail, can’t hide from it. We still got a lot of games to go. So, it’s just getting back to winning.”

The Falcons are also beneficiaries of an NFC South that’s as wild, and underperforming, as ever. No team is above .500. The division is wide open.

And while the Falcons try to pick up the pieces from a rut that’s either the start of a spiral or the turning point for a resurgence, they’ll cling to the glimmer of hope the NFC South routinely provides each of its constituents.