FLOWERY BRANCH — Down two scores in the fourth quarter Sunday, the Falcons’ offense came to life.
After seven consecutive empty possessions, the offense scored two touchdowns and a two-point conversion to take the lead before losing 29-25 to Tampa Bay.
The Falcons (6-7) are hoping to take that offensive spurt into their meeting with the Panthers (1-12) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“That’s how we want to do it for the whole 60 minutes,” Falcons running back Bijan Robinson said. “I know that we’ve got to come back in and do the best that we can to get the game, to get us ahead for that game.
“But I think we need to learn that we need to keep that momentum throughout the whole game and not (just) bring it in the second half and in the fourth quarter. We need to do it from the (time) we start the game until we finish the game.”
The Falcons opened with a good drive that stalled at the Bucs’ 2, and they settled for a 20-yard field goal. A screen pass was intercepted on the second possession by Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis after a missed block. Tight end Kyle Pitts scored on a 36-yard touchdown pass on third possession.
Then the offense went missing in action: missed field-goal attempt, safety, missed field-goal attempt, punt, punt, punt and punt. The Bucs managed to cobble together a 19-10 lead before the Falcons stormed back.
“We started to get in our groove along the (offensive) line,” center Ryan Neuzil said. “We are a well-conditioned team, and I felt like that helped us in the fourth as well. Just to keep it moving and make sure that we keep pressing.”
On the first scoring drive of the fourth quarter, Robinson took a shovel pass and ran for 33 yards. He scored on 4-yard touchdown run to cap a seven-play, 67-yard drive.
Tampa Bay added a Chase McLaughlin field goal to go up 22-17.
Quarterback Desmond Ridder tossed a deep ball on the first play of the ensuing drive, and wide receiver Drake London soared over two defenders to make an acrobatic catch for a 45-yard gain. After runs of 9, 9 and 6 yards, Ridder scored on a 6-yard keeper. The two-point conversion pass to London gave the Falcons a 25-22 lead.
Pitts powered the first touchdown drive earlier in the game. Robinson the second and London the third.
“Just how he works,” Robinson said of London. “He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t worry about touches or anything. He just goes to practice. Goes back to work. That’s all you see from him.”
London finished with a career-high 10 catches for 172 yards.
“He’s going to express his emotions on the field,” Robinson said. “He’s going to want to do the best that he can to help the team win. But just seeing him at practice every single day, it’s really encouraging to see a guy like that as he comes back to work and tries to be his best.”
If the Falcons are going to make a playoff push, the offense needs to figure out how to be more consistent and eliminate the major blunders such as the missed blocks that led to the safety and the interception.
“We know that these last four games are going to be super important, super vital,” Robinson said. “We are trying to win every single one of them so that we can go to the playoffs. We know these last four games are going to be Super Bowl games for us.”
The Falcons know that the Panthers have a stout defense.
“Just dominate them up front,” Robinson said. “Understand that we need to run the ball really well. Pretty much have our overall offense on them. Eliminate the mistakes. Eliminate the small mistakes. Eliminate those three-and-outs that we have.”
The Falcons scored two touchdowns on three drives inside the Bucs’ 20. However, they can’t stall on the 2-yard line as they did on their opening drive of the game. The Falcons have scored touchdowns on 52.63% of their red-zone trips, which ranks 20th in the NFL.
“Whenever we have a chance to get down there, we have to put the ball in the end zone,” Robinson said.
The offense line was without center Drew Dalman and right tackle Kaleb McGary against the Bucs. Left tackle Jake Matthews missed most of the game, and Chris Lindstrom left for a series with an ankle injury.
“If somebody goes down, you don’t ever want to be able to kind of limit the offense or miss a step,” Neuzil said. “It’s good that everyone was able to get up there and just keep it going.”
The Falcons are moving the ball, as they average 336.7 yards per game, which ranks 15th in the league.
“Just try to clean up the mistakes,” Neuzil said. “We are able to get the yards. Just have to capitalize.”
Falcons coach Arthur Smith is striving for consistency on offense and defense.
“Really, I think, overall team, really consistency is a shared accountability,” Smith said. “When you want to talk about better ways to stop a run in a game, we can also help the run defense by scoring more. We can help the pass rush that way. You can have a good game statistically, but maybe there is a play or two more that could have kept a drive alive, scored 11 more points.”
Ridder has played strong in the fourth quarter this season.
“We got into that third quarter, and it felt like it was offense, defense, offense, defense, offense,” Ridder said. “We were going back and forth. We were not able to get anything going until the fourth quarter. We were able to move the football. We just have to find a way to stay consistent throughout the entire game.”
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