Orchard Park, NY – Now, the Falcons have a taste of what it’s like to play a meaningful late-season football game.
They’ll have to correct some things before they learn how to win one of these matchups.
With their faint playoffs hopes on the line, the Falcons waged a fierce battle against the Bills before succumbing 29-15 before a boisterous crowd of 64,948 on Sunday at Highmark Stadium.
The Falcons’ defense had three interceptions, but gave up more than 200 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns. The offense, which lost prized rookie tight end Kyle Pitts halfway through the game with a hamstring injury, sputtered throughout the day behind some shaky pass blocking.
“We came up short there at the end, but our guys battled,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said. “We ended the half well and we had our chances. Credit to Buffalo. They grinded out some drives when they had to have them late. We came up short.”
The Bills improved to 10-6 on the season, while the Falcons dropped to 7-9 and were eliminated from the playoffs. The defeat also guaranteed the franchise’s fourth straight losing season.
There was an opportunity to take control of the game, but the undermanned Falcons was not up to the challenge.
A bizarre call with about 6:07 left took a Falcons’ touchdown off the board that would have made it a one-score game.
Matt Ryan’s knee was ruled down and his taunting penalty after the play moved the ball back to the 16-yard line after an apparent 7-yard touchdown run. Ryan tossed incompletions on third and fourth down and the Falcons turned the ball over on downs.
“Obviously, I didn’t think I was down,” Ryan said. “I wasn’t trying to give myself up or anything like that. It’s disappointing. But the rules are the rules. You have to play by them.”
Ryan is not known as a big-time trash talker.
“Football is an emotional game,” Ryan said. “So, there are lots of things that are said out there. I’m disappointed in myself in that the timing cost us. But I didn’t think it was anything that bad.”
After their third interception, in the third quarter, the offense had the ball with a one-point lead and couldn’t move. After the three-and-out, the Bills promptly went on a touchdown drive and two-point conversion to take a 22-15 lead with 5:56 left in the third quarter.
Buffalo’s Devin Singletary rushed 23 times for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Josh Allen rushed 15 times for 81 and two touchdowns. Overall, the Bills rushed 44 times for 233 yards.
Ryan, playing under duress, completed 13 of 23 passes for 197 yards and no touchdowns. He finished with a passer rating of 84.9.
Without Pitts, the Falcons went scoreless in the second half.
“It’s tough,” Ryan said. “It’s hard to replace his skill set. He played extremely well for us when he was out there.”
Here are the five things we learned from the game:
1. Turnover chain. The Falcons don’t have a turnover chain, but maybe they should.
Just a week after linebacker Foye Oluokon saved the game in the final minute with an interception, safety Duron Harmon and cornerback A.J. Terrell came up with interceptions to help the Falcons build at 15-14 halftime lead.
Oluokun tipped the pass that Harmon intercepted in the end zone which eventually led to a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Mike Davis.
The Falcons turned Terrell’s interception into a 24-yard field goal.
The Bills had the ball to start the second half and Oluokon intercepted Allen for the third time. The Falcons couldn’t move the ball and were forced to punt.
Running back Cordarrelle Patterson was dropped of a loss of 3 yards, Ryan was sacked for a loss of 4 yards and the third down pass was incomplete for a quick three-and-out. Thomas Morstead came on to punt into the swirling wind instead of attempting a 50-yard-plus field goal, but they Falcons had a delay of game penalty.
“We still have to handle that better,” Smith said. “You don’t want to waste a timeout there. We had an equipment issues. It wasn’t communicated well. (The clock) went under 15 (seconds) ... in that end zone, that’s a tough end zone to kick a decent field goal into.”
2. Pitts sets new mark. Pitts broke loose for a 61-yard gain in the second quarter to give him the most yards receiving in his rookie season in franchise history. He broke the record held by Julio Jones.
Pitts had two catches for 69 yards against the Bills. On the season, he has 66 catches for 1,018 yards in 16 games played.
Jones, who played in 13 games as a rookie, had the old mark with 959 yards set in 2011. He also had eight touchdowns and 95 catches as a rookie.
Smith didn’t have an update on Pitts’ injury status after the game.
3. Short handed. With nine players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Falcons promoted five players from the practice squad in cornerback Luther Kirk, cornerback Lafayette Pitts, tight end Parker Hesse, wide receiver Austin Trammell and defensive lineman Nick Thurman.
“Our guys stepped up,” Ryan said. “I thought Parker Hesse, he played really well and he gave us everything that he had own the stretch. I’m proud of him for that effort.”
Also, swing tackle Rick Leonard, who was signed from the Vikings’ practice squad last week, was active. He was signed to replace Jason Spriggs, who went on the reserve/COVID-19 list last week.
The biggest loss for the Falcons was right cornerback Fabian Moreau, who had started all 15 games.
The Falcons used rookie Darren Hall outside in the base defense and Kendall Sheffield went outside and Hall went inside in their nickel defense.
The Falcons normally don’t let their cornerbacks travel with receivers, but they let Terrell travel with Stefon Diggs, the Bills’ Pro Bowl and All-Pro receiver.
“Just the game plan that we had coming in,” Terrell said. “Just low on bodies team-wise. We just had to make things work. Stefon is a great player in this league. Much respect to him. That was just a job and task that I had today.”
Terrell held the explosive Diggs to five catches on nine targets for 51 yards, with a long of 15 yards.
Sheffield had not played a defensive snap all season. He played just 48 special teams snaps this season.
Hall finished with a tackle and Sheffield had four tackles.
“They did real good job,” Terrell said of Hall and Sheffield. “You’ve got the next man up mentality. They came in and did their job. Just proud of them boys.”
4. Sack-a-thon. The Falcons continued to struggle in pass protection as they gave up five sacks and eight quarterback hits.
It was the eighth straight game that Ryan has not passed for more than 300 yards.
Ryan has now been sacked 37 times an hit 87 times this season. The hits are the most on any quarterback in the league.
5. Rushing attack. The Falcons rushed 22 times for 96 yards.
Patterson (nine carries for 28 yards), Davis (eight for 42) and Qadree Ollison (three for 19) split the carries. Ollison suffered a quad injury and was lost for the game. Ryan had two rushed for 7 yards.
The Falcons entered the game as the 31st ranked rushing team in the NFL going against the Bills’ No. 1 rank defense it total yards and pass yards.
The Falcons knew they had to run the ball successfully in order to sustain drives, but were not able to do so.
“I thought for the most part, we were able to move it,” Smith said. “We had some decent runs in there. Clearly, we would have loved to have had the ball more. We have to do a better job of sustaining drives.”
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