Home cooking was not enough for the Atlanta Falcons.
They were hoping a return to the cozy confines of the Georgia Dome would lead to a victory after road losses to Vikings and Giants, but the Chicago Bears were rude and nasty house guests.
The Bears, playing with backup linebackers, pummeled the Falcons, 27-13, as they exploited a young and confused secondary and made the Falcons’ offense look rather pedestrian before 70,712 fans on Sunday.
“We were outgained in this football game by almost 200 yards (and that’s) not nearly good enough,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said.
The Bears improved to 3-3, while the Falcons dropped to 2-4.
“We have too much talent to be playing the way that we are playing,” said disgusted defensive tackle Corey Peters.
The offense, considered the strength of the Falcons’ team, has scored just three touchdowns over their last nine quarters. They continued to misfire on third downs and had seven dropped passes that killed drives.
Wide receivers Roddy White and Julio Jones had two drops each. Tight end Levine Toilolo had three dropped passes. White and Jones didn’t show up in the game and didn’t speak to reporters afterwards. A team spokesman said they were being treated by trainers.
Running back Antone Smith continued to provide the fireworks with limited playing time. But for some bizarre reason only received six touches while the Falcons continued to sputter.
He jump-started the offense with a 41-yard touchdown run on a screen pass in the third quarter.
Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler competed 26 of 38 passes for 381 yards and one touchdown. After the Falcons battled back to tie the game in the third quarter, he connected with wide receiver Alshon Jeffery on a nice 74-yard pass play.
The play zapped the life out of the Falcons as Chicago running back Matt Forte scored on a 6-yard run on the next play to put the Bears ahead for good.
Ryan completed 19 of 37 passes for 271 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He was victimized by the dropped passes.
White and Jones had a tough time on seam routes and appeared to be looking for the hit from the safety. Jones was targeted 12 times and caught just four passes for 68 yards. White caught three of his six targets for 40 yards.
Jeffery had five catches for 136 yards and Brandon Marshall added 113 yards on six catches for the Bears.
It was a big NFC loss for the Falcons, if they could somehow climb back into the playoff picture, the Bears would have the head-to-head advantage.
The Falcons have their eyes on contending for the NFC South title in what appears to be a down year. They blew an opportunity to benefit for Carolina’s 37-37 tie Cincinnati as the Panthers are 3-2-1. New Orleans, on a bye week, is 2-3 and Tampa Bay was routed by Baltimore and dropped to 1-5.
With the Falcons misfiring on offense, the
Bears jumped out to a 13-3 halftime lead. The Bears outgained the Falcons 275 yards to 98 in the first half despite that the Bears were playing with a backup linebacking corps.
The Bears were without linebackers Shea McClellin, Lance Briggs and Jonathan Bostic, who combined had 320 NFL starts. They were replaced by Khaseem Greene, Darryl Sharpton and Christian Jones, who had 20 combined NFL starts.
However, the revised Bears linebacker unit was able to help stifle the Falcons on third down as they were just 4 of 13 on third down conversions.
The Falcons came out on their first drive on the second half determined to get moving.
However, they had to overcome several penalties and a first down-and 36 after starting on their own 14-yard line. On third down-and-6 from Chicago’s 41, Ryan tossed a screen pass out to Smith, who turned on the after burners and raced into the end zone. Bryant’s kick made it 13-10.
The defense came up a three-and-out stop to get the ball back to the offense with 9:32 left in the third quarter.
The offense went back on the attack and drove down to Chicago’s 36-yard line over nine plays. But on third down, White dropped a pass. Bryant boomed a 54-yard field goal to tie the game 13-13.
“We didn’t give ourselves a chance to be successful,” guard Justin Blalock said. “We kept putting ourselves behind the eight ball. No matter what we did we had penalties or poor execution or what have you. We were just taking turns finding a way to not build momentum.”
For Bryant it was the 15th time that he had made a field goal of 50 yards or more during his career with the Falcons.
On the Bears’ next possession, cornerback Desmond Trufant and safety Kemal Ishmael became confused on a simple two-man route and let Jeffery run free.
“I could have done a better job,” said Ishmael, who starting for the injured William Moore. “Things happen. They made a big play.”
Ra’Shede Hagemen blocked the extra point attempt.
They Falcons have four games away from the Georgia Dome before returning home to play the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 23.
