The Falcons’ offense, under first-year offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, was smoking hot in the first four games of the season.
The Falcons could do very little wrong, and the passing combination of quarterback Matt Ryan to wide receiver Julio Jones was nearly unstoppable.
Teams didn’t know where Jones was going to line up or how to defend him with the Falcons using a new offensive scheme.
But using four games of video, the Washington Redskins and the New Orleans Saints gathered enough tendency information on Shanahan and the Falcons’ attack. Both were able to slow Jones and throw the offense out of sync.
“Our job is to score points,” running back Devonta Freeman said. “If they score 31, then we have to score 32.”
In 10 possessions against Washington, the Falcons scored two touchdowns and had three drives stopped by turnovers. The Falcons scored touchdowns on two of five trips into the red zone. Over the first four games, the Falcons led the NFL in scoring red-zone touchdowns, with 12 in 15 trips (80 percent).
In 12 possessions against New Orleans, the Falcons scored three touchdowns — two after the Saints opened at 24-7 lead and were in control. Three of the drives ended with fumbles. The Falcons were 2-of-3 in the red zone.
The Falcons needed an interception return in overtime to beat the Redskins on Sunday. But with the offense misfiring against the Saints, they never wrestled away control, and their five-game winning streak ended.
“We beat ourselves,” Freeman said. “We gave up a lot of things. At the end of the day, they took advantage of those opportunities.”
Ryan had a decent game statistically, but a few blunders helped sidetrack the team against the Saints.
After two subpar games, the team’s franchise quarterback can take a mini-break before the return to action against Tennessee Titans on Oct. 25.
After having three turnovers in an overtime victory over Washington, Ryan was credited with three fumbles against the Saints. Two of them came in key situations and the other, late in the game when things were decided.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn talks incessantly about taking care of the football.
One of Quinn’s tenets is to take care of the football and take it away from the opposition. The Falcons did neither against the Saints.
“I would argue that every meeting that I’ve been in that Dan has been, that there have been references to ball security and taking the ball away on defense,” Ryan said. “That’s who we have been the last couple of weeks early in the season, but (against the Saints) we turned the football over too much. We’ve got to be better than that.”
The Falcons hope to have their ballhandling issues resolved by the time they make the short trip to Nashville to play the Titans, but first they’ll take advantage of the weekend off.
“It’s a good opportunity to get some rest,” Ryan said. “This season is a long haul. That’s one of the things we try and tell the young guys.
“We have a lot of football in front of us. We are six games into it. It’s a chance to get some rest. Recover a little bit and then make sure when we get back to work.”
Jones has six catches for 93 yards against the Saints, but wasn’t much of a factor with all the extra attention.
Freeman continued to thrive as he made his fourth NFL start. He gained 100 yards on 13 carries and caught eight passes for 56 yards. He added a 25-yard rushing touchdown and 13-yard catch for a score.
“We can’t get that game back,” Freeman said. “Learn from it and get our bodies right. We have a lot of football left to play. That’s how we are approaching this. We’re going to keep a smile on our face. It was a football game.”
The Falcons know they must eliminate the turnovers. Freeman consoled running back Tevin Coleman after he fumbled inside the red zone to thwart a potential game-tying drive in the second quarter.
“I just let him know to keep his head up,” Freeman said. “He’s a great athlete. We just have to have a short-term memory. I had a fumble before, and I have fumbled a lot of times. That’s just part of being a running back. You’re going to fumble sometimes. We just have to keep working on ball security.”
Despite all of the mistakes, the Falcons trailed 14-7 at halftime and had the ball to start the third quarter. But the drive stalled after right guard Chris Chester was called for holding penalty.
“We had an opportunity to convert on a pretty good third-down situation when a ball got tipped down,” Ryan said. “It’s one of those things in order to kind of get the momentum, you have to be good on third down. Turnovers and third downs, we were not very good on that. That’s an area where we need to be better.”
One bright spot for the offense was that wide receiver Roddy White was more involved in the offense and scored a red-zone touchdown.
“I thought he did a nice job,” Ryan said after the game. ” On our first touchdown, Rod catches one in the back of the end zone. He beat man coverage. I thought he played well tonight.”
About the Author
