As the first NFL team eliminated from the playoffs, the Falcons held a team meeting last week.
The topic: pride.
After collectively concluding that pride was all that they had to play for, they showed some mettle unseen much of this season, pulling out a 34-31 overtime win over Buffalo before 38,969 fans at the Rogers Centre on Sunday.
“We needed every man in that locker room to get the win,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “I do believe that we showed our resiliency as a team. To be down 14 points in the mid-part of the first quarter and fight back shows what type of guys we have on this team.”
In an unusual path to victory, they took a second half lead 24-17, kicked it away to 31-24 with 11:48 to play before rallying again, Matt Bryant’s 36-yard field goal three minutes into overtime wining it.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak as the Falcons improved to 3-9. The Bills, who were hopeful of working into the AFC playoff mix, dropped to 4-8.
“We talked as a team and we know exactly what we are playing for,” said running back Steven Jackson, who rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns. “We’re playing for pride. We showed our character as a team overall. We talked about being persistent and preserving through all kinds of situations. I think this game embodied exactly what we sought out to do as a team.”
The Falcons fell behind 14-0 just 10 minutes into the game and could have been steamrolled like they were in losses to Arizona, Carolina, Seattle and Tampa Bay.
But they came from behind twice to win. In overtime, safety William Moore forced a fumble to set up the final drive. The next big play came on a screen pass to Harry Douglas that went for 20 yards to Buffalo’s 23-yard line.
“We knew we needed about 10 to 12 yards to get into Matt’s field goal range,” said quarterback Matt Ryan, who completed 28-of-47 passes for 311 yards and a touchdown. “We started off with a run and then we got that screen on the backside to Harry. It was a really good play call by (offensive coordinator) Dirk (Koetter), really good execution up front and a great individual play by Harry.”
That sequence could never have happened without a defensive stop in the last minute of regulation, with the score tied and the Bills on the Atlanta 44. Nickel back Robert McClain, who was having a tough day defending Stevie Johnson, popped the ball loose on a 14-yard completion and Moore recovered it to force overtime.
It was not just execution but pride that popped the ball out, according to Moore.
“No doubt about it, that’s all we’ve got,” Moore said. “That’s all we are playing for right now. At this point, we were 2-9 going into the ball game. Everybody has counted us out. All we’ve got is the guys in the locker room.”
Appearing loose from the start, the Falcons opened the game with good old trickeration. On the opening kickoff, Jacquizz Rodgers took the ball at the goal line, ran 10 yards to his left and handed it off to Antone Smith, who broke back to the right on a reverse. Smith ran for 40 yards to the 50-yard line.
But the drive fizzled and while the Falcons were figuring out how to block the Bills pass rush — Ryan was sacked six times — Buffalo jumped out to a 14-0 lead.
On their third possession, the Falcons went on the attack. Ryan completed passes of 11, 19 and 11 yards and used a roughing the passer penalty to move down to Buffalo’s 27-yard line. Jackson, cutting off a block from fullback Patrick DiMarco, shot through the secondary for his second touchdown run of the season.
Midway through the second quarter, the Bills added a 29-yard field goal from Dan Carpenter to make it 17-7 but the Falcons responded again. Antone Smith, the seldom-used backup running back, provided a spark with a 38-yard touchdown run behind key blocks from left tackle Lamar Holmes and tight end Tony Gonzalez.
“It’s a play that we went over a lot this week,” Holmes said. “We emphasized it a lot with our placements and the spots that we needed to be at. The time that we ran that play, it was right. They were in the right defense that we needed.”
The Falcons added a 49-yard field by Bryant as the half ended 17-17.
In their first possession of the second half, the Falcons stayed on the move, converting on three third-downs to keep a 10-play, 55-yard touchdown drive alive. Ryan found Gonzalez in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown to put Atlanta up 24-17.
It was the Falcons first second-half lead since being up on Tampa Bay 24-10 in the third quarter six games ago. But just as quickly, they imploded.
Ryan fumbled a snap that was recovered by Bills linebacker Kiko Alonso and on the next play, Buffalo’s Fred Jackson scored on a 21-yard screen pass, leading to a 24-24 tie.
C.J. Spiller later broke free for a 36-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to put the Bills back ahead by a touchdown. But the Falcons drove 65 yards on 11 plays and, with the aid of three Buffalo penalties, Jackson scored on a 1-yard run to make it 31-31 with 1:28 left in the fourth quarter.
On Buffalo’s ensuing drive, the Bills were clearly in field goal range when McClain knocked the ball away from Johnson.
“As a man, you’ve got your pride on the line at the end of the day anyway,” Holmes said. “But you’ve got to go out there and play if you want to save face in this league.”
