The Falcons simply couldn’t run the ball against the Panthers.
It was costly.
Now, these Falcons have the long offseason to think about what could have been. Despite a chance to win the NFC South and host a playoff game with a victory, the Falcons were soundly drubbed by the Panthers, 34-3, Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
Game over. Season over.
The pivotal game didn’t begin well for the Falcons with starting running back Steven Jackson sidelined with a quadriceps injury. With Jacquizz Rodgers and Devonte Freeman carrying the load, the Falcons ran for just 63 yards on 16 carries. Even those lowly numbers are deceiving as the Falcons ran for 33 yards on the final four plays of the game with the outcome long decided.
“A lot,” Matt Ryan said when asked how much the lack of running game affected the outcome. “When you go against a defense that has as good as a front seven as Carolina, it’s important to do two things, to play ahead of the chains and to play ahead in the game, so you keep them off balance. One of the reasons we didn’t run the ball as much as we would have liked is because we got behind. Also, we needed to be better than we were. It was still early in the game. It’s disappointing. We just didn’t get the job done.”
Prior to the final 1:41, the Falcons had just 30 yards on 12 carries.
The 63 total yards are tied for the second lowest yardage of the season with the performance in a loss to the Browns. They Falcons ran for a season-low 42 yards in a loss to the Bears.
Rodgers, who started for Jackson, ran for 44 yards on nine carries. Freeman ran for 13 yards on six carries and Ryan had a 6-yard run. That’s it.
“They did a great job up front of closing out lanes but we got ourselves in a hole and had to resort to passing early on,” Rodgers said. “They just had a good scheme and offensively we didn’t play up to our ability. Scoring three points, you aren’t going to win no games doing that. We have to do a better job of putting up points and sustaining drives instead of as many three-and-outs and turnovers that we had.”
A running back was involved in perhaps the biggest play of the game but it was not on the ground.
Trailing 10-0 after one quarter, the Falcons looked to capitalize on Devin Hester’s 66-yard kickoff return. The drive started on the Panthers’ 38-yard line and the Falcons drove down to the 3-yard line. On second down, Ryan threw in the right flat to a wide-open Patrick DiMarco. A catch and DiMarco would have waltzed into the end zone and the Falcons would be down by just three points.
DiMarco dropped it.
Another incomplete pass to Roddy White and the Falcons had to settle for a 21-yard field goal.
“I couldn’t tell you,” DiMarco said of the drop. “It was such a routine play. I just kind of took my off it or looked up field too quick. It’s something that is not going to sit well on the stomach for the next little while.”
The Panthers added two more touchdowns before the end of the first half, on an interception and fumble recovery, and took a 24-3 lead into intermission. They Falcons were forced to throw the ball as Ryan ended with 47 attempts.
The Falcons played with a make-shift offensive line much of the season with one injury after another. Only guards Justin Blalock and Jon Asamoah ended the season where they started. Still, there was so much riding on the outcome of one home game.
“We did not execute today by any stretch of the imagination,” Blalock said. “We dug ourselves a hole pretty early on and made it really tough on ourselves to make in any kind of competitive game. It started so slowly and we couldn’t get into any rhythm offensively.”
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