On second look, the Falcons faced a Bills defense with only 10 men on the field during the decisive play of Sunday’s 23-17 loss.
Well, that’s not good.
The Falcons’ potential game-winning drive stalled on the Bills 10-yard line after quarterback Matt Ryan tossed an incomplete pass to Taylor Gabriel on fourth-and-1 with under a minute to play.
Ryan had a run-pass option. He said he picked the pass play -- play action fake --because the Bills had “eight or nine” players in the box.
The video review shows that there were only seven defenders in the box and that the Bills had just 10 players on the field.
They were aligned in a four-three, with one safety and two cornerbacks.
“Yeah, that’s why we possibly thought it was a blitz,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said on Monday. “In that moment is it best to throw the slant and so those are the kind of plays where you have an opportunity for a quick pass against blitz, you love those looks. When they don’t go that way and you have to go to your second or third option, they made a good play on it.”
Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier told the Buffalo media that they knew they had 10 players on the field for the final play. A linebacker/defensive end was missing.
“Looking back, that was a bummer,” Quinn said. “It was the turning point in the game for us (at the end). But there were many moments in the game where I thought we missed our opportunities, but that was certainly one of them.”
The Falcons have drawn criticism for not running the ball on third and fourth down. One of the big play-calls in the Super Bowl LI loss was a third-and-1 pass that turned into a sack and a fumble during the team’s historic collapse.
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