The Falcons were beset with injuries to the defense in the season opener when two Pro Bowl players went down.
No one panicked, initially, because it was generally thought that the offense could do the heavy lifting and carry the team.
The Falcons defeated Carolina, but then lost shootouts to New Orleans and Cincinnati before getting pummeled at Pittsburgh. But the injuries continued to mount.
Eventually, with the news of reserve defensive end Derrick Shelby going on injured reserve Wednesday, the Falcons have lost seven key players, three on offense and four on defense. In all, they’ve been without the services of three former Pro Bowl players.
“With this team, it was never like we felt we needed to do extra because the defense had injuries and things like that,” Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. “We’ll just go out there and do what we do. We had some mishaps. We couldn’t control injuries early on.”
The Falcons somehow battled back to 4-4, but then the bottom fell out in Cleveland when the offense’s inability to run the ball and score in a short-yardage situation on fourth down hindered their comeback rally.
Over the three-game losing streak, the Falcons have scored 16, 19 and 17 points. The offense started to feel the lost of running back Devonta Freeman and both starting guards in Andy Levitre and Brandon Fusco.
“It takes one person on one play to mess up a whole play,” Jones said. “We lost Andy on offense. We lost Freeman on offense. We are not blaming anything on that. It’s next man up and we’ve just got to keep working.
“We lost both of the starting guards and Freeman hasn’t been playing with us. He’s another monster for us on offense, too.”
So, Jones doesn’t want to buy in to the notion that the offense failed to carry the team as NBC analyst Rodney Harrison repeatedly suggested during the broadcast of the loss to the Saints on Thanksgiving night.
“At the end of the day, people are going to have opinions,” Jones said. “We just have to control what we can control and just keep working, keep balling for on another.”
The unit had four turnovers, including three in the red zone against the Saints.
“That hasn’t been us this year, but it was us this past week and it’s certainly something that we have to clean up and something that we have to get better at,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “When we get our chances in that part of the field we have to come away with touchdowns. “
The slowing of the offense can be traced to the stymieing of the rushing attack being stymied.
The Falcons rushed 19 times for 71 yards against the Browns, for an average 3.7 per carry. The Falcons got behind 28-10 and couldn’t rally.
The Falcons rushed 18 times for 88 yards against the Cowboys, for a respectable 4.4 average per carry. The game went down the buzzer with the Cowboys winning 22-19 on a field goal.
The Falcons were held to 26 yards rushing against the Saints, their lowest total since midway through the 2015 season. The Falcons got behind 24-3 and couldn’t rally.
The offense is off track, and the Falcons may not have enough time to fix it.
“There’s definitely dialogue in all facets of all of our plans in the run game, pass game, protection, all those things there’s an open dialogue throughout the week,” Ryan said. “Obviously, we don’t want to put things in that don’t look good. But I just think the execution to me has been a bigger thing. We have to execute better.”
The turnovers were an outlier.
“Last week was frustrating for everybody,” offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian said. “We count on Matt and Julio. Those are our guys. When the ball comes out of their hands, it’s like, what can you say, those guys compete and play so hard. That was a bit of the frustration.”
The Falcons plan to insert Zane Beadles, a veteran offensive linemen, at right tackle for Ben Garland.
“Quite frankly, we have to be in a better position in ballgames,” Ryan said. “We can’t play from behind like we have in the last couple of weeks and expect to run the football at a high rate. You have to throw the ball in those types of situations to get yourself back into it.”
The Falcons hope to get on track against the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense in points allowed (18) and yards allowed (295.4 per game).
“We have to score more points,” Jones said. “This week’s emphasis is on protecting the ball. That’s not like us, turning the ball over and things like that.”
Jones asked how many turnovers they had against the Saints. He was told four overall, three in the red zone.
“That’s too many,” Jones said. “We just have to go out here and practice the right way and protect the ball and control what we can control. That’s on us. That’s not on anybody else. That’s on us having the awareness to protect the ball in those situations.”
Despite the offense being off track of late, the Ravens respect Ryan and the attack.
“(Ryan) knows the system inside and out, and he’s good, and their passing attack is excellent,” Ravens coach John Harbaught said. “It’s right there at the top of the league in terms of every statistical category, and he drives that. And, obviously, they have really good weapons to go along with that everywhere.”
The Ravens’ defense is paced by inside linebacker C.J. Mosley and outside linebacker Terrell Suggs.
“He’s a former MVP quarterback, played in the Super Bowl,” Suggs said of Ryan. “He’s still the same guy, still can make every throw, still a dangerous weapon. … This guy has some dangerous weapons.”
The Ravens know the Falcons’ offense could spring back to its high-scoring ways.
“They’re still the Atlanta Falcons,” Suggs said.
While the clock is ticking, it’s not to late for the offense to carry the team.
“Just go out there and attack,” Jones said.
That’s the plan.
“At the end of the day, we are going to lean on our guys,” Sarkisian said. “We trust our schemes. We trust our preparation. We believe in them and it’s about finishing in the end zone.”
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