The cobbled-together offensive line yielded one sack, not 10. The NFL’s second-worst defense held the Giants and Eli Manning to 241 fewer yards than were gained last week by the Vikings and Teddy Bridgewater. The Falcons outgained their opponent by 80 yards and led by 10 points with 20 minutes left. All of that, you’d have to say, was pretty encouraging.
This part was not: The team that led by 10 lost by 10. The scuffling bunch that gave itself a chance could make nothing of it. That was the scary part. If this is what comes from a solid effort, what might happen when things go bad?
The front office that lifted this franchise to five consecutive winning seasons and four playoff runs is no lock to make it to 2015, let alone to 2017 and the opening of Arthur Blank’s pleasure palace. The Falcons are 2-3, and a winning season looks less likely with every player lost and every chance squandered. At the moment, this seems an 8-8 team at absolute best, and 8-8 coming off 4-12 wasn’t what this impatient owner had in mind.
The bold talk of last season having been “an anomaly” (coach Mike Smith’s words) and that the 2014 would “rectify with a vengeance” (general manager Thomas Dimitroff’s phrase) has been muted by creeping reality. Smith’s postgame briefing Sunday had such a mournful tint to it that you half-expected him to resign. As it was, with Blank seated not eight feet away, Smith said of Sunday’s wasted lead:
“That’s not the players’ fault. It’s not anybody’s fault but mine. It’s my responsibility as the head coach … .I will and do take responsibility for it. It’s not about those players. It’s not about anything else. There’s one person that’s held responsible and that’s me.”
Full credit to Smith for being a standup guy. Less credit to him and Dimitroff for assembling a roster that, after seven years of building, has more holes than Augusta National, and a staff that features Mike Nolan as coordinator of a defense that hasn’t ranked above 24th in the 32-team NFL under his stewardship.
And that was the galling part about this loss: By its standards, this defense did OK. Through 39 1/2 minutes, the Giants managed 169 yards and 10 points. From there on, they would gain 148 yards and score 20 points. No, the defense didn’t bar the door, but the best-in-the-NFL offense left it ajar.
The Falcons led 13-10 at halftime, having outplayed the home side by more than that. But they couldn’t score a touchdown after taking possession at the Giants’ 21 after a fumble on a kickoff, nor could they do better than a field goal on first-and-goal with 22 seconds left in the half.
“The first half we did a really nice job of mixing runs and passes,” said quarterback Matt Ryan, who was superb in that half and substandard thereafter. “The second half we got out of rhythm. Except for the long play to Antone Smith, we didn’t get much done.”
That play — a 74-yard touchdown off a dump pass — made it 20-10. Then the Giants got interested, and that was that. The Falcons didn’t make a first down on their next three possessions; the Giants scored on their final four.
“We kind of faded away on offense,” receiver Roddy White said. Then: “I was kind of ticked every time we kicked a field goal … We didn’t punch it in early.”
These Falcons will go only as far as their offense takes them, and that offense could score only 20 points Sunday. Minus three starters, the offensive line allowed some pressure on Ryan, but he was sacked only once — on the failed fourth-and-1 at the Falcons’ 29 with 4:40 remaining that sealed the game. Again, it wasn’t an awful showing; it just wasn’t enough to do anything more than lose 30-20.
Smith said he had no regrets about going for that first down, not even with three timeouts remaining. What he didn’t say was what everybody in the room was thinking: If Smitty’s going down, he’ll do it betting on Ryan and White and Julio Jones, not his bedraggled D. But even Smith’s O couldn’t save what had been a winnable game Sunday, and we wonder how many more winnable games his Falcons will see.
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