The Falcons’ season imploded on Sunday.
The Detroit Lions stormed back to defeat the Falcons 22-21 at Wembley Stadium to spoil the franchise’s first regular-season appearance outside of North America.
The meltdown in the second half was not complete until Detroit kicker Matt Prater, a former Atlanta castoff, missed a 43-yard field and then made a 48-yard as time expired.
The Falcons dropped to 2-6, while the Lions improved to 6-2. The Falcons have now dropped five in a row.
“I’m very disappointing in the way that we played in the second half in the football game,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “You can’t make the mistakes that we made in the second half against a good football team, because when you do they are going to come back and haunt you.”
The Falcons stormed out to a 21-0 halftime lead, but couldn’t fight off a spirited rallied that was led by Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The Falcons, determined to stay in the NFC South race, scored on their first two possessions and Matt Ryan connected on 14 of 17 passes for 160 yards in the first half. He threw touchdown passes to running back Devonta Freeman and tight end Bear Pascoe. Running back Steven Jackson, who became the 19th player in NFL history to rush for more than 11,000 yards, added a 1-yard touchdown run.
But the Falcons couldn’t stomp out the Lions.
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