The Atlanta Falcons played the role of Artax from The Neverending Story, and like Atreyu, Falcons fans’ cries and pleas went unanswered as they watched their team slowly drown in the swamp. There is no up this week; everyone sank in the pit. Here’s the Week 8, 3 down and 3 down.
3 down
Michael Penix Jr.
This is what the worst version of Penix looks like. The slow starts have been there all season, but the turnovers have not. He’s a rhythm passer, but that’s a two-way street; once he gets off beat, he stays there. When he finds
his groove, he is one of the more efficient passers out there.
Yes, the game plan was poor and so was the weather, but that doesn’t mean you carelessly throw off your back foot, or throw into double/triple coverage. Everyone has bad games; I don’t expect Penix to look this bad again, but it’s up to him to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Matthew Bergeron
The guard received his extension based on his potential, and he isn’t living up to it. Unlike others on the line, he isn’t a lineman with a typical outside-zone build; he has the physical traits that should transfer to a gap or duo scheme, but the team hasn’t had much success running these concepts behind him.
Of all the Falcons linemen, he is the one who doesn’t get to use the size excuse many have applied to the Buccaneers-Falcons mismatch, but he was routinely manhandled. If Bergeron can’t turn things around, he’ll be the first black eye on Cunningham’s resume, because no matter how this season goes, they are tied to him through the 2027 season.
Run Defense
The Falcons didn’t allow a single reception in this game, but they did allow 324 rushing yards. The rookie linebackers struggled all game, and the attacking scheme’s aggressive nature is being taken advantage of by gap schemes, and Jeff Ulbrich is out of answers. He’s increased the number of defensive line slants, a technique that essentially has his defenders line up in one gap and shoot into another, but it doesn’t really solve the problem.
For starters, it’s a guessing game; the defense doesn’t know where the ball is going and is hoping to catch the offense off guard, but they aren’t. The other issue is that against a gap scheme, they block down most of the time, so even if you move into a new gap, the OL isn’t necessarily unprepared; they just need to play sound and pick up whoever shows up. Injuries to the front have definitely taken their toll on the defense, so the struggles are understandable. It is also worth noting that 229 of those 324 yards came after contact, and the weather definitely played a role in that statistic.
3 down (part 2)
Run Offense
Something’s gotta give. If you want to be treated like a winning team, you have to perform against good opponents, and the Falcons run game has been stuffed in a locker for four straight weeks. The reality is, they’re just not that good, and Bijan can’t cover up their poor blocking every week. Tommy Rees’ lack of confidence showed immediately in his decision to come out throwing in a monsoon. He isn’t putting forth a good enough effort to throw the run game away so early.
After their best week with multiple tight end personnel groups, the young coordinator tried to do everything out of 11 personnel (3 WRs, 1 TE), which let Tampa Bay stay in nickel all game. He did implement more pulling concepts this week but did far less gap and inside zone. It feels like the team is just aimlessly throwing things at the wall and hoping it sticks, but nothing is.
Xavier Watts
I highlighted Watts last week as someone who’s had an underwhelming second year, but I also pointed out that I was nitpicking a bit as he hasn’t truly been “bad.” That is not the case this week; Watts was awful. Just like Penix, that was his worst performance as a Falcon. His run fits were nightmarish, constantly misreading leverage and putting himself out of position.
The open-field tackling was brutal and spurred many of the explosive runs. The young safety will get a lot more chances to play the pass next week, and let’s hope that helps him get some confidence back.
Nick Folk
Folk is cooked, washed, etc. The 41-year-old team captain will unfortunately not be the solution to the Falcons multi-year kicking struggles. Hard to use weather as an excuse when Chase McLaughlin posts a perfect day. The Falcons have no confidence in the kicker beyond 50, and we’re starting to see them not have any within 50. Folk signed a 2-year deal, but Atlanta can cut him without any financial drawbacks at the end of the season; back to the drawing board.
It’ll take a while to get the mud out of those new red jerseys. The Falcons probably won’t play in a monsoon again this year, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to learn from this outcome. Their process coming in was flawed, and they’ve now dropped to third place. Things won’t get easier as they are set to face the explosive Bengals offense in Spain.
