Dear Reader, I regret to inform you that the Atlanta Falcons blew a fourth-quarter lead and lost in overtime to the Baltimore Ravens. Here are the Week 5 Snap Reactions.
The Defensive Dam Broke
The Falcons defense came undone. After playing sound defense for roughly 3 quarters, Jeff Ulbrich’s unit couldn’t keep up with the Ravens adjustments in the 4th. After not blitzing much this season, Ulbrich turned up the heat, and it worked at first.
However, the blitz stopped working toward the end of the game. The Falcons generated
only one pressure on 12 dropbacks during the Ravens final two drives, per NFLPro. The unit looked exhausted on the overtime drive, and injuries finally caught up with them.
Early Down Struggles
Late-down heroics are unsustainable; the Falcons faced too many 3rd and long situations on offense. While the 9-5 connection bailed them out most of the game, it couldn’t when the Falcons needed to sustain drives late in the game.
Credit to Jesse Minter; his defense had answers for Tommy Rees on early downs, and the young OC couldn’t adjust. Bijan hit over 100 scrimmage yards yet again, but Minter forcing Atlanta to win with Penix’s arm on 3rd down eventually paid off.
The Devil is in the Details
A Jake Matthews drop, a wide-open Bijan missed, and Zay Flowers running through Divine Deablo. It’s the little things that come back to bite you. Penix is still struggling to hit the easy passes, and unlike the previous two weeks, the run game couldn’t overcome those misses. With the season Matthews is having as a blocker and him dealing with an injury all week, I can’t imagine why they used that play now; yes, he should’ve caught the ball, but Matthews not timing a jump correctly isn’t surprising, considering he’s not a skill player. Rees got too cute, and with the options he has on offense, we haven’t seen enough opportunities for the players paid to catch the ball.
What is Michael Penix Jr.?
Is he a franchise QB? Is he done after this year? Are the injuries too much to bear? The reality is, there are still a lot of games left this season before we can reach a final verdict. As it stands, his footwork is still a problem, causing him to miss too many easy opportunities; that and his inability to access multiple arm angles—he’s stiff as a board.
He can make the difficult throws scouts drool over, but routinely botches the layups. These things matter more to me than the rib injury because a better throw to Bijan late in the game prevents that injury from ever happening, and these issues exist regardless of injury. His future is uncertain, and if he can’t work through these problems, the team won’t view him as the answer under center.
Atlanta now sits at 2-3, back under .500 yet again. Penix’s ribs will be monitored, but the team is reeling from injuries across the board, an excuse that’s hard to swallow after losing to the Ravens sans Lamar Jackson. Kevin Stefanski and his will have their work cut out for them as they hit a tough two-game stretch against some of the NFC’s best.
