The Atlanta Falcons have made a bad habit of starting out games poorly and falling behind. With the exception of their explosion against the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta's offense has not been sharp at all on its opening possessions and more often than not the Falcons have been trailing early on.
That represents a big problem, because this offense is predicated on running the ball. After it was over, superstar running back Bijan Robinson said they need to do better in this department, per Josh Kendall at The Athletic.
"That’s our identity right there. The run game gets everything going in this offense... When we run the ball effectively and have (opportunities) to run the ball, that’s what makes our offense tough to stop. We have to be better at that aspect
of the game so we can make this offense more explosive.”
The issue here is that the Falcons actually did pretty well against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. Robinson totaled 61 yards on nine carries - a very healthy average of 6.8 yards per attempt. The problem is there just isn't much room to run the ball when you're trailing by multiple touchdowns, as Atlanta was most of the afternoon.
Michael Penix wound up airing the ball out 33 times against Chicago, triple the number of designed runs that the Falcons had this week.
They have to do a better job of building momentum early in the game so that Robinson has a chance to power this offense and Penix can play off of him. That's the formula that beat Green Bay and New Orleans - and it's the only chance they have of upsetting a team like San Francisco.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Bijan Robinson says Falcons 'have to be better' running ball
