After two home games and two away games, it’s safe to say that a trend has materialized in the Falcons’ play. While four weeks does not make a season, if the Falcons are to finish anywhere above the cellar of the NFC South, a road game will have to be won. The question is, after two lackluster performances away from the Georgia Dome thus far, when will that elusive road win come?
The Falcons had their worst second half of the season, punctuated by missed tackles and missed opportunities in a 24-9 loss to the Carolina Panthers. What makes this loss harrowing is the statistical similarities of these two teams in this game. In some cases, the Falcons were actually the better team (penalties, yards per carry) but it was the critical timing of the team’s penalties, coupled with dropped passes and failure to convert on third down that contributed to the loss. While the Panthers were not the model for picture-perfect football themselves (3-for-12 on third down), the Falcons were even worse (2-for-13). The Falcons were put into those painful third-and-long situations thanks to dropped balls from Harry Douglas and Roddy White, along with drive-killing penalties along the offensive line. Despite hauling in seven passes for 90 yards, White had trouble keeping his footing all day, and the receiving corps as a whole must improve its pass catching in order to put Matt Ryan in shorter conversion situations.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
The Falcons pass defense held up well through three games (170 ypg – 10th in the NFL ), but was finally dominated by an elite set of receivers in Muhsin Muhammad and Steve Smith. Despite being on the downside of his career, Muhammad used his physicality to one-up Brent Grimes and, as a result, combined with Smith for 243 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns were a product of missed tackles, but also were the result of the amount of time that Jake Delhomme (20-for-29, 296 yards, two touchdowns) was afforded in the pocket. Despite losing starting linemen Jordan Gross and Jeff Otah to injury during the game, the Panthers did not allow a sack, which gave Delhomme more than enough time to pick out Muhammad and Smith for touchdown tosses of 56 and 36 yards.
Another reason the Falcons could only manage three field goals was the team’s failure to convert third downs. That was a product of a running game that had a solid average yards per carry (5.1) but sub-par individual efforts from Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood. Turner was limited to 56 yards, averaging just 3.1 yards per carry, and 40 of Norwood’s 51 yards came on a long gallop in the third quarter.
WHAT’S THEIR IDENTITY?
Heading into next week’s game against Green Bay, the Falcons will have to figure out what kind of football team they want to be this season. The next two weeks will be important because: A.) Consecutive contests against legitimate teams in Green Bay and Chicago could have the Falcons looking at a 2-4 record by Week 6’s end, and: B.) It will be intriguing to see if the disparity between quality play at home and inconsistent play on the road continues. Are the Falcons 2-0 at home and 0-2 on the road because of the competition they have faced or does the team simply just freeze up on the road? Either way, the next two weeks will prove whether or not the Falcons can hang around in the NFC South race. In order to do that, though, Mike Smith’s squad will need to find some magic away from the Georgia Dome.
GAME NOTES
Turner is averaging 162.0 rushing yards per game at home and 49.0 yards on the ground on the road. … The win was Carolina’s 100th in franchise history. … Matt Ryan’s 41 pass attempts were a career high. … Muhsin Muhammad became the Panthers all-time touchdown receptions leader with 30 career touchdowns for Carolina.
Horne can be reached at ehorne@scoreatl.com.
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