GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Falcons won for the second game in a row Sunday, but it served only to improve their record to 6-9 and it came at the expense of a team that fell to 3-12 and lost its seventh consecutive game.
Upon the slippery grass at open-roofed State Farm Stadium, they pounded the Arizona Cardinals with 152 rushing yards, although they should have, because the Cardinals run defense is atrocious.
They held the Cardinals to a lone touchdown in the 26-19 victory despite Arizona starting four possessions at its 40-yard line or better, but limiting an injury-laden team to 19 points after it had averaged 18 points in its three previous games isn’t something you commemorate with T-shirts and hats.
Tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. played another standout game as his Falcons contract reduces to its final few games (seven catches for 57 yards and a touchdown), although how much stock to put in this late surge remains a conundrum.
In the final two minutes, the Falcons made the sort of play that winning organizations make – C.J. Henderson, a cornerback signed to the practice squad in November and elevated to the active roster for Sunday’s game, made a game-icing interception. However, his acrobatic play was necessary because the Falcons had botched a fourth-and-1 run with a little more than two minutes to go, giving Arizona the ball back on its 40-yard line needing a touchdown to tie the game.
The Falcons’ oft-inadequate special teams outdid their counterparts, but the Cardinals’ missing two field-goal tries had a lot to do with it as much as anything the Falcons contributed.
Running back Bijan Robinson had another all-world game, making multiple Cardinals defenders miss seemingly every time he touched the ball, and there’s no caveat for that. He is just amazing. He might not have an equal in the sport and he put on his latest display of greatness in his first game in his home state since his rookie season.
Setting the grumpiness aside, there’s no denying what this win meant for the Falcons, especially when you could hear the thunderous cheering in the visiting locker room after the game. This is a team that has underachieved this season by regularly self-destructing, but it doesn’t mean players and coaches don’t pour themselves into each game and aren’t gutted by the drumbeat of defeat.
“You have to be happy for every win,” Pitts said. “It’s hard to get a win in this league. For us, each week just trying to stack (a win) on. We may not have the perfect year, but each week, we’re trying to get a win.”
Putting together back-to-back wins after getting eliminated from playoff contention for the eighth consecutive season won’t save the republic. But if nothing else, it was miles better than the alternative.
After a season of defeats ensured by mistakes and failures to execute, “(Sunday) was a reversal of that,” linebacker Kaden Elliss told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So to go out and see our dudes make the plays that needed to be made at the end, it means a lot.”
And Robinson was simply brilliant. His cuts, fakes and ability to evade tacklers were breathtaking and created 168 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown, reaching 2,000 yards for the season. He’s just the third Falcons player to hit that milestone, following William Andrews (1981, 1983) and Jamal Anderson (1998).
“I always thought, that’s a real-deal stat,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “If you’re doing 2,000 from scrimmage, you’re the real deal.”
That said, it’s easy to not be overwhelmed by Sunday’s outcome, or to at least wonder what it means, how encouraging it should be, how much should it cause anyone (in particular a certain Atlanta philanthropist who once co-founded Home Depot) to evaluate the season any differently.
I asked coach Raheem Morris what encouragement he took from the turnaround.
“We don’t ride that emotional roller coaster,” he said. “Our whole job is to go out and win. That’s what the guys set out to do. We’re not talking about encouragement. We’re talking about our team setting ourselves up for long-term success.”
Coming from a coach whose future seems in doubt, the “setting ourselves up for long-term success” part of the answer was particularly interesting for readers of tea leaves.
Cousins, wearing a festive Christmas suit and tie, made a salient point about the resilience that the team has shown of late. The very team that the Falcons played Sunday has been battered by injuries – even during the game, two of their players left the field on a cart – and has had a groin kick of a season and yet could have won the game.
That is to say, the Falcons’ continuing to compete even after getting eliminated is not particularly distinctive.
“It’s across this league,” Cousins said. “People are professionals and play hard. You know it’s going to be a dogfight every week, but there’s no doubt that’s true with this group in our locker room.”
In short, the Falcons fought hard – which they’re supposed to do and which other teams in their position regularly do – and they beat a team that, on paper, they should have defeated.
And Bijan Robinson was out of this world.
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