The Falcons offensive line was considered a strength of the team.
It was in part of the reason offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford was retained and promoted to run-game coordinator. The unit’s depth will get tested as the Falcons may have to move forward without two starters – right tackle Kaleb McGary (left) and center Drew Dalman (left ankle) – out with injury.
Storm Norton came in for McGary and Ryan Neuzil took over at center.
“We won’t make excuses about that,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “But I (have) a 69-man roster. Like I told everybody at the beginning of the season, I love the guys I (have). The guys that went out there and they fought for us against whoever. I’ll go out there (and) battle with whoever we (have) on our football team.”
Here are five things we learned from the 22-17 loss to the Chiefs Sunday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium:
1. Closing out the halves: The Falcons needed to close out the first half stronger.
The Falcons had a chance to open a two-score lead by playing some good situational football, but failed.
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker made a 53-yard field goal to make it 14-10 with 2:43 to play in the second quarter.
The Chiefs were getting the ball to start the second half and if the Falcons could get moving and score a touchdown, they could have gone up 21-10. But after a 2-yard gain, they fell apart.
The Falcons gave up sack and Bijan Robinson had to kick the ball out of bounds to prevent a fumble recovery. On third down, quarterback Kirk Cousins bobbled the handoff and Robinson scooped it up and ran 9 yards on third down-and-18. Bradley Pinion came on to punt.
Worst series of the game.
The Chiefs got the ball back with 1:37 to go, went and got another Butker field goal to make it 14-13 at the half.
With the ball first to start the second half, the Chiefs took the lead for good on another Butker field goal to make it 16-14. Falcons would never lead again.
“I think each play is kind of its own entity, but I would agree with (Darnell Mooney) that we didn’t sustain drives enough in the second and third quarter,” Cousins said. “Certainly, the end of both halves was disappointing.”
2. Norton, Neuzil settled down: After getting over the initial shock of losing two starters, the offense settled down as the backups stepped up.
“It was good,” Neuzil said. “It’s always (hurts) when someone goes down like that. That’s the game being a backup, being ready to go at any moment.”
With the game on the line, the Falcons got moving in the fourth quarter and drove into the Chiefs’ redzone, twice. Each time they lost the ball on downs as the gambles didn’t work. Two field goal could have possibly won the game.
“If felt good,” Neuzil said. “We started getting some momentum late. We just needed to finish out at the end.”
Norton filled in admirably for McGary.
“We have high expectations in our room,” Norton said. “We just couldn’t get it done.”
Norton, who made three starts last season, plans to be ready if McGary misses time.
“You just have to take it week-by-week – can’t get too high or too low,” Norton said. “It’s a marathon of a season.”
Norton and Neuzil’s work did not go unnoticed.
“They did a good job,” left tackle Jake Matthews said. “It was unfortunate to see, two core members of our group go down like that. They came in and did a good job on getting on the same page. We expect that from the guys coming in and they proved that tonight. They did a good job.”
Credit: SUNDAY NIGHT Football NBC
Credit: SUNDAY NIGHT Football NBC
3. Final fourth down stop: A film review of the fourth down-and-inches, reveals that running back Tyler Allgeier missed his block on linebacker Nick Bolton.
The Chiefs had nine men on the line of scrimmage and two linebackers. Allgeier went out wide to double-team safety Bryan Cook, whom tight end Ross Dwelley had under control. Bolton shot into the gap untouched and got a hold of Robinson’s right leg and held on for dear life.
“We tried to get Bijan on the edge,” Matthews said. “We were trying to get him out there and he didn’t make it.”
4. Rushing attack stuffed: The rushing attack was stuffed all game, not just at the end. Robinson was held to a season-low 31 yards on 16 carries.
“They did a really good job mixing up their looks,” Matthews said. “A lot of pressures. Very sound, gap defense. They are a really good defense for a reason. We had out opportunities and didn’t make it happen fortunately.”
5. Cousins hit some milestones: Cousins finished with 230 yards passing and now has 40,097 passing yards over his career. He is tied with Dan Marino as the fourth-fastest player to reach 40,000 career passing yards in 153 games.
Also, Cousins first touchdown pass, a 14-yarder, to Drake London in the first quarter, he passed Joe Montana for 18th in NFL history with 274 career passing touchdowns.
Cousins is now two behind Vinny Testaverde on the all-time list.
Cousins ranks fourth among active players behind Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (480), Rams’ Matthew Stafford (358) and Pittsburgh’s Russell Wilson (334).
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