In do or die situations and in hopeless ones, the Falcons find ways to fall short.
The Atlanta Falcons squander. They squander opportunities, they squander hope, they squander chances to earn moral victories when more consequential ones are out of their reach. They have now spent the past seven years squandering every resource and prime moment they can get their hands on, coming up with seven straight losing seasons despite major changes to the front office, coaching staff, and roster in that span.
That continued in an ugly loss to the Carolina Panthers, a team that had just lost 48-14 to the Buccaneers but won 44-38 in overtime against Atlanta. While Michael Penix and Bijan Robinson delivered over and over again, with several big grabs by Drake London on the day making it clear this passing attack has the juice, the defense wilted to an alarming degree. That it enabled a career day from Bryce Young was sobering, and if nothing else, it guarantees the Falcons will make some kind of change to their defensive staff, their front office, or failing that, major ones to the roster. Allowing 44 to Carolina hurts, and I think it may hurt too acutely to prevent this team from waving it away. Maybe.
Atlanta’s terrible performance might sting a little less because they ultimately had no chance at the playoffs after the Buccaneers rallied late, but we’re past such things. The Panthers were too injured, too feeble, and too disorganized to look like a juggernaut offense against the Falcons, yet that’s exactly what we saw. I wrote in my preview for the game that the Falcons had no business losing to a team that was statistically one of the worst in the NFL and that had allowed a million points over the past month; the Carolina defense was largely that crummy but Young and company looked like a juggernaut in the making, somehow. All the post-bye promise evaporated in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a way that should leave no illusions about how much work is ahead for this team on that side of the ball.
We don’t know what Atlanta will do from here, but simply chalking this up to a growing year would miss the mark. This coaching staff blew it in ways large and small during Atlanta’s long, excruciating slide from 6-3 to 8-9, a stretch that saw them go just 2-6 and bungle winnable games over and over again. Whether it was Raheem Morris making mistakes with everything from timeouts to lineup decisions, Jimmy Lake and Morris’s defense crumbling when they absolutely couldn’t crumble, or Zac Robinson’s inability to lean on the run when Kirk Cousins or (more rarely) Penix were struggling, the Falcons were hurt by the struggles of this staff. Many fans are calling for Morris to go and, failing that, Lake to fall on the sword, and the most spirited defense you can offer either is that it was their first year in Atlanta.
The team was also hurt by a front office that rushed to give Cousins big money, failed to add impact talent on defense to bolster what they had assembled previously, and couldn’t come up with workable replacements when injuries piled up. The team’s brass now have to get by with limited draft picks and cap space, too, a product of their offseason decisions.
The Falcons were let down to an extent I think is quite underrated by their roster, from an offensive line that committed costly penalties in the red zone to a defense plagued by missed tackles and awful coverage lapses and lackluster seasons from veterans like Matthew Judon and Justin Simmons who fell short of expectations. They were let down by Kirk Cousins, who struggled to the extent that he was largely responsible for multiple losses, and they were let down by once-reliable players like Nate Landman, Dee Alford, and Lorenzo Carter who became massive liabilities for long stretches in 2024.
The fact that it took a whole team effort to finish with a losing record with so many resources pumped into this franchise and expectations running higher does not excuse any one piece of that team for the way they fell short; Blank’s inevitable temptation to see the specter of growth and make zero changes is going to be difficult for him to resist but not particularly justified by this season.
And make no mistake, I expect this will echo years past, at least for the coaching staff. There is no cleanout change coming that will sweep Raheem Morris away, not with the Falcons investing so much hope in him and passing up other hires that they’ll be hearing about all offseason. The belief that Morris will prove to be the right guy, that his connections with people and players and his late season hands-on approach to the defense that yielded results before this past Sunday are marks in his favor that will deliver results, is something I can’t see a single season shaking. To the extent that change will come, it will hit the defense (where Jimmy Lake and Jerry Gray could be in trouble after Morris had to meddle) and underperforming position groups where the team feels coaching did not elevate, say, the secondary or the inside linebacker group. We’ll wait and see if a major front office shakeup is coming but I have my doubts there, as well; this Falcons team will indeed look at the positives and think they’re not so far away. Players said as much after the game.
And yes, we shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees even while we avoid the temptation to ignore the fires for the forest. The Falcons have their franchise quarterback and a quality collection of talent on offense, one that makes it possible not to just daydream but expect the Falcons to finally be one of the league’s better units in 2025. They have a small handful of building block players who are genuinely terrific on defense, from A.J. Terrell to Jessie Bates to Kaden Elliss, though those pieces are much fewer and further between and that side of the ball needs urgent attention. Even if the Falcons inevitably talk themselves into great things just around the corner, we are under no obligation to expect those pieces to add up to a cohesive whole after the last two years. The Falcons have failed to reach those expectations over and over again, and our scalded hands could really use a break from the stove.
The days of losing and wilting badly will have to end at some point, even for a franchise as star-crossed and clumsy as this one, and Penix gives us that dangerous little bit of hope that it could come as soon as 2025. We’re a long, long way from knowing whether that will be the case, however, and all we can really do now is once again stew on what might have been. The Panthers loss is the latest season-ending sour note for a team that can’t get it right.
On to the full recap.
The Good
- Bijan Robinson really is special. The number of times on Sunday where he had three defenders in his face or one wrapped around his ankle and escaped to pick up at least five additional yards was not a small number, and he showcased the vision, speed, and physicality the Falcons have come to love throughout the afternoon. The patience to wait for his blocking on his touchdown run, which looked like a dead play, was a thing of beauty. Then he did it again near the end of regulation, bouncing it outside to jog in for a touchdown again and tie the game up. With over 150 yards and a pair of scores, Robinson capped off his career year and looked like one of the best backs in the NFL in his second season. If he’s this good—and there’s little reason to think he’ll be anything but this good over the next couple of seasons at minimum—Atlanta’s offense is in good hands.
- Michael Penix was a little jittery and inaccurate early, but then things clicked into place. Penix connected on some phenomenal throws, from lasers into coverage to London to his touchdown throw with three seconds left to London to his 42 yard, perfectly thrown bomb to Ray-Ray McCloud to set up the score. He avoided sacks, delivered crazy throws past the hands of outstretched defenders, and looked confident and poised again once he settled in, finding London over and over again and showing tremendous confidence in his receivers and his arm en route to a career day. He finished with a pair of touchdowns and only a few early blemishes on the day, as he was victimized by drops and a bizarre interception, and got 300 yards through the air. Penix is good already; he has the chance to be genuinely special if the team can continue to build his supporting cast and help him grow.
- Speaking of which, Penix is not a scrambling quarterback by nature, but he showed he can run when he needs to. After pump-faking and introducing some doubt near the goal line, he ran and extended to dive his way into the end zone for his first career rushing touchdown on Atlanta’s third drive, tying things up. That and his ability to avoid pressure—once again, a would-be sack rolled right off of him—makes him a quarterback who can keep plays alive when they should be dead. He and Robinson are a good tandem in that regard.
- Drake London had a terrific day at the office with Darnell Mooney out, not that he wouldn’t have done well regardless. After an early drop and a failure to reel in a touchdown pass a little low and behind him, London caught fire and kept making big grabs, including between defenders, downfield, and in the end zone to finish the day as Penix’s top target and the most productive receiver on the field. He scored two touchdowns, including one where he slipped open on 3rd and 20 to tie the game up at 31 in the fourth quarter, and showed an increasing and special rapport with Penix that could propel this offense to new heights in the years ahead. His 187 yards on Sunday were a career high.
- The offensive line did a phenomenal job of paving the way for Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, and a pretty good job of blocking for Penix on the day. Atlanta’s going to be sorely tempted to keep their starting five together in 2025 and perfectly justified to do so if they can make the financials work, as they are one of the league’s better groups overall even with Drew Dalman’s mystery snap woes and the beyond frustrating holding calls.
- A.J. Terrell had another quality game, while Clark Phillips delivered a couple of big pass breakups. It was a terrible day for the defense overall, but that’s not to say the secondary was without their fine moments. The Falcons may need to count heavily not just on Terrell, but also on Phillips in 2025.
The Ugly
- Ray-Ray McCloud had one of the big catches of the day and generally did quite well, but he also Kyles Pittsed a low ball, trying to reel it in and accidentally throwing it straight into the air for an easy interception that led to a Panthers score. Given the final margin and the short field that gave Carolina, it was a hugely consequential mistake.
- The defense working against a diminished Panthers offense was not fun to watch, and was considering the moment and the opponent one of the most embarrassing efforts of the year. Once again, the Falcons looked baffled by the simplest motion and the laziest move a runner or receiver put on them, routinely missing tackles and not getting home on pass rushes to force Bryce Young into bad plays. The lowlight was probably Young’s deep ball for a touchdown to Miles Sanders, where the Falcons had Matthew Judon working in coverage and he was completely left in the dust for a very easy score, the kind of thing that demands a player be overmatched and a defensive coordinator gets outschemed. Allowing 17 first half points to a Panthers team that just scored 14 against a bad Buccaneers defense after holding a vastly superior Washington offense to 24 points in regulation is, to put it bluntly, embarrassing in the extreme. The fact that it didn’t get better after the half is even worse, and highlights how much the Falcons need to add to their pass rush, their woeful inside linebacker corps, and their secondary. Basically everything, again.
- The lack of a pass rush working against a banged up Carolina offensive line was partly due to Bryce Young, who did an excellent job of evading it. But the Falcons couldn’t close the deal even when they did get pressure, and after they put together one of the great hot streaks in franchise history over the previous few games, that was a massive disappointment. The Falcons can’t simply skate on this group—probably minus Judon and Carter, to be clear—and expect the return of Bralen Trice and improvement up front from Ruke Orhorhoro and Brandon Dorlus to carry them.
- The team’s two great weaknesses in coverage all season long were their great weaknesses again throughout much of the day Sunday, in a way that will have to force action from this front office lest they throw away 2025. Dee Alford’s roller coaster of a season was largely miserable down the stretch, and with Troy Andersen’s health an ever-present question mark now, the team’s inability to cover anyone with Kaden Elliss, Nate Landman, and JD Bertrand means an upgrade at inside linebacker is an urgent matter. The Panthers ate those guys—and Matthew Judon, who was toasted by Miles Sanders—alive all day.
- Riley Patterson had a shot to push Younghoe Koo for a job in 2025 if he did really well with Koo out, or at least land an NFL job elsewhere. Instead, he likely damaged that stock, missing a 56 yarder he didn’t have the leg for and then badly missing a 52 yarder in this one that could have been a consequential score. Patterson’s lack of leg from 50-plus hurt him and hurt the team; he’s likely to be scrounging for jobs in the offseason again.
- The Raheem Morris challenge in the third quarter did little more than burn a timeout. I’m not certain what Morris and those responsible for getting in his ear saw, but it certainly looked like Adam Thielen had possession on his sideline grab. The net result was a fourth down try that the Panthers scored a touchdown on, with Atlanta then sitting on two timeouts. That’s frustrating, and I do think Atlanta needs to do a better job of timing (and seeing) their challenge opportunities in 2025. Morris’s in-game decision-making was, in my opinion, his most consistent weakness in the second half of the year.
- Those penalties! They plagued the Falcons in the red zone all year long, and we got even more of them despite the Panthers having maybe two genuine threats on defense coming into Sunday. Whether you hold the players accountable or the coaching staff for that one, the team’s lack of discipline has to be reversed to unlock this offense’s full potential next year.
- I think Morris and company would get more of a break with a lesser roster, and I think they would not be so sharply criticized if the Falcons weren’t now on a seven year streak of ineptitude. Lake’s inability to get his players in the right position is an issue that borders on outright incompetence at time, and that’s why I think he’s the likeliest man to fall on the sword if indeed anyone does. But I think the larger issue for this staff is not that they are abjectly terrible, Lake and Morris’s alarming game management problems aside, so much as they are adding nothing that shows up on Sundays. It’s one thing for players to love Morris, as I absolutely buy they do, and another thing for Morris to bring an advantage to the Falcons in terms of how he elevates those players, handles critical situations, and draws a better whole out of this team’s pieces. Aside from his welcome and consistent willingness to go for it on fourth down, we just didn’t see that in 2024. Even Zac Robinson, who had this offense largely humming at the end of the year, was too prone to go away from the run and lean on quarterbacks who were either struggling or simply inexperienced and paid the price for it repeatedly. The Falcons will have to believe real growth is in the offing to bring this group back for 2025 given how desperate they are to win and how poor the results have been for seven years running; from our vantage point none of that growth seems inevitable.
The Wrapup
Game MVP
As good as Michael Penix was and as vital as Drake London was to the effort, I’m still giving this to Bijan, who made difficult situations seem downright easy and kept countless drives alive to keep the Falcons in the game. He had a tremendous season.
One Takeaway
This is not a team a couple of signings or draft picks away, as the Falcons have tried to convince us each of the past two offseason, but a team that needs to take a hard look at their weaknesses and address them with more than salves and future-looking additions.
Next Week
The offseason, with all the fear and hope that brings.
Final Word
Anotherdisappointingseason.