Washington Football Team 34, Falcons 30: Atlanta Blows Lead and Game
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Falcons have a completely new coaching staff in 2021. But in many ways, it's the same old Falcons.
Despite a career day from Cordarrelle Patterson, the Falcons didn't score quite enough points to create a big enough lead for their defense to hold. In fact, the Falcons defense gave the Atlanta faithful flashbacks to the Dan Quinn era by giving up two touchdowns in the final 10 minutes to blow an 8-point lead.
Even though the Falcons scored 30 points and didn't commit a single giveaway, they lost to the Washington Football team, 34-30, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Behind three receiving touchdowns from Patterson and Mike Davis' first score in Atlanta -- a 7-yard reception -- the Falcons held an eight-point lead with about 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
It should have been a nine-point lead, but the Falcons elected to go for a 2-point conversion in the third quarter and missed. Because new coach Arthur Smith chased the points, it was a one-possession game instead of two in the fourth quarter.
That's a moot point, though, because Washington wasn't able to tie the game following its next touchdown. After two penalties from both teams on the attempt, Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke sailed his throw through the end zone, and the 2-point try was no good.
Now clinging to a two-point lead, the Falcons needed to run a successful four-minute offense to seal their first home win of 2021. Instead, Smith's offense was very conservative. The offense ran the ball for a combined one yard on first and second down and then threw a short pass to Mike Davis for a gain of five on third-and-9.
The conservative strategy would have been justified if the Falcons were a better defense team or possessed a great punter. But neither are the team's strengths, and in the second half Sunday, punter Cameron Nizialek suffered an injury, which forced kicker Younghoe Koo into punting duties.
To Koo's credit, he punted the ball 45 yards (thanks to a good roll) after Atlanta's poor offensive possession to push Washington back to its 24-yard line. Still, the Falcons defense did not come up with a stop, and actually, rather than giving up a game-winning field goal in the final seconds, the Falcons allowed Washington to score another touchdown with 33 seconds to spare.
Heinicke found running back JD McKissic wide open in the flat on the right side of the field. Linebacker Deion Jones was the only Falcons player who had an opportunity to make the open-field tackle, and he missed. McKissic met the next Falcons defender as he dove over the pylon for the touchdown.
The Falcons offense gained 38 yards on their final possession, which gave Matt Ryan an opportunity to heave a last-second pass into the end zone.
But the prayer went unanswered.
The Falcons faithful left another game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium extremely disappointed that the offense and defense both failed to make critical plays late in the fourth quarter.
The collapse spoiled a tremendous day from Patterson, who scored a career high three touchdowns. On his first touchdown, Patterson ran wide open down the middle of the field on his first touchdown catch. It was his longest reception since hauling in a 55-yard touchdown from Tom Brady in Sept. 2018.
Patterson's other two touchdown catches came in the red zone, which is an area where the Atlanta offense looks much better in the last two weeks. The Falcons have scored touchdowns on five of their last six red zone possessions. Patterson scored two of the team's three red zone touchdowns on Sunday.
Patterson is listed as a running back on Atlanta's official depth chart, but he has always been more of a receiver or specialist. He looked like a special receiver on his third touchdown.
Before this season, Patterson had one multi-touchdown game in his career. That came in the season finale of Patterson's rookie season when he was with the Minnesota Vikings in 2013.
He already has two multi-touchdown games this season. In Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Patterson scored a receiving and rushing touchdown.
Patterson led the Falcons with 82 receiving yards Sunday. He also had 34 rushing yards, which was the most for the team. Patterson's 116 yards from scrimmage was 36 yards more than Calvin Ridley, who was second on the team in scrimmage yards on Sunday.
With Patterson becoming such a intricate part of the Atlanta offense in the first four weeks, fellow running back free agent signee Mike Davis has become a bit of an afterthought. He did lead the Falcons with 13 carries on Sunday, but he only rushed for 14 yards.
On many of his runs, multiple Washington defensive linemen swarmed Davis in the backfield and stopped him for a loss. But on the first play of the fourth quarter, Ryan found Davis in the flat, and the back made multiple potentially tacklers miss and scored a 7-yard touchdown.
Matt Ryan finished 25 of 42 with 283 passing yards and four touchdowns. He didn't throw an interception, and the offense converted 10 of 16 third-down attempts.
But in another flashback to the Quinn era, special teams mistakes helped lead to the loss Sunday.
To begin the second half, Washington returned a kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown. That was Washington's only touchdown of the second half until the comeback began.
The Falcons will travel to London to play the New York Jets next Sunday.
