Grading The Falcons: vs. Carolina
Here are the grades from Atlanta's 23-16 home loss to the Carolina Panthers Sunday afternoon:
RUN OFFENSE
The Falcons did much better on the ground Sunday, tallying 166 rushing yards. Todd Gurley II had his breakout game for Atlanta, rushing for 121 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. The score for Gurley, 26, gave him 75 touchdowns before his 27th birthday, making him the fifth player in NFL history to accomplish that feat. He joins Emmitt Smith, Jim Brown, LaDanian Tomlinson and Randy Moss on that list.
Both Gurley and Brian Hill (six carries, 39 yards) ran hard and tough, getting extra yards inside and outside. The offensive line bullied their way past Carolina's front seven early, but once the Falcons fell behind, the run game tailed off a bit until late in the game.
GRADE: B
PASS OFFENSE
Julio Jones did not play Sunday but Calvin Ridley picked up the slack, finishing with eight receptions for 136 yards. That was the good news. Ridley, along with several of his teammates, dropped passes while Matt Ryan made bad throws and did not toss a touchdown pass. The Falcons have now gone 31 straight drives without a touchdown pass. The rest of the receivers not named Ridley had no impact on the game; Gurley was second on the Falcons with 29 receiving yards.
Ryan finished with 226 yards passing (only 82 in the first half) and his fourth-quarter interception, a pass intended for a well-covered Russell Gage in the end zone, was terrible. A touchdown there could've tied the game at 20, but instead the pick deflated the Falcons.
GRADE: F
RUN DEFENSE
The Falcons didn't allow a rushing touchdown for the third straight game and linebacker Foye Oluokun had 14 total tackles. Despite that, the Panthers ran the ball well without star running back Christian McCaffrey. Backup running back Mike Davis, an Atlanta native, bullied his way to 89 yards rushing, carrying several defenders for extra yards on many of his bruising runs.
After Carolina's fourth-quarter interception, the Falcons couldn't stop the Panthers on their final clock-eating drive. To add insult to injury, Atlanta was even burned on that drive by wide receiver Curtis Samuel's third-down run up the middle for a first down. The Falcons did not create a turnover for the second straight week.
GRADE: F
PASS DEFENSE
The Falcons welcomed back safety Keanu Neal and cornerback Ricardo Allen from injury, but that did not faze Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater threw for 313 yards and two touchdowns and was not sacked. He torched the Falcons for 261 first-half yards, throwing touchdown passes to D.J. Moore and Davis (nine catches, 60 yards) as the road team raced to a 20-7 halftime lead.
Moore (four catches, 93 yards) ran past Falcons cornerback Isaiah Oliver on his touchdown and for the second straight week, a running back (Davis) snagged a wide-open touchdown pass. Atlanta also had problems covering wide receiver Robby Anderson (eight catches, 112 yards) and did not create a turnover. Bridgewater became the fourth quarterback in five games to pass for 300+ yards against the Falcons.
GRADE: F
COACHING
Gurley got more touches and Ridley led the team in receptions and yards Sunday so the game plan worked out well...to a point. With the Falcons only trailing 20-13 and running the ball well midway through the fourth quarter, offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter's call for a third-down pass in the end zone was costly. That call led to Ryan's interception, which let the air out of the team.
GRADE: C-
OVERALL
The Falcons did not make clutch plays on offense and defense Sunday and that is why they lost a winnable game to NFC South rival Carolina. Lately, the Atlanta offense has had trouble scoring and the defense hasn't made plays or created turnovers to set up the offense for easy scores. Atlanta dropped to 0-5 for the first time in 23 years and no 0-5 team has ever made the playoffs. With head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff now fired after this awful start, time will tell if different locker-room voices will spark these Falcons.
GRADE: F
