Falcons Forced to Use Silent Count at Home Against Bears

ATLANTA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium has not been kind to the Atlanta Falcons this season. After a 31-23 loss to the Chicago Bears, Kevin Stefanski’s team is now 0-3 at home, but Sunday brought another troubling development. Atlanta not only dropped the game, but the Falcons’ head coach also confirmed that the offense had to go to a silent count because of a large contingent of Bears fans.

“We love our fans. Our fans are so supportive,” Stefanski said after the game. “But we just felt like we knew we likely would need to be on a silent count.”

Additionally, in anticipation of this, the Falcons practiced with crowd noise this week, as they typically do for road games.

“We did the silent count all week, so we were good with the silent count stuff,” quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said. “The crowd noise thing is always tough whenever you play at home, and you hear during the week that you gotta work through a silent cadence. You always expect (Falcons) fans to overrule the opponent’s fans, but we were ready for it. I feel like we executed the silent cadence well.”

Although Penix said the Falcons executed the silent cadence well, the need to prepare for crowd noise at home underscored how little traditional home-field advantage Atlanta enjoyed on Sunday.

As a unit, the Falcons had just 100 net yards through the first three quarters and were outscored 31-7. They fell behind early, but rallied in the fourth quarter, totaling 157 net yards and nearly pulling off a remarkable comeback.

“It’s just the name of the game,” center Ryan Neuzil said. “Chicago is a really good team, and they just have a bunch of fans worldwide, so they travel really well. It’s always harder to be on a silent count.”

Overall, the Falcons have struggled to defend their home field. They are winless this season, surrendering a late lead to the Ravens and suffering lopsided scoring performances against the Bears (until their late rally) and the Panthers, but the issues run much deeper.

The Falcons have won only three home games with Penix as a starter over the last three years, and not since Oct. 13 of last season. Since Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in 2017, the Falcons are just 34-42 at home.

The silent count was an unusual wrinkle, but the bigger concern is a team that still struggles to turn its own stadium into an advantage. Right now, it doesn’t feel like home.

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