For a brief, shining moment, the Atlanta Falcons looked like they’d cap off two straight tough weeks against contenders with victories against said contenders. They were in a position to make it happen with a decisive stop against the Chiefs offense, followed by a long drive that brought them within striking distance of the end zone down five points. In the end, they came up just short, and it’s difficult not to be torn between being impressed at just how close they came and frustrated at how they ultimately lost.

Coming out of the toughest stretch of the season at 1-2 is not unexpected. What is unexpected is how the Falcons did that—with a stunning win against the Eagles and a loss to the Steelers, so narrow a loss to Kansas City—and the extent to which they were in those games until the very end. It took a very frustrating missed pass interference call on Kyle Pitts and a questionable final play call combined with a rugged effort by the Chiefs defense to put the nail in Atlanta’s coffin. Take from that what you will—I certainly understood the post-game angst from fellow fans—but the Falcons going from shaky to open the season to an extremely tough out against the defending Super Bowl champions in the span of three weeks is the kind of progress I really hoped to see.

The Falcons managed to keep themselves in this game by passing the ball pretty effectively and at least partially keeping Patrick Mahomes and company in check, an impressive achievement in its own right. They played themselves out of it in part by allowing too many big plays by dint of missed tackles, a shoddy day from the run defense yet again, and a run game that started off a bit slow and cratered with the loss of key offensive linemen. It was an uneven effort, and the knowledge that it was still nearly enough to win this game may or may not do anything for you in the end.

But now that they are 1-2, just a game behind the suddenly vulnerable Buccaneers and Saints, it’s time to make sure that progress, improvement, and resilience translate into wins. The Falcons have taught us repeatedly in recent years that no good stretch translates to long-term success, and that fighting hard one week means disappointment follows in the next. This team already feels different by virtue of just how close they came to toppling the Chiefs and how much improvement feels within their grasp, but that will add up to a heap of nothing if they can’t build on it while addressing the areas in which they’ve fallen down. They’ll have the opportunity to to make their case that this really is a contender by running through the Saints, Buccaneers, and Panthers over the next three weeks before taking on one of the NFC’s best in the Seahawks.

In the interim, we’re left to rue what might have been—a 2-1 record with two straight primetime victories would be golden—and daydream about what might be ahead. Here’s the full recap from the Chiefs game.

The Good

• Kirk Cousins was borderline surgical on the opening drive, going 6/6 for a touchdown. You might have seen a little wobble on one or two balls, but with Zac Robinson calling a brilliant drive and Cousins looking sharp and smart, as he did throughout this game when he had the time in the pocket to do so. Aside from a handful of still off-kiler throws and an interception on a play where he probably shouldn’t have tried to get the ball off, Cousins did a solid job of evading pressure, delivered passes where they needed to go, and engineered productive drives. It’s clear that his Week 1 performance was part game plan, part a rusty quarterback coming off a major injury taking time to get right, and now he looks like a capable steward for a good offense, one capable of delivering big drives and big days when he’s dealing.
• It was another good game from Bijan Robinson, even if the stat line won’t come close to blowing your mind. Once again, he made things happen after the catch or after first contact, turning nothing plays into a little bit of something against a tough Kansas City front. But the running wasn’t the chief superlative—Allgeier did far better on fewer carries there—so much as the pass protection was. Somewhat of a liability in pass pro a year ago, Robinson honed his craft in the spring and summer and is suddenly delivering game-changing blocks that enable Cousins to step into big throws, as he did repeatedly in this one. Now one of the game’s more complete backs, Robinson has far more productive days ahead of him.
• We were waiting for the Kyle Pitts breakout effort, and that was closer. With Cousins actually getting him the ball deep downfield and a willingness and ability to keep the play going by fighting through contact and galloping, Pitts nearly took it for a touchdown on the play, his longest in recent memory, and showcased both the wheels and physicality that made him such a prized prospect for the Falcons. That and a nice nine yard pickup later on represented his contribution, but being reminded of his big play potential goes a long way.
• Darnell Mooney is someone Cousins trusts with his life, and it really showed in this one. Cousins looked his way again and again, targeting him over the middle, downfield, and on short routes where Mooney had to make something out of nothing. Those targets were a mixed bag—especially the short ones, where Mooney couldn’t get the blocking—but he finished with eight catches for 66 yards and should continue to be a high-volume option with game-breaking potential.
• Drake London, meanwhile, is just a really good player. Set aside the wide open touchdown where London got open thanks in part to a smart play design by Zac Robinson and focus on all the other targets, where London reeled in difficult catches and carved out extra yardage by being smart, willing to absorb contact, or both. As the passing game continues to find its footing and London continues to build a rapport with Cousins, he’ll rack up some big games to the benefit of the entire offense.
• How does he do it? When Patrick Mahomes tried to cap off a long, exhausting opening Chiefs drive with an end zone shot, Justin Simmons was there to jump in front of it and intercept it, killing Kansas City’s good times and ending things right there. Simmons already had picked off Mahomes more than any other player in football as a longtime Bronco, and he added to the total at an excellent time to end a scoring drive that we now know would have likely have eventually helped the Chiefs put the game out of reach.
• On a night where the run defense was once again a bit of a worrying trouble spot—that isn’t a theme we want to see continuing—David Onyemata was an exception. He made multiple stops and was a disruptive force on the interior against the Chiefs, providing badly needed toughness at the point of attack. Through the first few weeks, Onyemata, Grady Jarrett, and the secondary are providing the strength of this run defense, and they need help.
• Jessie Bates shows up when he’s needed, as he did breaking up a huge third down pass to Travis Kelce and sniffing out a couple of runs. He and A.J. Terrell, who delivered some huge hits to Rashee Rice and Carson Steele, set the tone for a physical day from the secondary.
• Chiefs on the way while kicking a 54 yard attempt? Let’s put that one right down the middle. Koo’s preseason struggles appear to be a thing of the past in this young season, because that was one of his better career attempts from a distance the Falcons once hesitated to trust him from. That tied a career long for Atlanta’s kicker, a player I’m mighty grateful for at moments like those.
• The coaching staff is going to get flack for late decisions and the loss, and that’s only right. I still thought Robinson largely called an effective gameplan for this offense, especially the passing game, and the way he was able to eventually shrug off the loss of Kaleb McGary and Drew Dalman to get the offense moving late was a testament to adaptability we doubted after Week 1. Jimmy Lake and company having the Falcons defense clamp down so hard in the fourth quarter to keep the Falcons in it was a striking thing, as well, especially because they held the Chiefs to their lowest 2024 point total. Being willing to go for the touchdown when you know the Chiefs are capable of turning a three point lead into a 10 point one and killing you was, I thought, the right call as well.

It was far from a perfect day from a staff that has to be able to help the Falcons close these games out consistently, but it was also a pretty good one against one of the most well-coached teams in football.

The Ugly

• Missed tackles are the early season theme for Atlanta’s defense. They missed Fields a handful of times in Week 1, couldn’t bring down Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts at times in Week 2, and had trouble bringing down Rashee Rice and Samaje Perine in this one. Those missed opportunities to end drives and slow offenses have real consequences, as they did when the Chiefs kept extending drives, chewing up time, and ultimately scoring. That is, if you want to point to what I said above, an item to call out the staff for, given that they need to work to get these players avoiding obvious mistakes.
• This was an extremely tough matchup for obvious reasons, given that Patrick Mahomes is a sorcerer and weapons like Rashee Rice and Travis Kelce are difficult to stop. Even so, the Falcons defense lost matchups they knew they couldn’t lose and fell down in ways we hoped they wouldn’t, from getting crushed by Rice after the carry to allowing Carson Steele to pick up chunks of yardage to giving Mahomes far too much time to work his particular brand of magic. The result was a quality defensive effort overall that wasn’t quite good enough to overcome the offense’s injuries and struggles; we can both recognize that this matchup was taxing and know that the Falcons have issues with pressure, run defense, and tackling that have to get cleaned up in the weeks ahead.
• Kirk Cousins getting crushed and letting loose with the ball for what sure looked like an incomplete pass but was called a fumble on the field got even weirder when Bijan Robinson kicked the ball out of bounds, making the fateful and probably wise decision not to trust the officiating crew to get it right. Fans argued that the referees should have reviewed it and declared it an incomplete, saving the Falcons from a significant penalty, but given the uncertainty that they would do so I find it hard to blame Bijan.
• Avery Williams did not fumble, happily, but that one extra move that nearly led to a game-altering fumble deep in Atlanta’s territory was not worth it. Lesson hopefully learned.
• It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Falcons were partially sunk by their losses along the offensive line. That is a part of football, of course, and not an excuse for the way things went. But you also can’t pretend that having no Kaleb McGary and no Drew Dalman, with the resulting lack of running plays and pass protection that created, had nothing to do with the team’s offense going from fairly strong to fairly useless in short order. While Atlanta recovered, their lack of trust in bullying it up the middle at the end of the game and/or sneaking with Cousins on 4th and inches told the tale of how significant those losses were.
• The offense keeps looking quite good for stretches, but then you look back and see too many opportunities left on the table. In particular, the Falcons had trouble on third and fourth downs, going a brutal 2 of 9 on third and 1 for 3 on fourth. When you can’t extend those drives at key spots, you’re going to depress your scoring total, and that has been a major factor in both losses thus far.
• Injuries aside, the run blocking for Robinson was deeply disappointing. Even before the Falcons lost both players, Robinson was finding holes to be small and quick to dissipate, and he got crushed in the backfield multiple times on no-chance running plays. The putrid sub-2 yards per carry average is not entirely or even primarily on the running back; even against quality fronts, the Falcons have to be able to provide more wiggle room than that.
• The final two play calls will earn Zac Robinson some justified scrutiny this week, though it appears we have to look askance at Kirk Cousins as well. Going up the middle with Tyler Allgeier on third down did not seem likely to work, given the state of the line, but it’s the kind of play call with your hammer back that is perfectly reasonable. The fourth down call, with inches to go, featured the Falcons getting Robinson around to the edge, forcing a talented back to go a long way to get a very short pickup. That play, of course, was crushed by Nick Bolton finding a gap and blowing it up, and Bolton just does that. But the lack of faith in the ability to sneak it or go up the middle does not bode well for this line if those injuries linger, and if Cousins is changing out of a play with a better chance at the line of scrimmage, that’s not great. As a rule, trying to go way around to get the tiny amount of yardage you need doesn’t end well.
• We’ll save our final note for the no-call on Kyle Pitts. In a game where both teams probably had legitimate complaints about the officiating crew, the fact that a Chiefs defender was able to wrap their arms around the tight end in the end zone in a way that clearly impeded his ability to get the ball thrown to him without a call still stands out as a particularly frustrating moment. It’s difficult not to daydream about the Falcons getting the ball with another, closer shot at the end zone and converting it for the victory, but we know these things don’t change. We can only lament.

The Wrapup

Game MVP

It’s a tough one, given how up-and-down this was and how many players contributed. I’ll give it to Justin Simmons for turning a surefire touchdown into a turnover, which probably changed the course of this game and allowed Atlanta to hang around for all those many minutes.

One Takeaway

The Falcons have a lot to work on—the missed tackles, the frustrating play calls, the worrying run defense trends—but they have a quality football team that has now been competitive-to-terrific against three quality opponents. I don’t think we should overlook that.

Next Week

The loathsome Saints. Blech. Check out Canal Street Chronicles if you want to see Saints fans being sad about a loss and previewing the game, I guess.

Final Word

Winnexttime.