Teams literally have months to prepare for Week 1. That wasn’t enough time for the Falcons.
They lost at home to the Buccaneers, thanks to a late touchdown pass from quarterback Baker Mayfield to rookie Emeka Egbuka and a missed field goal by Atlanta kicker Younghoe Koo, which would have sent the game to overtime.
The Falcons mustered only 69 yards rushing, with 48 coming from running backs Bijan Robinson (12 for 24) and Tyler Allgeier (10 for 24).
So what happened to the running game?
“They came out in a look that we haven’t seen,” Bijan Robinson said, via Josh Kendall of TheAthletic.com. “Our playbook got shorter, and we were trying to run other plays to outscheme them. We prepared for something completely different. It wasn’t about effort or anything like that. We were just outmatched in that game.”
“We all have shared accountability with what happened on Sunday,” offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said, per Kendall. “A lot to clean up. It was great to flush the tape out and move on to next week. Everybody knows our offensive line. We will all bounce back together.”
The next opportunity comes on Sunday night, against a Vikings defensive line that has been bolstered by the additions of veteran Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. And they’ll need to outscheme Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores this time around.
The Falcons will have a problem if they can’t run the ball. Flores is particularly adept at confounding young quarterbacks like Michael Penix Jr., who will be starting only his fifth career game.
Read the full article here
