Atlanta Falcons Drop Game To Colts To Fall to 1-2

The Atlanta Falcons dropped a hard-fought road game to the Indianapolis Colts to fall to 1-2 on the season.

The Atlanta Falcons came out of the gate a step slower today, similar to what happened in Minnesota in week 1. After the Colts took a 10-0 lead with their first two drives, the Falcons were never able to dig themselves out. When the Falcons gave up a touchdown going into halftime with the lead at 20-3, the game seemed out of reach. It was the second half when this Falcons team came to life. The Falcons managed to mount a comeback, but would ultimately fall short after failing to stop the Colts from killing the clock on the final drive.

In a game of two halves for the Falcons, this will be a very frustrating loss to look on as the season moves forward. Things looked bad today, at some points, they looked great, but the thing to remember is this team is 1-2 going into games with Tennessee and Arizona. The loss was very frustrating with some good and a lot of bad. Here are some initial thoughts following the loss.

Penalties

This will be the big talking point coming out of this game with the Colts. The Falcons had 16 penalties for 128 yards. That was one more flag away from a team record for the Falcons. Giving up that many penalties is flat-out bad discipline and that falls directly on the shoulders of the head coach.

Late in the first half, after the Falcons had got a field goal to make the game 13-3 in favor of the Colts, the Colts had to the ball for one more drive before halftime. The Falcons would be getting the ball to open the second half. During the Colts drive, the Falcons were penalized twice on third down to keep the drive alive for the Colts. The Colts would go on to score a touchdown on that drive, making the lead 20-3 going into halftime.

Another costly penalty came on the Colts final touchdown drive. After coming out in the second half on fire, the Falcons scored to get the score to 20-17. The Colts were on their own 47-yard line looking at a 3 & 10 when Demontae Kazee got called for defensive holding to extend the drive. The Colts would go on to score a touchdown, extending their lead to 27-17. The Falcons were unable to complete their comeback after some many costly errors. This loss can be directly blamed on the penalties the Falcons accumulated.

Injuries

Keanu Neal went down today, again. This time it was his Achilles heel. It’s been reported he torn his Achillies and will have surgery this week which will knock him out for the season. Another devasting injury for a big-time performer for the Atlanta Falcons. It’s a huge loss for the team, but it’s hard to ignore what happened to the player. It was rough to watch Neal rolling around on the ground knowing that this was bad. To add insult to injury, Neal was penalized for throwing his helmet in frustration. Neal has proven to be a player who can bounce back from a bad injury. I hope he does it again.

Offense

This game was a tale of two halves for the Atlanta Falcons offense. Matt Ryan threw a first-quarter interception that just looked awful. The awful interception thing has been happening to Ryan a lot more than we are used to seeing from someone who is normally very accurate. Ryan would step up in a big way following the interception, nearly leading his team back from the big deficit. In another loss, Ryan’s numbers looked amazing, 29-34 for 304 yards with 3 touchdowns and the 1 interception.

Devonta Freeman looked like the old Devonta Freeman. Freeman was running hard and hitting the hole hard, something we weren’t seeing as much in the first two weeks. Ito Smith went down with an injury early in this game and Freeman stepped up in solo duty. Freeman ended the day going 16 for 88. A positive trend for this Falcons offense moving forward.

Dirk Koetter is going to have to answer some questions regarding Luke Stocker. Luke Stocker must have incriminating photos of Dirk Koetter because there is no other way to explain why Koetter continues to target Stocker this much. Stocker had 4 targets today while Calvin Ridley had 1!! That is unacceptable. Calvin Ridley must be utilized more going forward. We are all looking at you, Dirk Koetter.