The Atlanta Falcons made way too many mistakes in their week one loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But they made the most of their week nine rematch with them, and stomped them en route to a 43-28 victory.
The win puts the Falcons in a good position moving forward. At 6-3, the Falcons have a sizable lead in the NFC South and will now enter into a three-week period in which they only play one time in the next 23 days. It doesn’t take a football expert to know that the Falcons are sitting in a terrific position through nine games of the season.
Here are the week nine takeaways.
Atlanta Falcons Week Nine Takeaways
Balance, Balance and more Balance
34 passing plays and 34 running plays is what went down as the final stat line for the Atlanta Falcons’ offense. Matt Ryan completed 25 of 34 for 344 yards and threw four touchdown passes. And as a team, Atlanta ran the ball 34 times for 136 yards and scored one touchdown.
When a team is both throwing and passing the ball well, it’s really hard to stop them. And that was a perfect description of what happened to the Tampa Bay Defense. Despite forcing the Falcons to settle for two short field goals in the first half, they were unable to gain any sort of momentum. The Falcons didn’t punt a single time during the game. Yes, you heard that right. When you don’t have to punt, that usually means the offense is working and that they were. 461 total yards, 31 first downs on the road against a division rival. Goodnight.
Young Receivers Step Up
Taylor Gabriel and Austin Hooper are two names that the majority of fans outside of the Flacons’ fanbase have never heard of. But on Thursday night, they put their names on the map. Gabriel, a third-year receiver, was picked up by the Falcons off waivers after the 2016 season had already started caught five passes for 52 yards and carried the ball twice for 24 yards and scored a touchdown. Hooper, a rookie tight end making his first NFL start in place of an injured Jacob Tamme, caught three passes for 46 yards and a touchdown. Three receptions might not sound all that impactful, but two of the three came on crucial third downs including his touchdown reception. These are two players that are doing a lot more than people originally expected at the start of the season.
The Defense Played Much Better
After a very disappointing week eight performance against the Green Bay Packers, the Falcons’ defense needed to rebound against Tampa Bay. And that they did. Atlanta’s defense allowed just 14 points through three quarters and held the Buccaneers to under 200 yards halfway through the third quarter. Tampa Bay wound up with 28 points and 396 yards of offense, but don’t let those numbers fool you. Starters were pulled for much of the fourth quarter and prevent mode was put into place. This was a dominant performance overall and something that they can build off of moving forward. The Falcons added three more sacks to their resume which puts them at 21 for the season. That’s two more than they had all of the 2015 season.
Julio Jones Made His Presence Known
Julio Jones was held in check for most of the Falcons’ week one matchup with Tampa Bay. He finished with just 66 yards on four receptions and caught a touchdown pass. And for most of the first half of this game, Jones was quiet again. But after an explosive third quarter, Jones finished with eight receptions for 111 yards including a beautiful touchdown grab to help put the game well out of hand. Jones sits in first place in the NFL in yards receiving with 970 and has five touchdowns to go with it. While he might not top his 2015 performance, Jones is still well on his way to having a spectacular season.
