Following a harrowing overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens last week, the Atlanta Falcons were hoping to return to form in Week 6 with the Chicago Bears coming to town. We knew this Ben Johnson offense would be a tough test for the Falcons, but no one expected the result to be this bad.
In Caleb Williams' return to the lineup, Chicago's offense was firing on all cylinders, as they were clearly motivated after their blowout loss last week. They took a 21-7 lead into halftime and won 31-23, as Atlanta was outmatched on both sides of the football despite the late comeback attempt.
Unfortunately, little could go right for the Falcons. They turned the ball over on downs twice and had two separate fumbles on special teams. And then rookie linebacker Kendal Daniels was carted off the field with a gruesome injury,
And while the Falcons made it look respectable with a valiant fourth-quarter comeback, they dug themselves into a hole early by being unable to capitalize on the Bears' mistakes
The Atlanta Falcons' Week 6 loss to the Bears was as ugly as it gets
Michael Penix Jr. is finally starting to get figured out
Michael Penix Jr. has been one of the best QBs in football with a clean pocket, and one of the worst when pressure comes. It's the duality of man. And while he threw three touchdowns and led the fourth-quarter comeback, this matchup confirmed a lot of the red flags we saw last week were real.
According to ESPN research, Penix was pressured on a career-high 46% of his dropbacks and was blitzed at the second-highest rate of his career (51%) and it made an impact. Penix fumbled twice, and lost one of them, which happened to come on their final offensive possession of the game when they had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown.
And that was the story of the game, as he could not handle the pressure Allen and the Bears sent his way. Dennis Allen is someone Falcons fans are plenty familiar with from his time as the DC and head coach of the New Orleans Saints, and even though Chicago was without their two best pass-rushers (Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo), they still found ways to get home against this Atlanta offense.
They sent DB blitzes and got pressure despite this offensive line having every advantage, and that's incredibly frustrating to see.
Maybe this defense is not where we thought they were
The Falcons' defense has received rave reviews across the first five weeks as the season, as Jeff Ulbrich and Nate Ollie have gotten everything they could out of a shorthanded pass-rush. But Ulbrich was getting head coaching buzz, and it's safe to say today was a humbling blow to those rumors.
While the Dirty Birds did a solid job keeping Chicago's league-leading run game in check despite D'Andre Swift's two touchdowns and losing both Daniels and Deablo due to injury, the secondary was the issue. Without A.J. Terrell and C.J. Henderson, they were shorthanded, which was a clear issue.
Caleb Williams completed 30 of 36 passes and the Bears converted on over half (9-for-17) of their third-down attempts. While it was the run defense who struggled against Derrick Henry and the Ravens, they had their hands full trying to slow down the many elite weapons in Johnson's offense.
This special teams staff is no different from the last one
The main reason the Falcons lost this game wasn't because of what happened on offense or defense, but the special teams. We saw special teams sink this team time and again last season with Marquice Williams, and it seems that those issues haven't gone anywhere under new STC Craig Aukerman.
Zachariah Branch was drafted by the Falcons to be the return man who'd help fix the special teams issues that carried over from the old regime. Unfortunately, he was culpable in the loss, as he fumbled on two separate occasions on special teams that resulted in a 10-point swing in favor of the Bears.
And while Branch has started to push Olamide Zaccheus for snaps as the WR3 on offense, this is surely going to make the rookie's quest for additional snaps a bit tougher.
Mike Hughes needs to hit the bench
The same issue for the Falcons' defense has persisted all season: Mike Hughes does not belong in the starting lineup. He's the defender offenses have picked on all season and while he's a solid tackler, he is a traffic cone in coverage. But with C.J. Henderson inactive due to a groin injury and A.J. Terrell still on IR, they had no choice but to start Hughes on the outside next to Avieon Terrell.
And once again, he was downright awful. According to Pro Football Focus, Hughes was targeted six times on the game, where he surrendered six receptions for 78 yards. Whether it was Luther Burden, Rome Odunze, or whoever, whatever player the Bears had matched up with him exposed him.
Jeff Ulbrich may have referred to the 29-year-old as a "high-level starter" earlier this week, but any Falcons fan knew he was lying through his teeth on this one. And once Terrell is activated next week, he should hit the bench.
This offense desperately needs more creativity
The Falcons put up 23 points, so it's hard to complain, right? You'd think that, but there were still a lot of issues in this game. We saw Chicago's offense dicing up the defense, so Tommy Rees' gameplan should have been long, methodical drives that depended on Bijan Robinson and the ground game, but instead, they played through the air.
Even when the game was still close, they didn't run the ball all that much--and that's a travesty when you have the best running back in the NFL in your backfield. They didn't get creative very much, and the passing concepts were basic. The screen calls on second down kept sinking the early drives.
Neither Bijan Robinson or Drake London did much of anything in this game, and Rees needs to find more ways to get them both involved. I don't want to compare Rees to Zac Robinson because he has way more promise, but the play-calling was bland in a way that was similar to hhim.
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