ATLANTA — There is a goal in football that shines almost above the rest. It's a complete team win. A performance in which every unit contributes in a net positive way. In 2024, the Falcons haven't really found themselves with a complete team win just yet. In the four wins they've had — or even in the losses, too — one unit has stepped up and put the team on its shoulders to will the Falcons to a win-worthy performance.
Don't believe me? Rewind the tape.
Against the Philadelphia Eagles, the defense kept the team in it until Kirk Cousins and Co. put together a two-minute drill that solidified a tally in the win column. Against the Saints, a special teams touchdown on a muffed punt and a career-long kick from Younghoe Koo sealed the win over an arch rival. Tack on a defensive touchdown on a pick by Troy Andersen and you get a win without the offense ever getting into the endzone. Against the Buccaneers, Cousins and the pass game accounted for over 500 yards. Against the Panthers, Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier deflated Carolina with 200 rushing yards.
In every win, someone has picked the team up. However, in the team's 34-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday, that pick-me-up never came. And the Falcons experienced something they haven't yet in 2024: A complete team loss.
"You always look for somebody to pick you up in this team-effort game, and it didn't happen today," head coach Raheem Morris said after the game. "It felt like when we got something going on offense, but play by those guys knocked us on defense. We get a stop on defense and we go right back out, turn the ball over and give them a walk-off touchdown. We have to put all those things together. We have to go out there and find ways to win together."
Every unit had its issues and pitfalls in the loss. And no unit could come to the others' rescue as it has in the past. The Falcons couldn't save the Falcons this Sunday. And again, it was on everyone.
The defense? They gave up over 200 passing yards in the first half, 99 going to D.K. Metcalf on four catches alone. A two-minute drill at the end of the half felt like a nail in the coffin for a team fighting to get back into the game. That six-play drive that ended in a 31-yard Metcalf touchdown and a 17-7 lead for the Seahawks was a dagger.
After the game, Jessie Bates III turned to that moment as a major source of frustration.
"I think that possession before halftime we were in great position, down three, but instead we gave up a touchdown," Bates said. "That's been a reoccurring thing that's happened these last couple weeks."
Justin Simmons called the performance overall "not good enough" and "unacceptable."
"There were a lot of things that didn't go well," Simmons said. "Just speaking defensively, we didn't play nearly good enough today to even give us a chance to win the game, regardless of what happened around the offense and special teams."
Simmons' same sentiments, though, mimicked those of offensive players, too. Because the offense? They didn't hold up their end of the bargain either.
Though Robinson would finish the afternoon with 103 rushing yards, the offense as a whole — when it mattered most — couldn't hold onto the ball.
After going three-and-out in their second drive of the third quarter, still down by 10, the Falcons turned the ball over on three consecutive drives. Cousins fumbled the ball on a third-down sacked to start the fourth quarter. That fumble was returned for a touchdown. Then, back-to-back interceptions on the next two drives iced the game.
Collectively, the Falcons were penalized nine times in critical moments that either halted drives for the offense or extended them for the defense.
"We needed to execute earlier as an offense, and then the penalties definitely hurt us," Robinson said about the offense postgame. "For us, it's about stay physical throughout the game and not letting mental mistakes or bad things that might have happened throughout the game affect us."
And what about special teams? Yeah, Younghoe Koo missed a 54-yard field goal at the start of the second quarter.
The team — not the offense, the defense or special teams individually but the entire team together — came out flat Sunday, "for whatever reason," Morris added.
"We didn't play well as a unit across the board," Morris said, "special teams, offense or defense, we got to go to the lab and find a way next week."
Because the Falcons are on the road this time next week, in Tampa Bay to face a Buccaneers team they just beat in overtime two weeks ago. It's not time to overreact, Bates said, but things have to be different because the Buccaneers don't care, and the Falcons know they won't earn a win in the division playing like they did this Sunday. Simmons agreed.
"There's no panic button," he said. "But if we want to be where we want to be, we have to fix that."
