The Atlanta Falcons suffered a 24-10 loss Sunday afternoon as they hosted the Tennessee Titans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Marcus Mariota’s three touchdown affair was too much for the dirty birds to handle. Meanwhile, Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones was busy breaking records.
The Titans opened the scoring just three minutes into the first quarter. Quarterback Marcus Mariota found wide receiver A.J. Brown open downfield and continued 40 yards for the touchdown. He would be a key target for Mariota scoring two touchdowns and racking up 94 yards.
The Falcons would respond four minutes later with a touchdown of their own. Running back Ito Smith would take a Matt Ryan handoff and break into the end zone from two yards out. Smith’s touchdown would be the only one for the Falcons.
The biggest difference between the two offenses was the running game. The Titan’s Derrick Henry rushed 27 times for 100 yards to help his team establish and maintain their lead. Mariota got in on the action with three runs of his own for 22 yards. The Falcons running backs totaled 39 yards.
Matt Ryan had a decent game throwing 35 of 53 for 397 yards. What stands out about his numbers are just how dependent Atlanta is on passing. With an extreme lack of production in the running game, Ryan is forced to throw 40+ passes each game (today it was over 50). Not to mention the offense failed to convert two fourth-and-one opportunities.
“Yeah, I was pissed (about not converting the two chances). That’s something that we want to have the ability to do, and we’ll certainly go there more. I know at times that’s a play and a situation that we like, but we didn’t deliver on that tonight,” said Falcons’ coach Dan Quinn post-game.
The one bright spot for the Falcons on the day would be Julio Jones shattering Calvin Johnson’s record for the fastest wide receiver to 11,000 career receiving yards.
The Falcons will try to put the pieces back together before hitting the road. They’ll face the Houston Texans next Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019, at 1:00 pm EDT.
-Jon J.
Photo: Hakim Wright