ATLANTA — More than halfway through their season, the Atlanta Falcons have one of the five worst records in the NFL and looked every bit the part in Sunday's 33-10 loss to NFC-leading Seattle at the Georgia Dome.
The offense, a supposed strength for the Falcons (2-7), sputtered once again. They have a total of 33 points for their three-game losing streak. At least in the first two defeats, they had the excuse of quarterback Matt Ryan's seven interceptions.
Against Seattle (9-1), a team that fell to Atlanta in last season's NFC divisional playoffs, Ryan stayed relatively clean, but the Falcons couldn't run the ball, or convert on third down — a recurring issue during the recent downturn — and generally couldn't move the sticks, finishing with a season-low 226 total yards against the NFL’s No. 2 defense.
The Falcons were booed off the field when trailing 23-3 at halftime. By the end of the game, Seahawks fans audibly started cheers of their own.
"Yeah, I think some of the guys are angry," Ryan said. "No question about it, as well they should. I think there are a lot of guys in that locker room that expect better of themselves, myself included."
For the second straight week, Ryan passed for a season-low in yardage. After throwing for 219 last week in a blowout loss to Carolina, the Atlanta quarterback accounted for only 172 passing against Seattle. Through three quarters, as the Falcons trailed 26-10, Ryan had passed for just 96 yards.
The Falcons' NFL-worst rushing attack, proved to be anemic against the Seahawks' 19th-ranked run defense. Seattle had allowed opponents to run for more than 200 yards in each of its previous two games; but Atlanta finished with 64 yards on 16 carries (Ryan had 15 on three scrambles), getting stuffed time and time again.
Most of the failures came in the form of lead running back Steven Jackson (nine carries for 11 yards vs. Seattle), who has 151 rushing yards on 47 carries in five games this season.
Falcons head coach Mike Smith offered an explanation as to why Jacquizz Rodgers and Jason Snelling averaged 10.3 and 7.0 yards per carry, respectively, on their four combined attempts, saying they had holes when Jackson did not — a rationale that is hard to comprehend.
"The plays were definitely blocked better when they were in there," Smith reasoned.
Jackson, who missed four games with a hamstring injury, said he was 100 percent healthy. He even praised Seattle's game plan for attacking the Atlanta running game.
"Sometimes," Jackson said, "you just have to tip your hat to the other team."
Against eight-man fronts, the Falcons' offensive line again proved inadequate to the task. Prior to the game, starting left tackle Sam Baker was ruled inactive. Baker returned last week after missing the previous three games.
That meant Lamar Holmes, who was benched in Week 4 against New England but who has started every other game at either right or left tackle, was forced to play the left side and reserve Jeremy Trueblood (DNP last week) was pressed back into action at the right tackle.
Left guard Justin Blalock said Seattle changed some of its rotations on defense and the Falcons had trouble catching up.
"We need to do a better job of recognizing when people are moving all over like that where we need to be working to and doing a more effective job of, I guess, all being on the same page, working together," he said.
Tight end Tony Gonzalez's frustration was palpable. He also said the offense was not on the same page in terms of the run game.
"Our offensive coordinator, Dirk (Koetter), he came up with good plays," said Gonzalez. "It only takes one breakdown when you have eight men in the box and that's what happened, it seemed like. I haven't watched the film, but I’m sure it wasn’t just one person consistently. It was all of us taking a turn at it."
Even when the Falcons had reachable third downs, they had trouble converting. Gonzalez was targeted five times and caught three passes for 29 yards. With wide receiver Roddy White active for the first time in four weeks, it seemed as if Gonzalez might be freed of the relentless double teams of recent weeks — especially after Julio Jones went down with a season-ending foot injury.
But that was not the case and White caught only one pass for 20 yards. On the day, the Falcons converted 33 percent of their third downs, tying for their second-worst percentage of the season. That first-half inefficiency (1 for 7) allowed the Seahawks to build a 20-point lead.
"I don’t even know what to say," Gonzalez said of failing to convert on attainable third downs. "What do you want me to say? We had plays dialed up we thought were going to be successful. They didn't work. What am I supposed to say? I don’t know. I haven’t seen the film yet. I know the plays they called for me, it seemed like I was getting bracket coverage, seemed like (safety Kam) Chancellor, he was always over the top and No. 50 (K.J. Wright) over the bottom, especially on the plays they called for me.
"I'm not going to get open, if you put two people on me. They're having the 'robber' coverage. (The Seahawks) had a good game plan."
One the Falcons could not overcome.
