National Football League

Four Downs: Falcons continue their offensive decline

Published Oct. 19, 2014 7:50 p.m. ET

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Roddy White is on record telling anyone that would listen that this Atlanta Falcons offense has to score 30 points or more per game to win.

The Falcons managed seven on Sunday in Baltimore. The result was a calculable thrashing at the hands of the Ravens. Atlanta was shut out in the first three quarters of football, before White caught a 4-yard pass from Matt Ryan with 7:12 to play to rid the scoreboard of an embarrassing bagel.

The bagel might be gone, but the embarrassment remains.

Here are four observations from Atlanta's Week 7, 29-7 loss to Baltimore that dropped the team to 2-5 on the season:

In each of the last four weeks, the Falcons have gained fewer yards than the week before. Atlanta went from 488 total yards in Week 3 against the Bucs, to 411 in Week 4. Then the Falcons' offense dipped below the 400-yard mark in Week 5 with 397 total yards; then below the 300-yard mark last week against Chicago with 287 total yards.

The same can be said for Atlanta's scoring output.

Atlanta put up 56 against Tampa Bay, 28 versus the Vikings, only 20 on its trip to play the Giants, and then 13 at home against the Bears.

Atlanta set new season lows in Baltimore with only 254 total yards and just seven points. Even worse, the alarming trend of this offense slipping into mediocrity is beginning to look more permanent than tendency.

Since 2008, the Falcons haven't automatically lost every time they gained fewer than 300 yards. Atlanta is 13-15 when it didn't pass the 300-yard plateau since head coach Mike Smith took over. When the team scored fewer than 30 points, the win-loss record got a little more sinister.

The Falcons have played 70 games over their last 103 where they didn't score more than 30 points. They've only won 31 of those. Over the last two seasons, it's been much worse. Atlanta is 1-16 in its last 23 games when scoring fewer than 30 points.

White wasn't splitting the atom when he made his statement about needing to score 30 points every time out. Atlanta's defense isn't going to push many teams around (although the defense did enough on Sunday in Baltimore to give this team a chance, had the offense shown up), and there's enough fire power (at least on paper) for the Falcons offense to explode on a regular basis.

Against the Ravens, who owned the third-ranked scoring defense heading into Sunday's action, Atlanta's offense imploded.

The great thing about a Weeble Wobble is that you can tackle it, kick it, pummel it and toss it around, and it always jumps back upright. The Ravens treated Ryan like a Weeble Wobble on Sunday, hitting him nine times and sacking the quarterback on five occasions.

But how many more times is Ryan going to get back up? He is not a Weeble Wobble, no matter how often his offensive line turned him into the equivalent.

In his six games prior, Ryan was sacked a total of 10 times. The Ravens added 50 percent to that total in just one game. Part of the reason it got so bad against the Ravens is that center Peter Konz left the game with a knee injury. The injury is severe enough, that Konz will return to Atlanta instead of joining his team in London for next week's game against the Lions, according to Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Konz is Atlanta's second center this season.

Source says #Falcons C Peter Konz is expected to return to Atlanta for MRI on his knee and won't make the trip to London.
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzAJC) October 19, 2014

The Falcons began the season with Joe Hawley snapping the ball to Ryan. But he was lost for the season after he injured his knee against Minnesota in Week 4. So when Konz went down on Sunday, Atlanta had to rely on undrafted rookie James Stone, who prior to stepping in for Konz had played just three snaps all season, all at left guard.

Atlanta is already without three starters along the offensive line: Hawley, Lamar Holmes and Sam Baker. They will all miss the rest of the 2014 season. Justin Blalock missed Week 5 against the Giants, and Jake Matthews missed Week 2 against Cincinnati.

The Falcons' offensive line has been a camaraderie of the walking wounded in 2014, and there's no telling how long Konz will be forced to miss playing time.

If Ryan has to endure many weeks of a blocking unit that consists of Matthews, Blalock, Stone, Jon Asamoah and Gabe Carimi, with little depth behind it, his body could be in for another 44-sack beating like it took last season.

Every member of the NFC South, that was in action today, lost. Well done Tampa Bay for being on a bye.

The losses dropped Carolina to 3-3-1, New Orleans to 2-4 and Atlanta to 2-5. The Buccaneers are firmly anchored at the bottom at 1-5.

With the way wins and losses are unfolding; a 9-7 record could be enough to crown a division winner. Heck, 8-8 might do the trick. But don't expect the Falcons to be in contention when a winner is decided.

For Atlanta to finish with a 9-7 record, there can only be two more losses on the schedule. Is it realistic to believe that the Falcons will go 7-2 over their next nine games?

The easy answer is no. Atlanta has won just 28.6 percent of its games thus far. Asking it to win 77.8 percent moving forward is just a ridiculous expectation. Especially with the teams left for the Falcons to navigate through.

Atlanta is 2-0 in the NFC South, and still has another game with Tampa Bay and New Orleans. There are two games left on the schedule with Carolina. It's good to have four games left against a struggling division. Even if that division is your own.

But there's a lot of danger left on the docket outside the division.

The Falcons still have to play five games against teams that are currently in sole possession, or tied for their division lead. They also must play seven teams with a .500 record or better.

To make matters worse, Atlanta was just decimated by Baltimore, a team that was ranked third in the NFL with a 16.2 points per game average on defense. Next week the Falcons play Detroit, who was leading the NFL with a 13.7 points per game average prior to Week 7.

Facing tough defenses doesn't end there.

Arizona and Green Bay are also still on the schedule. They ranked 10th and 11th in scoring defense prior to Sunday, and Green Bay lowered its per game average by only giving up 17 points to Carolina. Arizona shined by only allowing Oakland 13 points.

The remainder of Atlanta's schedule is brutal, and it doesn't give a lot of hope for a 7-2 finish.

The Falcons are in dire need of a defensive player that can rush the passer with effective results. Massaquoi is showing signs that he can be that guy.

Against Baltimore, Massaquoi had six tackles, one tackle for loss and two quarterback hits, according to league stats. As soon a film is broken down, expect there to be a large number of other pressures like hurries, stuffs and general nastiness toward quarterbacks.

In each of the three weeks prior to Sunday, Massaquoi's snap count had risen. He went from 13 defensive snaps against Minnesota to 30 the next week in New York. He played 44 of 76 defensive snaps against Chicago.

As his playing time has increased, so have his pass-rush numbers.

Massaquoi logged a sack, two quarterback hits and three hurries last week, and his always-in-the-backfield performance against the Ravens on Sunday means things are starting to click for the third-year player.