The Atlanta Falcons dropped another game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Madrid, Spain.
They are a multitude of reasons why the Falcons don’t look good, but penalties have to be the main reason.
“So, when the Falcons came out against the Cincinnati Bengals in Spain on Sunday morning and committed 12 penalties for a total loss of 88 yards, everyone in the losing locker room knew what their head coach would be most frustrated and upset about,” Tori McElhaney wrote in a Atlanta Falcons article.
“We had too many self-inflicted things today that will make it really hard to win versus any opponent,” Stefanski said in the article, “and in this case, a very good football team.”
Falcons Keep Starting Slow
If there was a game that the Atlanta Falcons could not afford to start slow, it was against this team in the Cincinnati Bengals.
“The Falcons knew what kind of team they were facing across the Atlantic,” Tori McElhaney wrote. “They knew the Bengals had a high-powered offense and that they would need to be at their best. They were well aware that Cincinnati was going to score. For the Falcons, that meant they would have to go pound for pound, punch for punch, to keep the game within reach.”
Stefanski has emphasized starting faster for the past couple of games and it simply has not worked.
The Falcons continues to struggle to maintain a level of consistency over the past couple of weeks.
Defense Let the Team Down
“Defensively, the Falcons had no answer for Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase or Tee Higgins,” Tori McElhaney wrote. “Burrow threw for 271 yards and completed 82.8 percent of his passes. Chase accounted for 155 of those receiving yards, while Higgins’ two touchdown catches helped establish and later solidify the Bengals’ lead.”
Among those who had a game was Ja’Marr Chase who recorded 142 yards in the first half. The Falcons simply had no answer for the star wideout.
“When you’re in those situations, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you have,” Michael Penix Jr. said. “So, whenever we do have a penalty like that bringing us from the one to the 15, or whatever it was, that’s crushing. And we can’t do that.
“Great football teams can’t do that, and we can’t beat ourselves. We have to go out there and beat the other team.”
“When you’re playing good football teams you have to be at your best,” Stefanski said. “And we were not at our best.”
Falcons Reveal Key Reasons for Struggling in Recent Weeks