The Atlanta Falcons wanted to come out in their season opener at home and start the closeout tour of the Georgia Dome with a bang. Unfortunately, they fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-24 in a game during which the Dirty Birds displayed a lack of discipline and poor tackling.
The Falcons had seven penalties for 74 yards and several of these taxable infractions came at the most inopportune time. Atlanta, in critical third-down situations, had personal foul penalties that kept drives alive for Tampa Bay QB Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers’ offense.
Another issue was the poor open-field tackling by Atlanta’s defense.
Bucs RB Charles Sims’ 23-yard touchdown was a perfect example of this. He could have been brought down but was able to shake through a gang of tacklers to stumble and rumble his way to pay dirt.
“We planned on it being a physical game and it was,” Falcons head coach Dan Quinn said, “but us not finishing and having some of the fouls that we did was certainly disappointing.”
QB Matt Ryan had a pretty effective day for the Falcons, finishing the day completing 27 of 39 passes for 334 yards and two touchdowns.
The Falcons had back-to-back opportunities to close in on the Bucs’ lead late in the second half. But they were unable to fully capitalize on the gifts given to them by their defense, coming up only with a field goal.
This is only the first of 16 games for Atlanta but it was a missed opportunity to get a leg-up on the division.
One thing is for certain… the discipline of this football team has to rise up and not make bonehead plays that are detrimental to a football team.