It’s a victory Monday in Atlanta, one that feels especially sweet as the Falcons were able to top the rival Saints thanks to a last-second field goal from Younghoe Koo, who knocked through a career-long 58-yarder with two seconds remaining on the clock, one of his four field goals on the afternoon.
Defense continues to anchor Falcons
For much of the offseason, the expectation was that the Falcons offense, led by Kirk Cousins, Zac Robinson, and a slew of weapons at the skill positions, would carry Atlanta while the defense struggled to find stops. That has been far from the case through four weeks.
Nothing about Atlanta’s offense has been pretty, and that continued in Week 4. The Falcons didn’t score a single offensive touchdown, settling for four field goals. The play-calling was lackluster, Kirk Cousins still can’t seem to put it all together, and the combination of Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson continues to underwhelm.
Despite upgrading the quarterback position, things still look an awful lot like they did last year with Desmond Ridder under center, but some of that has to be credited to the defenses the Falcons have faced. The Steelers, Chiefs, and Saints are three of the top defenses in the league. We should get a better idea of what this Atlanta offense can be on Thursday night against the Bucs.
On the flip side, while the Falcons defense surely isn’t a top 10 unit, they’ve anchored things early on, proving to be especially stingy on third down and in the red area. There are still concerns surrounding a non-existent pass rush, and their struggles against the run have been alarming, but the secondary has been far better than most expected, and their the reason the Falcons aren’t sitting here today 0-4.
Tyler Allgeier might be the team’s best running back
It might be time to start having an honest conversation. One of the biggest sticking points for talking heads that bashed the Falcons for drafting a running back in the top 10 was that they already had a really good young running back in Tyler Allgeier on the roster, who broke the franchise record for rushing yards by a rookie back in 2022. With so many holes on the roster, wouldn’t it have made more sense to draft, I don’t know, Jalen Carter, who is off to a stellar start to his career in Philadelphia?
Bijan Robinson isn’t bad by any means, and he’s really become a weapon out of the backfield as a receiver and as a blocker, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say he’s not the best runner of the football in Atlanta. Yesterday, Robinson received seven carries for just 28 yards as the offense struggled to get anything going in the first half. However, things changed significantly once Allgeier entered the game, who carried the ball eight times for 60 yards, averaging 7.5 yards per attempt.
When you draft a running back as high as the Falcons drafted Bijan Robinson, it’s difficult to take him out of the game, but it’s become pretty evident that Allgeier needs a bigger role in the offense. He should be getting just as many carries, if not more than Robinson on a weekly basis at this point.
Maybe Kyle Pitts just isn’t good
I hate to be a Debbie Downer following a massive win over the Falcons biggest rival, but it’s time for these conversations to be had. Every offseason, fans convince themselves this is the year Kyle Pitts finally breaks out. He then struggles, which is followed by a boatload of excuses for why he struggled — Arthur Smith is a terrible OC, poor quarterback play, injuries, etc.
Well, maybe it’s time to just accept the fact that it was a god-awful draft pick. The Falcons made Kyle Pitts the highest-drafted tight end of all time. After one season, it looked fantastic, but since then, he’s been just another guy. It was fair to blame Desmond Ridder, Marcus Mariota, and even Arthur Smith for his struggles over the last two seasons, but all of those guys are gone now, and through four games, Pitts has just 105 receiving yards, including zero catch performance against the Saints. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but Pitts is looking like he might go down as one of the worst draft picks in franchise history.
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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