Even with their god-awful defense making Kliff Kingsbury look like the genius everyone used to pretend he was, the Falcons still found a way to build enough momentum to make it seem like a late victory over the Cardinals was possible—scoring 17 unanswered points to tie things up tends to have that effect. Atlanta’s final drive wasn’t quite a dramatic do-or-die scenario. Arizona left five minutes on the game clock for Matt Ryan and company to make things level again after going down 34-27.
The offense did what it had to do. Just seven plays and 75 yards later, Devonta Freeman caught a short pass from Ryan and muscled his way into the end zone. At this point, it was assumed that the game would soon be tied at 34, but Falcons kicker Matt Bryant never got that message. Doing his best John Carney impression, Bryant missed the extra point wide left.
Honestly, the result was a fitting one for a team that has been so woefully outmatched this for pretty much this entire season, though the way this L came about could have been a bit less cruel.
For those keeping score, here’s how this past week has gone for fans of Atlanta-based/adjacent sports teams: the Braves were utterly obliterated in Game 5 of their NLDS series against the Cardinals, the Georgia Bulldogs choked at home in overtime against unranked South Carolina, and now this. Fucking hell, that’s depressing.
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