Falcons lose against Kansas City 29-28

By: Lucas Kochevar

     The Falcons played Kansas City and lost in a heart breaker 29-28. The Falcons started off with the ball and took the ball all the way down to the one yard line and scored a TD with Devonta Freeman. The Chiefs would answer with a strong drive that included big plays from Travis Kelce. Travis Kelce finished with a big game that included 8 catches and 140 yards. The Falcons kicked two field goals and they went up 13-6. The Chiefs would score a TD that lasted 6:20. Atlanta would get the ball back with a minute left. Matt Ryan tried to hit Taylor Gabriel and threw it behind him and Eric Berry returned the interception for a TD. This was an awful thro by Matt. He should have tried to check it down or throw it away, but instead with a minute left in the half he threw a terrible pick. On a positive note, the Falcons would drive down the field and kick a 59-yard FG. At halftime the score was 20-16 in favor of the Chiefs.

     To start the half Kansas City got the ball and made it somewhat over midfield and looked like they were gonna go for it with a 4th down and 1. The Falcons called timeout because they weren't ready for it. After the timeout Andy Reid sent out his punt team and it was fairly predictable that they might run a fake punt with Albert Wilson, who was standing in the middle of the formation behind the long snapper. Sure enough they ran the fake punt and they scored a 55-yard TD. Atlanta was not prepared at all for the fake punt and it gave Kansas City a 27-16 lead. After that in the third quarter no one would score. Early in the 4th Atlanta would score and try to go for 2 but they failed.  The Falcons got the ball back and scored a TD with Aldrick Robinson. The Falcons opted to go for 2 to try and make it a 3-point game. Then Matt Ryan tried to find Austin Hooper but Eric Berry, for the second time, picked off Matt Ryan and returned it for 2 points and Kansas City would lead again 29-28. Since the Falcons scored they had to kick it off to KC. Kansas City faced a huge 3rd down but they were able to hit Albert WIlson for the forst down and that was the ball game.

     The Falcons loss hurt in the fact that Dan Quinn made a handful of mistakes and Matt Ryan had two passes that he wishes he could have back. The Defense only aloowed 13 points, which is a positive. The problem on defense is that the rookies had their worst game. They missed multiple tackles and they made Travis Kelce look like Rob Gronkowski. The coaching by Andy Reid was far supperior to Dan Quinn. Quinn made mistakes by going for it on 4th down and 1 when they should have kicked the easy FG. He decided this in the 3rd quater and the play call was a pass. It would have been much easier to just hand it off to Freeman, who was having a solid game. Matt Ryan threw two horrendous picks in times that he didn't need to. I believe ultimately it came down to the coaching decisions. Andy Reid and Kansas City came in with a game plan that was better than Dan Quinn. Hopefully the Falcons can bounce back against A struggling Rams team that just signed Jeff Fisher to a suprising contract extension.

One last note: Huge congratulations to Eric Berry. He had a fantastic game and made the game-winning play. He is hometown kid and he recently had cancer that he just got over. Major resdpect for Eric Berry.

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