By: Matthew Weatherby
The Falcons suffered their third straight loss in Foxborough on Sunday as they lost 23-24 to the Patriots. A loss that will be highlighted by Parker Romo’s missed extra point late.
Another frustrating loss for Falcons fans as they watch a team lose games in seemingly unfathomable ways. Atlanta’s kicking game has been an issue dating back to last year as well. They cut Younghoe Koo after he failed to make a game-tying field goal late in Atlanta’s game against Tampa Bay.
Kicking
Romo has been a slight upgrade over what Koo was for the team last year. In 2025, Romo has made 78.6% of his field goals to this point, while in 2024, Koo made only 73.5% of his field goal attempts; however, he was 26-26 on extra points that year as well.
Struggling with Consistency
While fans will point to kicking as a significant reason for their struggles this year. I think a more overarching point in all of this is, why are the Falcons so terribly inconsistent?
It starts with their star skill position guys. Bijan averages 94.2 all-purpose yards, 41.4 rushing yards, 12 carries a game, 3.45 yards per carry and .4 touchdowns per game in losses. Compared to an average of 195.7 all-purpose yards, 129.3 rushing yards, 19.3 carries a game, 6.7 yards per carry and .67 touchdowns per game in wins.
Drake London is a similar case in the four losses he has participated in; he is only averaging 67.5 receiving yards per game and hadn’t scored in a loss until his 3 touchdown performance this past Sunday against the Patriots. However, in the Falcons’ 3 wins, London has put up 105.7 receiving yards per game and scored in two of the three wins.
I think the most glaring hole for the Falcons has been their inability to win outdoors with Michael Penix Jr. at Quarterback. Although it is a small sample size, Penix is 0-4 in games that are not played in a dome. Which, when you think back to his time at Washington, makes it a bit confusing as to why.
The defense has been relatively consistent, giving up 20.8 points per game indoors vs 24.7 points per game outdoors, a roughly 4-point difference per game on average.
Final Thoughts
I’m not sure the exact issue with the Falcons. Honestly, I thought I was going to find a definitive trend when going through the statistics, but frankly, I didn’t. They are definitely a slightly worse team when they have to play outdoors, but the trends I found didn’t feel definitive enough. It also didn’t matter what statistic I found; it could never make sense of the 34-10 loss at home to the 2-7 Miami Dolphins. They have more than enough talent, especially on offense, to be a top team in the league. When they play their best, they look the part. But there has just been too large a gap between the highs and lows of this team to believe they will find that consistency over the next 9 games.
Up Next
The Falcons will meet the Colts in Berlin, Germany. That game kicks off at 9:30 am EST on the NFL Network.
