Falcons – Steelers instant recap: A season-opening embarrassment

There was joy, there was tragedy, there was a lot of weird stuff. It was a Falcons football game, and unfortunately, that meant the joy was fleeting and the tragedy and weirdness dominated.

The Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers faced off in a game that promised to feature some rust and weirdness, as most Week 1 games do, and the game delivered. There were turnovers, dumb penalties, and missed opportunities left and right for both teams, but the combination of Chris Boswell’s stellar leg from a distance and the sheer number of mistakes from Atlanta added up to a rough day at the office for the Falcons, who found themselves down 15-10 heading into the fourth quarter. An offense with the pieces to be terrific looked anemic, and a defense predicated on a strong secondary looked lacking against George Pickens. It added up to a loss, as despite some heroic moments from the defense, Atlanta’s offense was awful throughout the second half, capped off by a Kirk Cousins interception under pressure to give Pittsburgh the chance to salt the game away.

It was a dispiriting start to the season for Atlanta, given their expectations and given that their next two games are against the Eagles and Chiefs. We know that Week 1 is a time for slow start and sloppiness, but this was a little beyond the pale for a Falcons team eager to win, and it puts them in a hole as they face the toughest stretch in their schedule early on. It goes without saying that they have to be far better very quickly to avoid going into an extremely deep hole early in the season,

Here’s the drive-by-drive recap, if you can stand it.

1st Quarter
The Falcons chose to receive. Bijan Robinson took it seven yards on first down, and on second down Bijan took it again and picked up three for a first down. Another carry for three yards up the middle came next, and then Kirk Cousins looked to pass to Robinson and it was nearly picked off. On third down, Cousins threw a fastball to Darnell Mooney, who brought it in over the middle for a first down. A defensive offsides followed, and then Tyler Allgeier rumbled for a first down and more. Bijan then got outside to pick up about six yards, and Cousins found Drake London for a first down. Bijan was hit in the backfield on the next play to lose yards. and then Cousins skipped one into the turf on the next play. That set up a third and goal, and the screen pass to Bijan picked up about six yards but was stopped by a nice tackle from a Pittsburgh defender. Younghoe Koo banged it home to make it Falcons 3, Steelers 0.

On first down, a fumbled snap was picked up by Pittsburgh for a gain of three yards. Pure damn luck. On second down, pressure got in Justin Fields’ face and he threw one off-target on the move for an incompletion. A timeout later, Fields got away from pressure and scrambled for 12 yards and a first down. Najee Harris then took it four yards on first down, and then Harris took a toss off a botched snap and picked up three yards, and then took it up the middle again for a first down. Fields then threw it to Harris, missing a little behind, and he dropped it. Pat Freiermuth then took it a few yards, and then Arthur Smith took a familiar road by having Cordarrelle Patterson take it up the middle on third down for a minimal gain. That set up a long field goal try, and the Steelers tied it up 3-3.

Robinson took it outside again to start the next drive, picking up nine yards. Then Kirk Cousins threw an ill-advised, off-target throw over the middle that was intercepted, swiftly ending the drive.