When the Falcons had a late 26-10 lead on Sunday, it appeared that the Bears simply wouldn’t have enough time to catch up. Then the Falcons did the Bears a favor, and kept stopping the clock.
Those clock stoppages came from eight consecutive incomplete passes thrown by Matt Ryan over a span of five series in the second half.
With the Falcons up 26-10 in the third quarter, a Ryan third-down incompletion led to a punt.
The next possession saw the Falcons still leading 26-10, and that possession ended with a Ryan incompletion, followed by a Ryan sack, followed by a missed field goal.
On the next possession, Ryan was incomplete on third down again, and the Falcons punted again.
After that, the Falcons went three-and-out with two Ryan incompletions.
And on the next possession the Falcons, winning 26-23 with four minutes left in the fourth quarter, went three-and-out with three incompletions, taking just 19 seconds off the clock while trying to protect a late lead.
“We’ve got to find a way to improve in those situations,” Ryan said, via the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We haven’t been good enough as an offense the last two weeks, but as players, you go out there and you try and make the call come to life. That’s where we’ve got to put our focus. We’ve got to find a way in those situations to make a play, and it just takes one. This is a tough league, but a spark here or there can go a long way, and we’ve got to make one of those in these end-of-game situations.”
To say the Falcons need to get better in end-of-game situations is an extreme understatement. Blown leads have become the norm in Atlanta.