The Falcons won in Week Three thanks to strong games from quarterback Marcus Mariota and running back Cordarrelle Patterson, but they had to come up with a different approach against Cleveland on Sunday.
While Patterson was able to play through a knee injury that had him listed as questionable, he did not take on the same workload that he had in previous weeks. Mariota struggled while going 7-of-19 for 139 yards and an interception, but the Falcons found other ways to move the ball.
Rookie Tyler Allgeier ran 10 times for 84 yards and Caleb Huntley had 56 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries to help propel the the Falcons to their second straight victory. After the game, head coach Arthur Smith said that the team’s mindset is to find whatever it takes to win games on a weekly basis.
“We’re a team, and we’ll find different ways,” Smith said, via the team’s website. “We believe in these guys. We’ll keep improving, but these guys believe. That’s the way they work.”
All four of the Falcons’ games this season have been decided by one score and all four games have taken different paths to get to that point, so a mentality of being ready for anything seems like it should serve Atlanta well in the long run.