5 things we learned from the Falcons’ loss to the Bears

The 37-17 loss to the Bears was the fourth worst defeat during Smith’s tenure. They were beaten 43-3 by Dallas on Nov. 14, 2021, 25-0 by New England on Nov. 18, 2021 and 48-25 by Tom Brady and Tampa Bay on Sept. 18, 2021.

The first three of those losses occurred in Smith’s first season. The Falcons have played in a lot of close games over the past two seasons before things got out of hand late against the Bears.

Here are five things we learned from the loss:

1. Fast start faltered: The Falcons won the coin toss and elected to receive.

That allowed them to try to score first and have the wind at their backs in the second and fourth quarters.

Things started to literally snowball for them after they couldn’t get the fast start, missed two field-goals attempts while kicking into the wind and found themselves down 14-0.

With the lead, the Bears could stay with their rushing attack and not take too many risks in the passing game.

“You come, and you’ve only got three drives,” Smith said. “You move the ball for almost 200 yards and you only get seven points. They hit a couple of plays and put us in a hole. They stayed in rhythm. They hit plays. They stayed in their play-action and keeper game. We never were able to close the gap.”

2. Heinicke’s left ankle: Falcons quarterback Taylor Heinicke was wearing a boot after the game in Chicago and on Monday while leaving the locker room. His left ankle was stepped on during the game, which aggravated an existing injury.

Desmond Ridder came on to finish the game. Heinicke originally injured the ankle in the 29-10 win over the Colts the previous Sunday.

“Obviously, he’s going to do everything he can to play,” Smith said. “We’ll have to monitor that. It was obviously sore last week. That’s why he was limited (in practice). Clearly, he felt good (enough) to play. Like everybody (in) Week 18, nobody feels great. So, we’ll just have to monitor it. I know Taylor, he’s going to put everything he can into trying to go.”

The Falcons will get Ridder ready to play against the Saints.

“Desmond was ready to go last week, if he had to play,” Smith said. “That’s how you do it, both guys have to prepare to play. It was kind of the same thing we did last week.”

Heinicke appeared to be in good spirits.

“I’m talking to him now and talking to the trainers,” Smith said. “I anticipate him being out there in a similar role like last week. We’ll have a good idea by Friday for sure.”

3. Run defense: The Bears rushed the ball 37 times for 192 yards, which was the most rushing yards allowed by the Falcons this season.

The Panthers rushed for 154 yards in the season opener.

The Falcons are not overly concerned about the run defense, which has been solid for most of the season. Despite the poor outing, the Falcons remained eighth in rushing in the NFL while giving up 130.1 yards per game.

“Credit to them, they got out to that lead, and they had a nice mix,” Smith said. “That was part of the reason we wanted to get some early momentum. Once they got up, they held the ball for a while. Almost a whole quarter. They popped those runs late.”

Bears running back Khalil Herbert led the way with 18 rushes for 124 yards. Quarterback Justin Fields had 11 carries for 45 yards.

“They had the play extensions with Fields,” Smith said. “They hurt us on a few passing downs. Credit to them. We got behind, and you have to go for it on fourth-and-17 backed up, just because you know possessions are limited at that point. We needed to score. They made a play, and we didn’t.”

The Falcons knew the Bears would try to run. The Bears rushed 38 times for 250 yards the previous game, a win over the Cardinals.

“They get the lead, they can grind you down because they have multiple ways they can run it,” Smith said. “Some of them weren’t designed runs. That’s one of the strengths of Fields. They’ve made people pay all year. We had him down a couple of times, and he gets out of it and converts on third down.”

4. Bounce back: The run defense will seek to bounce back against Saints.

“Just being gap sound and things like that,” Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell said. “Things that we can control. Just watch the field and make sure we correct the things that are shown on tape. Not let it happen again. That’s something we can control going into this week.”

Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss said: “We have to make sure we are (gap sound) because they have some really talented running backs over in New Orleans. We have to get ready for them. We’ll make sure it’s sound.”

5. Playoffs: The Falcons need a win over the Saints coupled with a loss by the Bucs to the Panthers to make the playoffs as the NFC South division winner.

The Falcons and Panthers are underdogs in their respective games.

“It is a big game,” Terrell said. “Both of us are trying to get into the playoffs. It’s a playoff game before a playoff game. Whoever wins this game could possibly get in and get the division and make a shot for the playoffs.”

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