TAMPA – Falcons linebacker Mykal Walker, who suffered a groin injury in the second half, had to watch as the defense tried to get a stop late in the 21-15 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
He wasn’t surprised that the defense forced three third downs or that referees called penalties of two of them to help Tampa Bay run out the clock.
“If you watch our schedule, every week is like this,” Walker said. “We know it’s going to be like this every single week. Obviously, we had some questionable calls, but at the end of the day, we can’t put it in the refs hands. We are going to go back and look at the tape. See what we could have fix in the beginning of the game so that we are not in that situation.”
Walker left the game after making a play along the sideline in the third quarter and did not return.
Linebacker Rashaan Evans took over the play-calling duties and rookie Troy Anderson went in for Walker. Despite leaving the game early, Walker led the Falcons with 11 tackles. Evans had six and Andersen had four.
Walker is set to get a MRI on Monday, but thinks he’ll be fine.
“I’m going to get that checked tomorrow,” Walker said. “Right now, I’m feeling good. I should be ready to play next week.”
Early in the game, the defense had a stop on fourth-and-1 to get off the field.
“It was big,” Walker said. “We just feed off that. We had one last week. Got another one this week. We’re a bend, but not break team. So, that’s just what we are preaching. We are a tough team. We are able to fight.”
After going down 21-0, the Falcons fought back to make it 21-15 with 4:38 to play. The defense needed a stop and the offense needed a touchdown drive and an extra point kick to pull off the shocker. Neither happened.
It was tough for Walker to watch from the sideline.
“I feel like I was having a good game and coming through,” Walker said. “Not being able to go out there and finish and fight, especially coming back from the deficit. Not being to be out there to fight with my (unit) was bad.”
Evans did an admirable taking over the signal-calling.
“He did great,” Walker said. “We always talk. I’ve got my money on (Evans) all the time. As soon as I went down, I knew Rashaad was going to pick up the slack. We got a great kid, Troy Andersen, to run in there too and help take over. We have a really good linebacker room. I knew if I couldn’t go in there that those guys would be able to hold it down.”
A.J. Terrell was called on a questionable defensive holding and Grady Jarrett was called for roughing the passer to thwart the defense from getting the ball back to the offense on the Buccaneers final drive. They were able to run out the clock.
“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to put ourselves in better situations to go out there and win those games without those guys,” cornerback Casey Hayward said. “We definitely have to put ourselves in better situations with our starts. We started too slow.”
Yeah, falling behind 21-0 is never a recipe for success. But the call on Jarrett hit the Falcons badly.
“Obviously, from my vantage point it looked like it was a bad call,” Hayward said. “Just like you put the refs out there to make these guys, they pay these guys to make these guys. ... It look bad from my standpoint. But like I said, I was in the back end. They put these guys out there to make these calls.”
Hayward thought it was an offensive holding call and that the defense would have prevailed in getting the ball back to the offense.
“I thought he called it on one of those guys,” Hayward said. “I thought it was something on them for sure. It wasn’t in the back end and so it’s normally a holding or something like that.”
Terrell was philosophical about the questionable late game calls.
“Big games just get a little emotional, but like I said, It’s just something that -- we can’t control the calls,” Terrell said. “We just have to try to come back and play the next snap.
“I don’t know, man. It was third-and-7 -- just trying to get off the field. (The officials) called what they called. It’s something I can’t control. Just ‘next play’ mentality. You know, we had another opportunity and we put it in the refs hands again. Just get back to the drawing board next week.”
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The Bow Tie Chronicles
Atlanta Falcons 2022 NFL schedule
Sept. 11: Saints 27, Falcons 26
Sept. 18: Rams 31, Falcons 27
Sept. 25 Falcons 27, Seahawks 23
Oct. 2 Falcons 23, Browns 20
Oct. 9 Buccaneers 21, Falcons 15
Oct. 16 vs. San Francisco, 1 p.m.
Oct. 23 at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Oct. 30 vs. Carolina, 1 p.m.
Nov. 6 vs. Los Angeles Chargers, 1 p.m.
Nov. 10 at Carolina, 8:15 p.m.
Nov. 20 vs. Chicago, 1 p.m.
Nov. 27 at Washington, 1 p.m.
Dec. 4 vs. Pittsburgh, 1 p.m.
BYE WEEK
Dec. 18 at New Orleans, TBD
Dec. 24 at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Jan. 1 vs. Arizona, 1 p.m.
Jan. 8 vs. Tampa Bay, TBD
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