Falcons’ offense held out of the end zone by Broncos

Cousins completed 18 of 27 passes for 173 yards and an interception. He finished with a passer rating of 68.9.

The Falcons were moving on their opening drive, but penalties set them back on their only trip to the redzone. The Falcons had to settle for a field goal.

Robinson had 12 carries for 35 yards and caught four passes for 28 yards.

“They were awesome,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said of the Broncos. “Out-physicaled us. Out-efforted us. Great job by their coaches. Hats off to (defensive coordinator) Vance (Joseph). Hats off to that staff. Hats off to that team. Hats off to those players. They did a great job verses really a great player. They stopped us today.”

When Robinson has the rushing attack moving, that allows Cousins to pass off of play-action fakes.

“We certainly did not get the chance in the second half to run the football because of the score,” Cousins said. “The game took it away from being a game where he was going to get a lot of chances running the football.”

Robinson had some nice plays.

“He certainly made a tremendous play on that third-and-10 to have late hands and make that catch,” Cousins said. “On the first drive of the game, he made some plays. I just think the game getting away from us a little bit prevented it from being a game where he would have a lot of touches.”

In the 18-10 loss to the Steelers, Cousins passed for just 137 yards. The offense also didn’t score a touchdown in the win over the Saints on Sept. 29.

The offense could not sustain drives as they had to call on punter Bradley Pinion five times.

“I think the first drive we moved football really well,” Cousins said. “We got down there and a holding call put us back. Then we got down there again on the one-yard line and they called it an illegal procedure. The two penalties put us in third and really long.”

The offense could never get into a rhythm.

“It was combination of many things, but it certainly felt like coming away with a touchdown on the first drive would have been a much better start,” Cousins said.

The Falcons offense has shown flashes of being potent this season. They passed for more that 500 yards in a win over Tampa Bay. They rushed for nearly 200 yards in two other games.

The defense was riddled with injures along the front line and in the secondary. It was a day where the Falcons needed the offense to be potent. Or at least match the Broncos.

“I think you always want to have that attacking mentality, regardless of the score or the situation,” Cousins said. “You have to play the game that is unfolding, regardless of how it’s unfolding.”

Wide receiver Ray Ray McCloud led the Falcons with six catches. Drake London had three catches for 61 yards. Darnell Mooney had two catches for 21 yards and tight end Kyle Pitts had a catch for 9 yards.

“We were trying to shoot a lot of things down the field, but they did a lot of good things on my side,” Mooney said. “We were checking things down to the running backs and our tight ends. We just have to go out there offensively and complement that.”

The Falcons plan to regroup over the bye week.

“Just trying to get everybody healthy,” Falcons left guard Matt Bergeron said. “For the offensive line we are getting Drew (Dalman) back. Stuff like that. Guys that have played a lot, just let them recover and get back to 100 percent for Dec. 1st.”

The Falcons had not dropped two games in a row this season.

“We just have to rely on each other,” Bergeron said. “We are not the type of team that’s going to give up. Or is going to turn on each other.”