FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was coming back from ruptured Achilles surgery, wanted to play in the exhibition season. Head coach Raheem Morris, with a plan to mitigate injuries, didn’t play most of the starters. Not surprisingly, Cousins looked rusty in his Falcons debut, an 18-10 loss to the Steelers on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the season opener. The Steelers played their starters in the exhibition season.
Cousins’ didn’t look mobile in the pocket and had two interceptions. He had at least two other passes that bounced off the hands of Steelers defensive backs. If all of this happened in the an exhibition game it wouldn’t have mattered. However, since the Falcons waited until the regular season to let Cousins work through his return, its part of the reason they are now 0-1 with the Eagles and defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs on deck.
Here are the five things we learned from the sloppy loss:
1. Bijan Robinson was busy. The Falcons attempted to run their offense through running back Bijan Robinson, who rushed 18 times for 68 yards (3.8 yards per carry) with a long of 13 yards. He also caught five passes for 43 yards (8.6 yards per catch) with a long of 14 yards.
“Just stay consistent running the ball, passing the ball,” Robinson said about building off the performance. “We can’t make turnovers. When we do that we have to go out there and execute the right way (and) the sky (will be) the limit for us.”
The Packers rushed 21 times for 163 yards against the Eagles in their opener, but 33 yards were on a reverse from wide receiver Jayden Reed. The Falcons play the Eagles on Monday Night Football next week.
The Falcons ran a lot of outside zone to their left and away from Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt, but they were predictable.
The Falcons had 22 snaps out of the shotgun and had zero designed runs, according to ESPN stats. They had 26 snaps out of the pistol and ran the ball 81% of the time.
“We’ve got to do the little things first,” Robinson said. “We have to secure our blocks and don’t let (anyone) loose. When we do that we have the talent, the speed and the physicality to move the ball.”
2. Falcons had to go to silent count. Steelers fans came out in droves and took over the stadium with chants on a couple of occasions.
“Steeler Nation is incredible,” Watt said after the game. “It’s extremely demoralizing for an offense to be on a silent count on their home field. Incredible.”
The crowd was a factor on a fumble that Watt recovered. The Falcons said it was a timing issue, but clearly Cousins and tight end Ross Dwelley were not on the same page.
Drew Dalman’s snap hit Dwelley and it was recovered by Watt, ending a promising drive that was on Pittsburgh’s 32-yard line.
The Falcons never recovered from the turnover. It must be noted that the timing issue could have been worked out in an exhibition game.
“Honestly, a lot of those plays go to them just because ... that fumble that I was able to land on was because they had a silent count,” Watt said. “Anytime that happens, and you have a lot of shifts and motions. ... I’m not surprised.”
3. Pressure was real. When the Falcons had to throw, Watt and the Steelers were able to put pressure on Cousins.
The Steelers finished with two sacks and seven quarterback hits. It seemed like more. Watt had a sack taken away because of a false start penalty.
On one play, Watt beat right tackle Kaleb McGary and a poor double-team block from tight end Kyle Pitts. Blocking tight end Charlier Woerner could be used to help McGary when he’s facing elite speed rushers in the future.
The Steelers did not want to blitz Cousins.
“We had to create pressure in a non-blitz structure,” Steeler coach Mike Tomlin said. “We know that about him. Last year, he was good against five-or-more rushers. Over the course of his career, he’s great against five-or-more rushers.”
4. A closer look at the defense. The Falcons defense was clearly ahead of the offense. The kept the Steelers out of the end zone and limited them to six field goals.
There were rotations at outside and inside linebacker. Justin Simmons has taken over at safety for Richie Grant, who didn’t play a defensive snap.
Outside linebacker Matthew Judon played 46 defensive snaps (68%). While Lorenzo Carter started opposite of Judon, James Smith-Williams and Arnold Ebiketie also saw playing time. Carter played 37 defensive snaps (54%), Smith-Williams played 31 (46%) and Ebiketie played 22 (32%).
At inside linebacker, Troy Anderson (31 snaps, 46%) shared the spot next to Kaden Elliss with Nate Landman (37 snaps, 54%). Elliss played 68 snaps (100%).
While the Falcons kept the Steelers out of the end zone, they allowed a 47.1% conversion rate on third downs (8 of 17) and loss the time of possession battle, 35 minutes, 36 seconds to 24:24.
The defense did make a fourth-quarter stop on fourth down-and-1 to give the offense another chance to score with 3:32 left. But Cousins tossed his second pick of the game.
“It’s a team game for a reason,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “If they are having a hard day on offense, we have to be that much better. The same thing if it slips the other way. I think there was a lot to learn from. We can continue to get better.”
Landman stopped Justin Fields on a quarterback sneak for a no-gain on the fourth-down stop. They’ll likely see some more quarterback sneaks when they face the Eagles.
“That was an awesome stop,” Jarrett said. “A great way to respond. We tried to get the offense a chance to go (and) score.”
5. Special teams plan. The Falcons elected to kick the ball into the end zone and let Pittsburgh start on the 30-yard line. That took NFL record-holder Cordarrelle Patterson out of the game as a kickoff returner.
“I think it was more of the game-plan, see what the new kickoff would be like,” safety Micah Abernathy said. “Everybody was kind of feeling it out. It wasn’t necessarily about him (Patterson). We are going to do whatever we want to do regardless of who’s back there. But I think we were just feeling it out. Just playing the game. The game within the game.”
Ray-Ray McCloud returned two kickoffs for 56 yards (28 per return). Avery Williams, who returned after missing last season due to knee surgery, had two for 28 yards and a fair catch.
On his 28-yard return, the Falcons set up a wall on the right side to spring him.
“I was on the left side,” Abernathy said. “I was a part of the return. We were trying to get some space out there and let Avery hit it and do what he was supposed to do. He was the best returner in the league (in 2022).”
Williams suffered a knee injury during the 2023 offseason in a practice at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It’s been a long time,” Williams said. “I haven’t been out there since January for ‘23.”
Williams enjoyed the big return.
“The guys executed,” Williams said. “We got a couple of first downs. We always have to look at the film and improve. We have to figure out how we can help this team even more on special teams.”
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