Falcons vs. Bengals: Hat tips & head-scratchers

The Falcons ran into an offensive buzzsaw in the form of the Bengals on Sunday, and that insult was coupled with yet more injuries to the secondary. Surrenduring 537 yards of offense, Atlanta was overwhelmed by Cincy’s passing attack — a potent one to handle even with a defense at full strength. Missing both starting cornerbacks? Not a chance.

Read on for Hat tips & head-scratchers from Week 7’s loss against the Bengals.

Hat tips

Allgeier’s afternoon

In the absence of Cordarrelle Patterson, Tyler Allgeier has opened some eyes. Combining power and vision with some unexpected shiftiness, Allgeier showed why he will be an important cog on offense — regardless of Patterson’s status. He punctuated his promising afternoon with a leap over the offensive line to secure his first professional touchdown.

Avery Williams’ return

After stopping the Bengals with less than a minute remaining in the first half, Avery Williams made the most of his punt return opportunity, weaving around defenders for a 56-yard return. This set up a last second field goal for Younghoe Koo as the clock expired, sending Atlanta into the locker room with a bit of momentum entering the second half.

Head-scratchers

Richie Grant tastes turf

Safety Richie Grant has certainly made strides in his sophomore season. The strides he failed to make on Sunday, however, immediately put the Falcons in a hole that they would not recover from.

On quarterback Joe Burrow’s third pass of the game, Grant attempted to flip his hips to keep pace with wide receiver Tyler Boyd, promptly losing his footing and hitting the turf. Boyd proceeded to catch the football for the 60-yard touchdown. Big oof.

Richie Grant is finally getting the playing time he didn’t see last season, so it’s to be expected that he’ll take some lumps. He’ll also be likely working on his transitional footwork during practice this week.

A surgically dismantled secondary

Atlanta entered this game down one starting cornerback in the wake of Casey Hayward’s injury, and they soon lost their top talent in A.J. Terrell. It was all downhill from that point forward.

Any hope that the Falcons could effectively limit Joe Burrow and his trio of top flight wide receivers evaporated once Terrell left the game due to injury, and damn it was painful to watch.

Tyler Boyd tallied over 100 receiving yards and a touchdown in the first quarter alone, with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins racking up 223 yards and two touchdowns over the course of the day.

All told, the Falcons surrendured 481 yards to quarterback Joe Burrow in game where they were utterly outmatched and embarrassed.