The Falcons trailed 24-0 heading into halftime during Sunday's loss to the Seahawks, and two touchdown catches by D.K. Metcalf helped Seattle build that big lead. Those two receptions seemingly occurred because of assignment miscues on the part of Atlanta defenders, as Metcalf was wide open when they happened.
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"Allowing Seahawks rookie receiver DK Metcalf to break wide open for two goal-line touchdown receptions was inexcusable and indicative of the kind of blatant mistakes the Falcons have made all season on defense, even with Dan Quinn as the defensive coordinator," Vaughn McClure wrote in ESPN's takeaways of Week 8 NFL action. "Those two plays were part of the reason the Falcons trailed 24-0 at halftime. You can't have those type of mental breakdowns eight games in when you're preaching about fixing those problems. Now the Falcons have next week's bye to think about all that's gone wrong."
To read the rest of ESPN's takeaways from the weekend, click here.
Here are some other articles for Falcons fans to check out today:
AJC: Falcons tumble into bye week
After losing six straight games, the Falcons enter the bye week sitting at 1-7 and facing a tough stretch for the remainder of the season. In his piece for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, D. Orlando Ledbetter shared his opinion that the Falcons are the league's most disappointing team.
"No one expected much from Miami (0-6), Cincinnati (0-8) or Washington (1-7) this season," Ledbetter writes. "But to see the Falcons down in the basement with the lower-level teams in the league is chilling. While Denver's 2-6 is a mild surprise, the Falcons are easily the most disappointing team in the league."
To read the rest of Ledbetter's piece, which includes five things we learned from Atlanta's loss, click here.
NFL.com: What we learned from Week 8
The Falcons entered halftime down 24-0 against the Seahawks, but they played one of their best halves of football this season after the mid-game break. Atlanta outscored Seattle 20-3 in the final two quarters, and the Falcons were in position to add even more points on the board if not for a Devonta Freeman fumble. In his takeaways for NFL.com, Jelani Scott mentioned some of the performances that helped lead to that big second half.
"In 118 career games, Julio Jones had never caught a pass from a QB not named Matt Ryan," Scott writes. "And yet that didn't seem to matter one iota for the star wideout. Although he was held out of the endzone for the fourth straight week, Jones logged his best stats of the season (10 catches, 152 yards) in QB Matt Schaub's first start since 2015. Playing well has been a foreign concept for Atlanta all year and, for the first half, it appeared to be more of the same with Seattle outgaining them in total yards (240-166) and leading 24-0. Yes, the game ended with Atlanta's sixth straight loss but the team that came out the tunnel looked head and shoulders above every version of the team this year. A 23-yard TD run from RB Brian Hill punctuated Atlanta's first drive of the second half and sparked a 20-3 run that almost ended their slump. Had kicker Matt Bryant converted his two 50-plus yard misses, the outcome could've ended way differently in the wake of Schaub (39-of-52, 460 yards, TD) playing well above expectations."
To read the rest of Scott's takeaways from the Falcons-Seahawks game, click here.
