ATLANTA — In the week leading up to Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears, the Atlanta Falcons emphasized the importance of starting the game fast.

"The message all week was: Start fast, start fast, start fast," defensive end Cam Thomas said in the locker room after the game. "We just didn't do that."

Instead, the visiting team raced out to a 14-0 lead in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Bears built that lead up to 31-7 on the first play of the fourth quarter, a cushion large enough to withstand a furious Falcons rally that nearly turned the game on its head in the final 10 minutes.

Tight end Kyle Pitts caught two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to close the gap, but Atlanta ran out of time and couldn't overcome its slow start, losing 31-23.

"I'm obviously proud of how we continue to fight, but to start like we started is really, really disappointing," head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "... That's something we talked at length about, and we talked at length about starting fast in this ballgame, and we did not."

Chicago received the opening kickoff and marched 67 yards on 10 plays, scoring on a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Caleb Williams to tight end Colston Loveland. The Bears' defense then stifled the home team's response, forcing the Falcons' offense into a three-and-out on a possession that gained 1 yard.

After receiving the ball back, the Bears covered 59 yards in nine plays to score their second touchdown of the afternoon on a 4-yard carry by running back D'Andre Swift. It put the Falcons in a 14-0 deficit early, something they'd worked all week to avoid.

"We've got to get that fixed because we just put ourselves in the hole," Stefanski said. "Disappointed. I'll have to look at how we start and make sure that we are putting our guys in position, but we will own that one, and we will move on."

The Falcons found their footing on defense at that point and limited the Bears to just 58 total yards on their next three possessions, including an impressive stand after Atlanta's offense turned the ball over on downs just past midfield. On their next offensive series after the turnover on downs, the Falcons connected on a pair of important passes.

The first went for 39 yards to wide receiver Drake London, which moved Atlanta into the red zone for the first time in the game. The second went for 13 yards to wide receiver Jahan Dotson for their first touchdown. In that moment, the Falcons had won back some momentum inside of the building and showed the explosive ability that had made them one of the league's best offenses in the previous three weeks.

It would be the only touchdown Atlanta scored before there were less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

"It's always tough being down that much," Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said. "Like we talked about, starting fast is something that you always want to do. But sometimes you get in obvious passing situations. ... We've got to find a way to start fast so that we can keep Bijan [Robinson] in the game. We can keep the running backs and the running game going so that we can go out there and execute things in the pass game as well."

Bijan Robinson, who entered the game leading the NFL with 580 rushing yards, carried the ball nine times for 61 yards on Sunday. Although he averaged 6.8 yards per carry, Robinson was not a factor to the degree he typically is.

"That's what we set our identity in: this run game," Robinson said. "The run game gets everything going on this offense. So, for us, I know when we got down those scores, we were trying to play catch-up with the passes, so we could try to get as many yards as we can. When we run the ball effectively and have opportunities to run the ball, that's what makes our offense super hard to stop."

Without the complementary balance of the run and pass games working together, Atlanta's offense found itself in many third-and-long situations, which is a tough way to live against NFL defenses, let alone a unit that ranked as the league's second-best group on third down entering the game. The Falcons needed to gain at least 5 yards on 10 of their 12 third-down opportunities. They converted three third downs on the afternoon.

Chicago controlled the ball for more than 40 minutes, in part because of Atlanta's third-down numbers but also due to three turnovers, including two on special teams. It's the second week in which Atlanta's defense was on the field for more than 35 minutes, and although they sacked quarterback Caleb Williams four times and held the Bears under 100 rushing yards, the early lead proved too much to overcome.

Another home game awaits the Falcons in Week 7 against a San Francisco 49ers team that enters its Monday night matchup with a perfect 5-0 record.

"We've got to do more. We've got to sacrifice more," defensive end Samson Ebukam said of rebounding from Sunday's loss. "Everybody's got to look at themselves in the mirror and grit their teeth. It's a boxing match; you just lost a round. Got to come back the next round and get that victory. That's really it; we'll just grind our teeth and just go out there and get it done."