TAMPA, Fla. — The Atlanta Falcons knew what type of game they were getting into on Sunday afternoon. The weather forecast couldn't be overlooked. Rain — a whole lot of it — was imminent. And from the moment the game kicked off at Raymond James Stadium between the Buccaneers and Falcons, the conditions were relentless.
"It's probably the craziest game I have ever been a part of," safety Jessie Bates III said.
Running back Bijan Robinson: "I haven't played in a game like that before."
From first snap to final whistle, the rain not only came down. It poured and swirled. And again, the Falcons weren't surprised by this development. They'd planned for it.
"We knew what type of game it was going to be," Bates said.
Messy. Muddy. Muggy and moist. Plays through the air were going to be difficult to come by. The ball was going to be slippery, easy for turnover-worthy plays to mount.
The ground game, now that's where success could happen. Both in stopping the Bucs attack while solidifying the Falcons' own.
"Those are games that are fun," Robinson said of the conditions. "Games that you love to play where you can run the football, but you want to win those games, too."
And against the Buccaneers on Sunday, the Falcons didn't. Losing 16-0 in a shutout that saw Baker Mayfield never complete a pass. It's just the fourth time in NFL history a stat like that could be attributed to a game.
The Bucs offense, however, kept the chains moving as much as they could on the ground. In the end, the Bucs out-gained the Falcons 324-99 in the run game on their way to their second consecutive NFC South win in just as many weeks.
"Those conditions, we were going to run the ball a lot, they were going to run the ball a lot," Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles said. "It was just a matter of who let who out a little bit more and we made some plays."
For the Falcons, that's why they can't — and won't — use the weather conditions as an excuse for why they lost this game.
"There is not too much of a challenge," Robinson said of the rain. "All you have to do is just run it efficiently and that can open up some other stuff with the play action pass. I know that these games are wet ballgames but, for us, that can't matter."
It didn't matter for the Bucs, head coach Kevin Stefanski noted. They prevailed. Same conditions and all.
"Obviously, you have to play the game that is presented in front of you," Stefanski said. "The conditions were what they were for both teams, and we didn't do a good enough job as a team."
And as much as you could say the conditions played a factor, or the Bucs defense themselves. When it comes to Atlanta's Week 8 performance, there was something else in their way, too: Themselves.
"I think it was our own mistakes," Robinson said of the difference between success offensively and what ended up happening in the game. "The mistakes that we created. We can't turn the ball over. We have to continue to limit mistakes. ... They're a really good defense, but it shouldn't matter who runs up across from us, we have to get the job done."
The Falcons, according to Stefanski, have to "own" the loss and their faults throughout it. A team was going to win that game Sunday. The Falcons can't — and won't — use the conditions as the main reason they lost this game.
"Any where, any place, any time, any type of weather," Bates said, "you have to be ready to play."
Get an inside look at the matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium during Week 8.
