Of course we knew the Falcons could lose this game to the Buccaneers—we all saw the first eight games—but they appeared to have sorted out some of the issues that plagued them in the first half of the seasons in convincing wins against the Saints and Panthers.
Instead, we got the same old Falcons, doing the same old Falcons stuff.
Atlanta has had a nasty habit in recent years of getting a little success and then falling flat, and they repeated that familiar pattern here. After a pretty quick start against Tampa Bay—two interceptions of Jameis Winston and a couple of productive early drives should’ve led to a commanding lead, after all—they completely fell apart.