The Falcons changed their final play against the Chiefs, and it was a catastrophe

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Bijan Robinson’s 3-yard loss to seal a Chiefs victory was the result of the Falcons outthinking themselves at the worst possible time.

With 56 seconds left in their Sunday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Falcons had fourth-and-1 from the Kansas City 13-yard line. The score was 22-17 in Kansas City’s favor, so a field goal wasn’t an option. The Falcons had to convert that fourth down and try to get in the end zone. They had already been snubbed in the end zone by referee Tra Blake and his officiating crew when that crew missed an obvious pass interference committed by safety Bryan Cook on tight end Kyle Pitts.

That was on third-and-five from the Kansas City six-yard line, and when Kirk Cousins underthrew receiver Drake London on the next play, Atlanta gave the ball over on downs.

So, on their next drive, the Falcons knew they had to hit it hard if they wanted to win.

And they had the play to do it. On the play before the final Atlanta play in question, running back Tyler Allgeier ran up the middle for no gain, but the call this time was for running back Bijan Robinson to take it up the middle again.

That was the call… and then it wasn’t, based on what the Falcons saw from Kansas City’s stacked defensive line.

“We had a call to go downhill,” Robinson said postgame. “It looked like it was going to be different, so we changed the play. When we changed the play, we had to account for a couple of guys. No. 32 [Bolton] came free right up the middle, so it was tough. When I get the ball, I have to try to make a decision right now. He came out and tried to switch and go and that was my line, so it was hard for me. Obviously, I’m going to try and do better to break that tackle and make that play regardless of the situation.”

Atlanta’s failure to convert in this case was less about Robinson not making a play, and far more about Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton making the play of the game with the tackle that stopped Robinson short.

Bolton saw enough on Robinson’s 1-yard touchdown run with 6:44 left in the first half to know to adjust this time around. Atlanta was going old-school T-Formation in the red zone with tight end Charlie Woerner as the third man in the backfield, and it worked. Bolton was late to the gap, and got worked over.

This time, Bolton wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Yeah, in the red zone, they kind of ran something similar, but they had three backs – [they] used a tight end as a full blocker,” Bolton recalled. “My lineman probably should have been cheated over just a little bit more and probably hung up with me – probably would have had me and Leo [Chenal] hitting him on the goal line and probably pushed him back. I came up with a similar play type of pattern, except they only had two backs instead of three. So, I kind of saw that [and] cheated over a little bit. It’s like a rule around the locker room man — if a tight end is blocking 54, he’s going to set the edge for you. So, I saw Leo [Chenal] set the edge and I just kind of went off his butt and made the play.”

Bolton said that he did recognize the play pre-snap.

“Oh, yeah. Coach had a great call, put the big D-linemen in there, those guys got vertical, and I just shot my gun.”

This time, Allgeier was Robinson’s lead blocker, and as Allgeier worked outside the tackles, Bolton knew he needed to shoot his shot.

Linebacker Leo Chenal also knew what was coming.

“They saw us all down and kind of loading up the box, and they said ‘Check, check’. We knew that they were alerting to an outside perimeter run, and Nick just ran it perfectly and took a shot on the play.”

It’s not a huge surprise that Bolton made the play. During Super Bowl LVIII week in Las Vegas, both Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo said that Bolton is the guy who makes the Chiefs defense go and holds it all together.

And when the Chiefs needed him the most, Bolton came through as was expected of him.

Even Patrick Mahomes was impressed.

“Yeah, great play,” the quarterback said. “I mean, I think it was very similar – [Bolton] talked about it was very similar to the play they ran on the goal line. He recognized it, shot a shot and made a play. The defense has made a couple of those plays. We’ve got to be better offensively at converting some first downs and running the clock out. But, it helps when you have a defense that’s able to have been in those moments before and make those big plays. It’s a team game, and we’re winning games, and I feel like we’re going to start getting better and better each and every week.”

As for Kirk Cousins, he was rendered relatively speechless by the result.

“Just kind of reversed out and handed it off,” he said of the final play. “And then from there, didn’t have too much of a vantage point, so there’s not much I can offer you.”

The vantage point showed that the Falcons learned what most of the NFL already knows: When you’re facing Spagnuolo’s defense, and you give Spags’ ultimate shot-caller a final opportunity to shoot his shot, things will probably not go too well for your offense.

At least two former Chiefs were not impressed with Atlanta’s thought process.

What could the Falcons have done differently? Well, I happened to point out that if the Falcons had a quarterback more conversant with quarterback sneaks, they might have subbed that quarterback in for this particular situation. And maybe the Falcons did select that quarterback with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft in the person of Michael Penix, Jr.

One alert reader pointed out that the 2020 Indianapolis Colts did this a lot when they would sub out Philip Rivers in favor of Jacoby Brissett when it was time for a short-yardage win. Brissett ran the ball 17 times for just 19 yards that season, but he also scored three touchdowns, and converted seven plays on third or fourth-and-short. Rivers was 39 years old and in his final NFL season, so he wasn’t going to be the one plowing into the line.

So, maybe Penix would have been an option, and maybe everybody would feel a bit better about the Falcons acquiring both Cousins AND Penix this offseason if that had been the call.

All the Falcons can do now is to rue the lost opportunity, and move along.

“Obviously you don’t feel good about them now,” Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said of those final two runs. “They didn’t work, right? But you run one up the middle with Tyler Allgeier. You don’t get it, you get knocked back. You get no yards on that play. You get fourth down with Bijan, and you get no yards on that play. So, you don’t like the call, you don’t like the results, but that was our plan, and we were decisive. We called them, we were very aggressive, and we lost the football game.”

Well, at least the head coach knows exactly what happened. Maybe next time the Falcons won’t outthink themselves right out of a potential big-time win.