NE Atlanta News

The Atlanta Falcons' defense was on the field significantly more than its offense during Sunday night's 22-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The defense faced 16 more plays than the offense in Week 3, resulting in an additional nine minutes and 54 seconds of playtime.

Falcons safety Jessie Bates III remarked, "Hell yeah, like 20-play drives back-to-back. But I thought we did a really good job of responding, forcing those guys to kick field goals in those situations."

The Chiefs had a single first-quarter drive that lasted 17 plays and consumed eight minutes and 21 seconds before ending in an interception by Falcons safety Justin Simmons. This led to a first-quarter time of possession split of 8:21 for the Chiefs and 6:39 for the Falcons.

In the second quarter, both teams had four drives each. The Chiefs' longest drive spanned 13 plays over six minutes and 15 seconds, resulting in a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Rashee Rice. Simmons commented on the defensive challenge, saying, "It's just mental toughness... We don't want to be in that position, running 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-play drives."

The second quarter saw a time of possession split of 11:13 for the Chiefs and only 3:47 for the Falcons. Despite this imbalance, Atlanta held a narrow halftime lead of 14-13.

The third quarter shifted momentum as the Chiefs took control with two lengthy drives totaling over eleven minutes combined. These resulted in a field goal and a touchdown pass from Mahomes to JuJu Smith-Schuster. In contrast, Atlanta's sole third-quarter drive ended quickly with a three-and-out.

By the end of the third quarter, time of possession heavily favored the Chiefs at 11:24 compared to just 3:36 for the Falcons. The defending Super Bowl champions led by eight points heading into the final quarter.

Bates noted, "It's a lot of self-talk... Every single first down, you got to be able to reset and refocus your mindset."

In the fourth quarter, Atlanta dominated possession with an eleven-minute split compared to under four minutes for Kansas City. However, despite having three series featuring double-digit play counts – including one reaching ten plays and another fifteen – they managed only three points.

The game concluded when Bijan Robinson was tackled for a loss on fourth-and-1 at Kansas City's 13-yard line with less than a minute remaining.

Bates reflected on this missed opportunity: "I wish we would've went down there and scored, gave our defense another chance to shut the game out. But we came up short."

Overall time of possession heavily tilted towards Kansas City with nearly thirty-five minutes compared to twenty-five for Atlanta.