In the pouring rain and misdirected passes, Marcus Mariota’s struggles were the focus of the Atlanta Falcons’ 25-15 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night.
Despite this, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith refused to pin the blame for the loss on Mariota’s shoulders or discuss a possible move to rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder.
“I know that’s a popular narrative, those are the easy questions to ask,” Smith said when asked about making a quarterback switch from Atlanta to the Chicago Bears ahead of the Week 11 game in would consider. “But as a whole team, we have to do a better job, starting with myself. So every week we look to make sure we have the right people in the right places.”
Smith said he never considered going to Ridder on Thursday night, which started poorly for the Falcons offense and continued through a loss that dropped Atlanta to 4-6.
With the rushing offense in fourth place in the evening and only the passing attack in 30th place, the Falcons got into difficult waters early on. During their first four drives, the Falcons punched three times and Mariota threw a horrible interception to Jaycee Horn on the fourth. It resulted in a 13-0 start for the Panthers. So Mariota found herself tedious and pressing, pressing and tedious.
“I was just trying to create a spark and I think throughout my career I try my hardest, you know, ill-advised throws that force things onto the field,” Mariota said. “So maybe just climb, gain a few meters and keep the chains moving.”
Mariota’s shots and decision making were off for most of the evening.
He finished his team’s second straight loss with 19 of 30 passes for 186 yards, two touchdowns against Drake London, one interception and an 89.0 rating. However, the numbers didn’t do justice to the fights that really colored the night.
Atlanta was only 3 of 11 in third place, had a total of 291 yards of offense with 97 yards on a late scoring drive, and was kept scoreless in the first half until Younghoe Koo scored a field goal without wasting time.
As Smith mentioned, Mariota can’t fully shoulder everything. The offensive line struggled, as evidenced by five sacks allowed. Still, Mariota wasn’t blameless in that department, reflecting on a terrible first-half sack near the touchline where he had ample time to throw it away.
In a disappointing theme of the season, the QB tried in vain to get tight end Kyle Pitts in the game but only hit eight goals twice for 28 yards.
On a slippery night, it was a wonder he wasn’t intercepted more than once, as passes were skipped by Panthers or sometimes appeared to be outside the area code of Atlanta targets. Mariota also had what looked like an interception rather than reigning a sack after throwing a try into North Carolina’s night as it rolled to the ground.
Blessed with a gift for the scramble, Mariota seemed like the right pick for the Falcons at times when the ground game is rolling and the team is playing with a lead. That wasn’t the case Thursday and it wasn’t the case in a Week 9 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The call for Ridder, a third-round pick from Cincinnati, is growing. For now, however, Smith isn’t ready to talk about the move.
“You can do it with the quarterback, how about the team?” Smith said. “We’ve had an opportunity over the last two weeks at the end of the fourth quarter and in many different ways and at many different stages where we need to improve. And we have another seven games to do that.”