Falcons embarrass themselves at home against lowly Dolphins
Oct 26, 2025
The Falcons have hit rock bottom today.
There’s simply nowhere else to go when you lose to a team that was before today 1-6 in their division, has a struggling quarterback with an apparent eye issue, and is having a bad streak in their own season. The Atlanta Falcons, needing a win themselves and facing a team down on its luck, gave the Miami Dolphins the gift of a generous 34-10 win, courtesy of their own incompetence.
Before the third quarter ended, Falcons fans were headed out of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, leaving the few Dolphins fans in the stadium only too happy to celebrate with their team in the host team’s multi-billion dollar stadium.
The Falcons failed in all parameters. Offense was terrible, defense was barely adequate, special teams wasn’t so special, and the only player today worthy of Baller of the Game was kicker Parker Romo, who gave the Dirty Birds their only offensive score, a field goal. Fans came to the Benz to cheer and root for their home team, not boo them and watch Dolphins fans loudly cheer their team.
Former Falcons QB Matt Ryan, who had to watch the embarrassment from the CBS studio, called his former team’s performance “uninspired.” He, like everyone else, watched the Dolphins consistently torment the Falcons and see the home team struggle to do anything about it.
There’s so much mediocrity to offer as a case in point to this depressing game, I am probably missing out on some of it, but here goes…
- They lost to a 1-6 Miami Dolphins. Losing to an obviously struggling team is bad enough, but consider…
- The only other team the Dolphins got a win against was (gasp!) the New York Jets, who got their first win today.
- The Falcons got 11 total first downs, tied for the fewest in a game over the last 18 seasons.
- The Falcons have only amassed 23 points since the second half of the Bills game.
- The rest of the NFL now knows the way to stifle the Falcons is to put a lid on Bijan Robinson, which the 49ers and now the Dolphins successfully did. He only got 25 rushing yards today, which brings us to…
- The Falcons’ total rushing game was paltry: 37 yards on the day, the lowest since the 44 yards they got against the Lions in Week 3 of 2023. The Dolphins got 338 total yards over the Falcons’ 213.
- The Dolphins trounced the Falcons on first downs, 24-11.
- Falcons continued to hurt themselves with dumb penalties, 8-76, while the Dolphins got 4-54.
- The Falcons’ defense just couldn’t get off the field. The Dolphins spent 37:58 with the ball, while the Dirty Birds spent 22:02 with the ball, and couldn’t do much with the ball while they had it.
There is probably more numerical evidence that can be provided that the Falcons’ performance today was one of their most trifling yet. Yes, clearly, this is a team buffeted with injuries. This is the NFL. All teams have injury issues, and it will only get worse as the season goes on. But can the injury justification suffice for the poor quality we are witnessing with the Falcons?
Kirk Cousins has been out of starting action for almost a year. With Michael Penix Jr. temporarily on the bench, you would have thought Cousins would be rested enough to be more of a positive factor for the Falcons today, but his performance was lackluster, with 173 passing yards and going 21 of 31. The Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, with an eye injury and questions swirling about his performance with his team, got 205 passing yards, went 20 of 26 and got FOUR touchdowns while Cousins got none. Penix Jr.’s starter status is safe, at least for now.
And then there’s coaching. Zac Robinson’s call playing and ability to change up play packages to correspond to opponents are proving to be ineffective at best. His seat is getting as hot as the just-past-Atlanta summer heat. And his immediate boss, Raheem Morris, is starting to feel his seat warming up as well after back-to-back ugly losses.
“Sundays, you can be humbled, and today was one of those days,” said Morris after the game. “It was bad across the board.”
These losses are becoming too redundant for the variations of the “Any given Sunday…” quote, and yes, it was bad across the board. The Falcons are losing to teams that are either short on able-bodied starters (the 49ers) or just bad (The Dolphins). It just doesn’t look good for you and your team when you lose to obviously bad or ineffective teams, and the post-game answers are sounding more like excuses.
The bottom line is this: What the Falcons are doing right now clearly is not working. The Falcons are not or don’t seem to be capable of making changes to their offensive play calling, and keep their opponents guessing. Falcons’ defense could not stop the run of the 22nd-ranked team in total offense. Players are continuing to make costly penalty errors that stop promising drives in their tracks. They didn’t find the endzone until the 4th quarter, and by then, it was too late. The party was already on in Miami.
The Falcons are well on the road to another losing season, and if that happens again, reserved parking spaces will be available once again at Falcons headquarters. Right now, fans are running faster out of the doors of MBS than the Falcons’ offense did on the field today. And the hot takes will be even more cutting this week than last week after the 49ers’ debacle. Calls for change from the top down are already getting louder just minutes after the game clock ran out.
Coach Morris’s summary of this pre-Halloween nightmare was simple, but true.
“We got beat by a better team today,” said Morris after the game.
Yes. But when you look at your pre-game record and the Dolphins, that’s not as much a credit to them as it is a damning indictment on you and your team.
NOTES
-The Falcons are 3-4. See the total info on this in the updated NFC South Stats page.
-Coach Morris threw a red challenge flag on a Dolphins first down play in the 1st quarter that was confirmed by the officiating crew, causing him to lose a timeout on that ill-fated challenge. His overall coaching is going to see more criticism thanks to this ill-conceived challenge.
-Now might be a bad time for Cousins to be thinking about a new post-Falcons landing spot. Today’s game was the best time to show potential teams your worth, and his performance isn’t exactly a deal-maker.
-In that MNF game vs the Bills, which now seems eons ago, Bijan Robinson went from 170 rushing yards that night to (checks notes) 25 today. That’s less than the 40 yards he got last week on SNF. Not his fault. Fault the person who’s supposed to draft new plays to keep opponents guessing Robinson’s moves. Who’s that? The other person on this team whose last name is “Robinson”.
-Part of the reason for the Falcons’ defensive woes is the absence of Divine Deablo. His injury dictated absence takes a chink out of the Falcons’ armour, and the Falcons can’t seem to fill the void left behind.
-If the Falcons had not scored that late TD in the 4th quarter, they would have racked up yet another touchdown-less game. They’ve already had two, against Carolina and Tampa Bay.
-I could mention all the upcoming teams the Falcons have left to play in this season, but considering the Falcons can’t even beat 1-6 teams, why bother?
