Koo’s missed FG isn’t the only issue for the wobbly Dirty Birds / Sep 07, 2025
The Falcons started their 2025 quest for a playoff berth (or at least improve over what they were last year) the same way they ended last season: Another loss against a division opponent that makes fans question just how good their team really is.
The last regular season game saw the Falcons soundly defeated by lowly division opponents, the Carolina Panthers, 44-38 (Jan 5). Today, opening day before a home crowd, the Falcons tried to save their lives and get to overtime at the last seconds of the game.
Once again, the Falcons depended on the usually dependable Younghoe Koo to buy them some time. But Koo’s feet couldn’t work their magic, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers left Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a 23-20 win, and the increasingly loud and surly Falcons fan/team/media/front office circular firing squad in their bus’ rear view mirror.
The fingers for this loss are rightfully pointing to Koo. He NEEDED to make this 44-yard routine kick. He’s done it successfully numerous times. His coach, Raheem Morris, said this was a kick he needed to make, and his absence in the Falcons locker room when the media came calling indicated HE knew he needed to make that kick.
But this brings in a bigger question: why are the Falcons in this position where Koo’s 3-pointers are so repeatedly the difference between winning and losing on this team? I direct your attention to two instances:
- Second quarter-Falcons run 13 plays, go 48 yards in 6 minutes. Falcons are a running team. So they can’t run the ball to the end zone? Koo saves them with a successful FG.
- Third quarter-Falcons run 11 plays for 53 yards in little more than 7 minutes. Along the way, they are hit with two 5-yard penalties, an incompletion, and the team’s thin defensive line allowed Michael Penix Jr. to be sacked. Once again, Koo to the rescue. It hit the right pole (“DONK!”) but went through.
Which brings us to the next time Koo got the call to save the day. In the 4th quarter, after Penix Jr. breathed new life into the Falcons with a 4-yard rushing touchdown, the Falcons’ weak defense could not stop the Bucs from zipping 63 yards into the end zone in 1.18 minutes. The Dirty Birds got the ball back with a measly 57 seconds left on the clock. Eight plays and 67 yards later, Koo gets the call to take the game into overtime.
44 yards. Wide right. Game over. Bucs win.
You can’t blame the Falcons for thinking Koo would save them more than once. Falcons Senior Reporter Tori McElhaney pointed out after the loss that Koo is now 11 of 16 (68.5%) in career FG attempts where the game is tied or a lead is at stake in the final minute of the game. He was 5 of 5 over the last two seasons in game-tying or lead-pending situations in the last two minutes of regulation. He’s also second only to Harrison Butker of the K.C. Chiefs as the highest-paid kicker in the NFL.
Michael Penix Jr., who deserves credit for trying to save this game almost single-handedly, spoke after the game about his kicker.
“We have all the confidence in the world in Koo,” he said at a presser after the game. “Just like everyone else, we’re not perfect.”
Coach Morris had a slightly different take on Koo earlier.
“We got to make those kicks,” he said. “Those are very makeable kicks.”
That’s all true. And Koo’s future with the Falcons may be in question due to this miss. But good/great teams don’t need to rely on their kicker to save them from a loss they wouldn’t have gotten if they could stop the run, which the Falcons defense could not do on at least three occasions in this particular game, or make the best of their drives by not dropping the ball as Bijan Robinson did (twice), not making needed catches, or killing a promising drive with dumb penalties.
I must add that Robinson did make a huge running play in the first few moments of the game that gave the Falcons the first touchdown of the season (and the first of any team this Sunday.) He went for 100 receiving yards on the day.
Penix Jr. was the master of this game for the Falcons. He went 27 of 42 for 298 yards and a TD.
Koo will get the blame for this team’s loss, but the Falcons have deeper issues that need to be addressed. Penalties, ball drops, lack of pass-rushing (a perennial problem for the Falcons), and maintaining the run game (another perennial problem).
Today’s first game of the season will be the start of another long one if the Falcons can’t address these longstanding issues quickly and successfully.
Notes:
- Bucs QB Baker Mayfield on Penix Jr.: “I told him after the game, he’s going to be a problem in this league for a long time. I think he’s a great player. He’s decisive, goes through his reads, trusts his guys. He’s young but he’s got it.”
- Coach Morris told 929 The Game’s Dave Archer he would look at getting Bijan Robinson more touches in future games.
- More on those penalties: The Falcons got hit with 8 penalties for 55 yards. The Bucs got 5 for 60 yards.
- WR Drake London suffered a shoulder sprain. According to NFL insider Adam Schefter, London is considered day-to-day. Coach Morris is likely to update the situation tomorrow.
