By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Atlanta Falcons got demolished by Denver, 38-6. It was their second consecutive loss. New Orleans snapped their seven-game losing streak against Atlanta the previous week, 20-17. The Falcons are now 6-5.

Rookie quarterback Bo Nix completed 85% of his passes for 307 yards and 4 touchdowns.

“No one play ever defines any game,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “(But) that was a great-effort play by those guys and not a great-effort play by us. You’ve got to give those guys a lot of credit for playing hard, playing physical. And they absolutely went out there and beat us today with their effort and their physicality, and that was a key to the game.”

I thought Nix was a pretty good rookie but he looked like a Hall of Famer against the Falcons.

The Broncos swept the NFC South by a cumulative 125-37. It marks Denver’s first sweep of a division since they went 4-0 against the NFC North in 2015.

Atlanta is trending in the wrong direction and this loss raises some concerns. I can understand losing a game but they were blown out by a team that came into that game .500 with two consecutive losses. This reminds me of the Week 7 home loss to Seattle (5-5), 34-14.

The Seahawks were on a three-game losing streak coming into that game. On paper they should be able to beat these teams, or at the very least be competitive.

The one bright spot was kicker Younghoe Koo. He missed three of his four field goal attempts against New Orleans, one of those was blocked. Against Denver he made both of his field goals. One was 41 yards and the other was 51 yards.

Injuries are beginning to take a toll on the team. Atlanta ruled out eight players before the game, including several starters on defense. Falcons CB Kevin King was ruled out in the second quarter with a concussion and WR Darnell Mooney pulled a hamstring in the third quarter.

The Falcons are on their bye week now. Hopefully that will allow players to heal from injuries. The coaching staff needs to meet and figure out how to get better results on both sides of the ball.

The biggest problem the last few years has been getting the ball to playmakers and that is still an issue.

QB Kirk Cousins is third in the league for passing yards with 2,807, 17 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Only four players have more interceptions.

Running back Bijan Robinson is sixth in rushing, with 783 yards and 6 TD’s. Jahmyr Gibbs (Detroit) is fifth and he has 34 less attempts but more yards (796) and touchdowns (8).

Drake London is fifth in the league in receptions (61), with 710 yards and 2 scores but he has less yards and touchdowns than Darnell Mooney. Mooney has 48 catches, 711 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Tight end Kyle Pitts needs the ball more. He has great size and speed but he seems to disappear from the offense regularly. He had 1 catch for 9 yards against Denver on 3 targets. He had 1 catch for 11 yards on his only target against Dallas. In the first meeting with New Orleans, he did not record a catch and he was targeted 3 times.

Atlanta ranks 25^th in total defense, giving up an average of 357.1 yards per game.

The first two games after the bye are against the LA Chargers (7-3) and at Minnesota (8-2).

Those are quality opponents so there is a good possibility to lose those games.