Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, quarterback Kirk Cousins and left tackle Jake Matthews all signed the wall, too. Matthews signed below his father, Bruce Matthews, who played in the NFL from 1983-2001.
It was a sentimental way to start Sunday.
Unfortunately, it went downhill from there for the Falcons, who lost to the Broncos, 38-6.
“It was emotional,” Simmons said. “Obviously I played the last eight years here — a lot of good memories – so it was bittersweet. First, I’m thankful for the warm embrace with the fans and that I got to see of my old teammates. But it stinks being on the opposite side and coming away with the loss — a bad loss at that.”
The Broncos totaled 400 yards of offense — 105 rushing and 295 passing.
Denver quarterback Bo Nix completed 28 of his 33 passes — good for 84.8% — for 307 yards and four touchdowns. Those were all season-high marks for the rookie. He was sacked once by Atlanta outside linebacker Matthew Judon but otherwise worked with a relatively clean pocket. The Falcons recorded only three quarterback hits.
Nix threw one touchdown pass per quarter. In order, they went a 12-yarder to tight end Nate Adkins, another 12-yarder to wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr., a 7-yarder to wide receiver Troy Franklin and a season-long 41-yarder to wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey.
“The progression from Bo, watching the tape leading up to this game from Week 1 to now, Week 11, has gotten tremendously better each and every week,” Simmons said. “When you have a really good arm and you trust your arm, it can be hard sometimes in the pocket not to take a deep shot. For the most part, we were taking away a lot of the deep plays that they wanted to run. He was just being consistent, checking in down and letting his skill players what they’ve done all year. … They were operating at a high light. Defensively, we couldn’t break that.”
Simmons is right. The Falcons did limit the deep shots for the most part. Issue was, the Broncos had 199 yards after catch. The ball going the distance wasn’t the problem.
Screen plays really hurt Atlanta’s defense.
“That’s Sean Payton,” said Falcons inside linebacker Kaden Elliss, who played under Payton with the New Orleans Saints from 2019-21. “You know screens are coming. Jimmy (Lake) is yelling to me in the headset, ‘Screens are coming.’ We’re telling everybody that screens are coming. The…
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