Falcons running back Bijan Robinson has apologized for a comment he made during a postgame interview on Amazon Prime after Thursday night’s game over the Buccaneers.
Robinson used a social media post early Friday morning to address his use of the word “queer” while answering a question about whether he learned his football moves while playing games backyard as a kid.
“Hey everyone I want to apologize for the insensitive comment I made in the broadcast, it was a football game we used to play as a kid but that’s not an excuse,” Robinson wrote on X.com. “I recognize the mistake and make sure to do better in the future. It was not reflective of my beliefs and I am so sorry to those I offended seriously!”
The Falcons came back to beat the Bucs 29-28 on Thursday night.
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Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts had a career night against the Buccaneers on Thursday and he put up numbers that only a handful of other tight ends have matched in the process.
Pitts caught 11 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns during the 29-28 comeback win. He’s the first tight end to pick up at least 150 yards while scoring three times since Shannon Sharpe in 1996. Per ESPN research, Kellen Winslow Sr., Todd Christensen, and Rich Caster are the only other tight ends to do the same since the AFL-NFL merger.
Pitts’ third touchdown came as he fell on his backside while going out of bounds and was subject to a lengthy review to see if his cheek hit the end zone before his elbow hit the sideline. It was called a score on the field, which brought the Falcons within 28-26 in the fourth quarter, and upheld after that review.
“I definitely thought I got the second foot down,” Pitts said, via Marc Raimondi of ESPN.com. “I didn’t know it was my cheek.”
The Falcons thought Pitts would have dominant nights a little more often when they drafted him fourth overall in 2021, but his performance has been lackluster for most of his time in Atlanta. He’s set for free agency this offseason and Thursday night’s performance will likely be a selling point as he looks for his next contract.
The Falcons trailed 28-20 with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when receiver Darnell Mooney fumbled. Six Buccaneers players surrounded the ball, and it looked like the Bucs were about to recover and that the Falcons’ best chance of a comeback had just been fumbled away.
Instead, Falcons center Ryan Neuzil, who was far behind the play at the time the ball came out, sprinted downfield, jumped into the pile and ended up with possession, a crucial fumble recovery that kept the Falcons’ drive alive, leading to a touchdown and ultimately a 29-28 win.
It was an extraordinary play from Neuzil, whose teammates and coaches said afterward that they couldn’t believe what he did.
“I jogged off the field, I said there’s no way we recovered that ball. I just jogged off. Someone said, ‘No, we might have it.’ I said, ‘How?’” Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins said after the game. “Our offensive line coach [Dwayne Ledford] preaches covering. So when the ball is thrown and the rush stops, you are to run forward. You don’t know where or why but you are to run forward. They coach it. They do it so much that when we’re in walk-through, just walking through plays, after every play they walk forward to train the muscle memory. Neuzil covered tonight. If you watch the tape, they do it a lot, more than most guys I’ve played with. When you cover like that, it saved the game. I’m so happy for Neuz making that play. It’s classic o-lineman to just do their job, not make it about them, and be in the right spot and make the play because they’re doing what they’re coached to do.”
Falcons coach Raheem Morris said Neuzil made exactly the kind of play he told his players before the game he needed them to make to find a way to win.
“Effort. Effort,” Morris said. “We talk about covering for our offensive line, you run down the field and do the things that’s required. To watch him do those things, finish and get the ball back for his football team. We talked before the game about playing for each other, and that is the absolute definition of playing for each other when you run down the field and you recover a fumble like that and you get the ball back and continue to give us a chance.”
Offensive linemen don’t get enough credit for their big plays. Neuzil deserves the praise he’s receiving for a huge play on Thursday night.
The Falcons beat the Buccaneers on Thursday night despite a stunning display of penalties, the likes of which the NFL had not seen in years.
Atlanta committed 19 accepted penalties for a total of 125 yards on Thursday night. That’s the most accepted penalties in an NFL game in nine years.
The last time a team committed more penalties than that was October 30, 2016, when the Raiders committed 23 accepted penalties. That game was also against the Buccaneers, and the Buccaneers also managed to find a way to lose that one, 30-24 in overtime, despite all their opponents’ miscues.
On Thursday night the Bucs committed just four accepted penalties, for 25 yards. But they lost 29-28 despite the huge advantage in penalty margin.
Morris was proud that his team, which has been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, fought hard to win, despite the penalties.
“We’ll clean up the penalties and do what we have to do, whatever that is,” Morris said.
Morris was seen screaming at a TV camera at the end of the game, and he said afterward that he was yelling about the penalties. He knows they were a problem for his team on Thursday night, but he also knows his team overcame a lot to get a big win.
The Buccaneers blew a key game on Thursday night. After the loss to the Falcons, quarterback Baker Mayfield accepted the blame for it.
“It falls on my shoulders,” Mayfield told reporters following the 29-28 defeat. “Can’t turn the ball over, can’t have that interception. And then, just gotta hit [Emeka Egbuka] in stride on that third down. Listen, you can say what you want about being up two scores and the defense right there, but we have to be better on offense, and it comes down to how I play. And this one’s gonna haunt me. This falls on my shoulders.”
Asked whether the issue related to decision making, Mayfield was clear on what he needed to do: “Make the throws. Make the throws.”
Up eight in the fourth quarter, Mayfield threw an interception to Falcons defensive back Dee Alford.
“It wasn’t even a disguise, you know,” Mayfield said. “It’s quarters coverage. He’s playing outside leverage, which is really not what he normally does on tape. You gotta go through the reads and if it’s not there, take the damn check down. And it’s plain and simple. This one’s, like I said, it’s gotta beat me up for a little bit.”
Mayfield also was asked about coach Todd Bowles’s message to the team.
“He hit the nail on the head, saying and questioning does it mean anything to the guys?” Mayfield said. “Like, ‘Does this hurt enough for you to actually make changes. To come in, do the work that you need to do, to do the things that we need to do as a team to get better, fix these things and win ball games?’ And he repeated it, and it really is as simple as that. We have talent. Talent doesn’t get you shit though. Doing the work and executing on game days does, and that’s — we didn’t do that today. Like I said, I did not do that.”
Mayfield said it’s not an issue with preparation but execution. He also acknowledged the possibility that it’s a matter of concentration in crunch time.
“I don’t know if it’s losing focus late in games,” Mayfield said. “You know, mine was just lack of execution. But I don’t know if it’s losing focus late in games. I mean, I can’t speak for the defense, but I can speak for the offense. I can speak for myself, and that was that was just execution on my part.”
The end result is that the 7-7 Buccaneers are not happy.
“We’re pissed off,” Mayfield said. “We expected to win that game. We want to win that game. Should be pissed off. And, like I said, when you’re up two scores and your offense has a chance to put the game away, and you don’t — obviously, people are gonna blame the defense, but it’s not the defense’s fault. It’s our fault. It’s my fault. And that’s that’s how I view it, and that’s how I’m gonna handle it.”
They can still get to the playoffs, if they handle their business.
“We have to win out, and we know that,” Mayfield said. “It’s — that’s as plain and simple as it is. We put ourselves in a position to have to do that. So if guys don’t handle that the right way, then we have a much deeper issue. But I don’t believe that we have a culture issue. We’ve just got to be able to translate the stuff that we prepare, we talk about, and do on a consistent basis. We’ve got to translate it to game day.”
The next game day comes in nine days, when they face the Panthers for the first of two meetings in the final three weeks of the season, with a visit to Miami in between.
Win them all, and tonight’s outcome will become a faded memory. Fail to deliver, and the Week 15 Thursday night could be haunting a lot more people than Baker Mayfield.
Todd Bowles is gonna end up with soap poisoning.
After Thursday night’s loss to the Falcons, during which the Buccaneers blew a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead to lose their second home game to an eliminated division rival only four days apart, Tampa Bay’s head coach let the expletives fly during his post-game press conference.
Asked what he tells the team in the locker room after a game like this, Bowles was blunt. And repeatedly profane.
“It’s inexcusable,” Bowles said. “We don’t make excuses. We — you gotta fucking care enough where the shit hurts. You gotta fucking care enough where the shit hurts. Gotta fucking mean something to you. It’s more than a job, it’s your fucking livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can’t sugar coat that shit. It was in-fucking-excusable. And there’s no fucking answer for it. There’s no excuse for it. That’s what you tell them in the locker room. Look in the fucking mirror.”
He’s right. The problem is that, the buck for the Bucs ultimately stops with him. Salary-cap consequences limit the number of players that can be dumped after a given season. There’s no cap charge for changing coaches.
But there’s still hope, for the Buccaneers and for Bowles. They can wake up, win out, secure the division, and get to the playoffs for the sixth straight year. Bowles’s ability to keep his current job may indeed be hinging on it.
The Falcons could not get out of their own way for most of Thursday night, but they somehow pulled out a 29-28 upset of the Bucs on the final play. Zane Gonzalez’s 43-yard field goal was a dagger to the Bucs’ playoff hopes.
The Panthers are in the driver’s seat in the NFC South after the Bucs lost for the fifth time in six games, this one a heartbreaker. Tampa Bay fell to 7-7, with Atlanta improving to 5-9.
It was a night of star-studded performances. Kyle Pitts, Kirk Cousins and Bijan Robinson had big nights for the Falcons, and Mike Evans returned from his fractured collarbone for his best game in almost a year.
In a game that meant nothing for the Falcons, who already were eliminated from playoff contention, they overcame their own mistakes. Robinson lost a fumble that led to a 25-yard Bucs’ touchdown drive and a 28-14 Bucs’ lead in the fourth quarter, and the Falcons had 19 penalties for 125 yards.
The Falcons erased the Bucs’ 14-point, fourth-quarter lead with two touchdowns — one by Robinson and one by Pitts — followed by two missed 2-point conversions and Gonzalez’s kick.
Atlanta trailed 28-26 with 3:34 left when the Bucs got the ball back. Tampa Bay, though, couldn’t close it out.
Atlanta used its final timeout with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter. The Bucs then threw an incompletion on second-and-14, and Baker Mayfield was sacked for no yards to take it to the 2-minute warning. The Falcons got the ball back with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter, needing only a field goal for the win.
Bucs edge rusher Haason Reddick had a strip-sack of Cousins for an 8-yard loss, and officials ruled Cousins had simultaneous possession of the fumble, allowing the Falcons to keep the ball. On the next play, left tackle Jake Matthews was called for holding to set up a second-and-28 that turned into a third-and-28. Pitts caught a 14-yard pass on third down, and David Sills, who dropped a potential touchdown pass earlier in the game, caught a 21-yarder on fourth-and-14.
That led to Gonzalez’s game-winner.
The Falcons outgained the Bucs 476 to 338, with Cousins going 30-of-44 for 373 and three touchdowns. Pitts scored all three of the touchdown receptions on catches of 8, 17 and 7 yards. He finished with 11 catches for 166 yards. Robinson had 19 carries for 93 yards and a touchdown and eight catches for 82 yards.
Mayfield was 19-of-34 for 277 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Evans caught six passes for 132 yards. Chris Godwin and Devin Culp had touchdown receptions.
Kyle Pitts is having a career night, keeping the Falcons in Thursday Night Football.
The Falcons tight end scored his third touchdown on a spectacular catch that has drawn the Falcons to within 28-26 of the Bucs after a failed 2-point play.
Pitts has 10 catches for 152 yards and his three touchdowns tonight are only one short of his season career-best four touchdowns in 2024. His touchdowns have covered 8, 17 and 7 yards.
Dee Alford’s interception of Baker Mayfield at the Atlanta 33 set up the 10-play touchdown drive.
The Falcons caught a rare break on the drive when Darnell Mooney had the ball punched out by Lavonte David. The ball was surrounded by Bucs, but it somehow squirted back into the arms of Falcons offensive lineman Ryan Neuzil.
Atlanta has 18 penalties for 115 yards and a turnover tonight.
After Bijan Robinson fumbled on the Falcons’ previous possession, he scored a touchdown to get his team back in the game.
Robinson’s 6-yard run, followed by an incompletion on the 2-point attempt, has the Falcons within 28-20 of the Bucs with 9:37 to play in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons went 65 yards in eight plays after the Bucs had converted Robinson’s fumble into a Chris Godwin touchdown and two-point conversion.
David Sills had a 20-yard reception and Kyle Pitts an 18-yarder on the drive. Pitts has eight receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
Robinson has eight catches for 82 yards and 15 carries for 76 yards and the touchdown, but the fumble looms large.
The Falcons have 17 penalties for 110 yards.
What can go wrong has for the Falcons tonight, much of it their own doing.
The Falcons have 16 penalties for 110 yards, with A.J. Terrell cited four times for defensive pass interference, including one that was declined. Terrell’s most recent penalty came against Mike Evans at the Atlanta 5-yard line, with the 10-yard penalty helping set up Chris Godwin’s first touchdown of the season.
Godwin caught a 3-yard pass from Baker Mayfield for the score and then had the 2-point conversion reception to give the Bucs a 28-14 lead with 13:34 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bucs needed only four plays to go 25 yards after safety Christian Izien forced a Bijan Robinson that Jacob Parrish recovered.
Mayfield now has 257 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Evans has six catches for 132 yards.
