The Atlanta Falcons’ come-from-behind win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers featured a whole lot of laundry on the turf
By Ryan K Boman | Dec 13, 2025
When the Atlanta Falcons finished up their war of attrition against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football, they had fought their way to a 29-28 victory. Starting at quarterback was veteran Kirk Cousins, and Bijuan Robinson had yet another terrific night of offensive output.
However, the team continued to show its lack of discipline, accruing 19 penalties in the win, many of which were false start flags that killed important drives. In fact, if you take away at least half of those fouls, the Dirty Birds don’t have to work quite so hard in the end.
It came down to a field goal by kicker Zane Gonzales, who blasted a 43-yard field goal as the clock hit zero. On the flip side of things, the Falcons’ penalties were the most in an NFL game in nine years, and they‘ve been flagged 73 times for 590 yards. For an emerging young team, that’s typically a poison pill
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, although happy to add another win on the Atlanta (5-9) schedule, admitted that his team looked sloppy and disorganized. Still, he applauded their ability to overcome those obstacles and defeat the division-leading Bucs (now 7-7).
“Couldn’t be more proud of the way those guys stayed resilient and found a way to win tonight,” Morris said, according to The Athletic. “That’s what we’ve been talking about all year. It was a lot of fun to watch that game. These guys, they are fighters, man.”
“We’ve obviously been talking about finding a way, that’s finding a way. You go out there and get a pick from Dee Alford, you go out there and get the play from [David] Sills at the end of the game, and you go out there and put yourself in position to kick that field goal.”
Looking ahead to 2026
Atlanta has been playing hide-and-seek when it comes to wins in 2025. Much of that has been due to mental mistakes and injuries. That’s something that has to be addressed if this team is to take a step forward next season.
They’ll return with Bijuan Robinson and developing QB Michael Penix, Jr, so they have pieces in place for success. However, coach Morris says that eliminating penalties is a priority this offseason.
“It’s a stepping stone for where we want to go,” Morris said. “We talked about building blocks [for] next year… We’ve been talking about it throughout the whole process. We’ve got a lot of the right things that we like, and we’ve got a lot of things that we love. It’s our job to go out there and prove to our fans that we can do it. The only thing we can do right now is finish.”
Ryan K Boman is a contributing writer for Sports Illustrated and the author of the 2023 book, Pop Music & Peanut Butter: A Collection of Essays Looking at Life with Love & Laughter. His previous work has appeared at The Sporting News, MSN, Yahoo! Sports, Heavy, the Miami Herald, Screen Rant, and Yardbarker
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