The Falcons just beat the NFL’s worst team, which wouldn’t seem much of an achievement – until we recall that, 10 months ago, they left Charlotte having not beaten the NFL’s worst team, which is why Arthur Smith and Desmond Ridder work elsewhere. It’s also why these Falcons are bound for the playoffs.
The run of six consecutive losing seasons is behind them. A naysayer might rise to object – “Hey, weren’t you saying something similar when last year’s Falcons were 4-3?” – but last year’s team hadn’t played such a schedule and demonstrated such growth. Last year is not this year.
Sunday at Carolina marked another step. The Falcons trailed early but not for long. They punted once. Not counting the end of halves, they scored on their final six possessions. They handled a bad team the way a good team should handle a bad team and – unless you count the free-falling Saints – it was the Falcons’ first experience against a lesser light.
We wondered how this offense might look at full capacity. We have our answer – like 198 yards rushing and 225 yards passing. (Don’t look now, but the Falcons are eighth among NFL teams in total offense.) They lead the NFC South via tiebreaker. None of the next four games – Seattle and Dallas here, Tampa Bay and New Orleans there – look easy. That said, none seems unwinnable.
Not since 2016 have the Falcons started 4-2. We mention that season for a reason. Like this one, it began with a grievous home loss – to Tampa Bay then, to Pittsburgh this time – that stirred widespread panic. (“They’ve become a bad team,” was this correspondent’s verdict on Sept. 11, 2016.) Then as now, the schedule suggested matters would get only worse. Then as now, things got better.
The 2016 Falcons lost their sixth game, but it was such a narrow loss – in Seattle on a gloomy day they trailed 17-3 – that it kept a guy who caught the red-eye awake most of the way home. The game was decided when three players of Hall of Fame caliber – Julio Jones, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas – got tangled. On another day, pass interference would have been called. On this day, it wasn’t.
Those Falcons had, in consecutive weeks, beaten Carolina and Denver, teams that faced one another in the most recent Super Bowl. (To be fair, Peyton Manning was no longer the Broncos’ quarterback, having retired to spend the rest of his life endorsing every product known to man.) The Seahawks had graced Super Bowls the two years before that – should have won both – and were the NFC’s gold standard.
Somewhere over Montana, this guy typed: “The Seahawks have long had reason to believe in themselves. The Falcons are just now starting to believe. And so am I.”
On Jan. 14, 2017, the two met again in the Divisional Round. The Falcons won 36-20. Three weeks later, the Falcons won the first 59 minutes of Super Bowl 51.
It was after the game in Seattle that I began to believe those Falcons were a Super Bowl team. I’m not quite there with this bunch, but I note that they’ve beaten the Eagles, who’ve made the playoffs five times in six years, and the Buccaneers, who’ve won the NFC South three years running, and came close against the Chiefs, winners of consecutive Super Bowls.
This is the Falcons’ best start since 2016. To these eyes, everything about this 4-2 seems sustainable. Kirk Cousins is a real quarterback. He has helpmates aplenty. The defense still doesn’t sack anybody – I contend the NFL has issued a secret memorandum banning, in perpetuity, the Falcons from disturbing a passer – but it has playmakers.
It will be fascinating to see how the Falcons handle their rise from unknown quantity to apparent contender. How good are you when the opposition takes you seriously? I’m of the opinion that this bunch, having handled much already, can handle anything.
I’m not yet sure if this is a Super Bowl team. I’m darn sure it won’t go 7-10.
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