mqg96

Yeah. The Falcons defense is way stronger this year compared the last season. I had to tell him I highly doubt that would happen. I don't see the Falcons scoring 35 points either. Late teens or early twenties range.

Just stop it dude. That Vikings game wasn’t close. We were being dominated at the line of scrimmage and we were down 28-0. We were way closer to losing to the Eagles than beating the Vikings. The 6 new coaches are an excuse. We already knew that coming into the season. That’s what Dan Quinn wanted to do, and he thought it would make our team better, so there we have it. Taking over as the D-coordinator has made our defense better so far, but there’s still question marks with Koetter making the offense better, because statistically our offense is worse than last season right now. Koetter is a better play caller than Sark but the new O-line and our run game are iffy right now. Matt Ryan throughout his career will put up great numbers in even years but in odd years he’s always been off because of coordinator changes or mediocre O-lines. Special teams are no better than last season. The Falcons bad record vs the Colts matter just like the Browns last season, and how did the Browns turn out last season after I warned everyone? Our 1-10 AFC record since the Chargers? Have we learned anything from underestimating mediocre AFC opponents time and time again? I don’t think we’ve learned yet. We keep talking about how talented this Falcons group is. But we haven’t played a clean game. We’ve been sloppy the first 2 weeks. Blown out in week 1 against the Vikings. Barely survived week 2 against the Eagles by a 4th down conversion for a TD. We have no reason to be overconfident right now. Long way to go.

The Colts are still a lot better than most people think. They were considered as Super Bowl contenders before Andrew Luck retired, and most of their roster is still the same. Brissett isn’t that bad and if not for missed field goals in week 1, they’re 2-0 instead of 1-1. The AFC style of football has hurt the Falcons lately, and with the big physical O-line and run game the Colts have, they can exploit the Vikings game plan on us again if we don’t be careful. Vegas has the Falcons as underdogs because we’re 1-5 against the spread in our last 6 road games, but 1-10 in our last 11 AFC games don’t help either. The Titans or any AFC opponent in Atlanta hasn’t helped the Falcons 1-11 home record the last 6 seasons.

This year’s NFC West looks like the 2013 NFC West when it was dominant. There’s at least 3 potential playoff teams in the NFC West this year. We’re actually 1-10 against the AFC since the 2016 Chargers. Anyway. I believe only the NFC South winner is making the playoffs out of this division with our tough NFC West and AFC South schedules. 2nd place or later will probably be 8-8 or worse with the way it looks right now. I think 9-7 or 10-6 can win the NFC South this year with the way it’s looking across our division and the tough schedules ahead. Barring any major injury to the Falcons, there’s no excuses this year. We’re 1-1 right now. 2-2 vs the AFC South, 2-2 vs the NFC West, and 5-1 vs the NFC South is our best case scenario. That’s 10-6 with head to head over everybody in what looks to be a weak division right now, and you split the Bucs or split the Saints while sweeping everyone else.

The Falcons are 1 point underdogs in this game actually. It may surprise most here, but it doesn’t surprise me because we’re 1-5 against the spread in our last 6 road games and 1-10 in our last 11 AFC games. The Colts biggest strength is their run game and O-line, and I don’t know which run defense of the Falcons will show up. It’s week to week with this Falcons team. We were a 4th & 3 screen to Julio away from 0-2, and everyone’s overconfident. Despite the 24-20 victory over the Eagles, I still see the same continuous patterns with a Dan Quinn coached team, and it’s irritating me.

I highly doubt this game will be high scoring with how strong the Falcons D is at the moment and how inconsistent the Falcons offense has been early on.

Thanks for these stats @FalconsIn2020 very intriguing. The Falcons defense in turnover margin or forcing turnovers has been a recurring problem for Dan Quinn teams the past few years now. It would help if our defense can force more turnovers and put our offense in good field position more often.

On the bright side. The Falcons have done their best against the AFC West since 2004, even before Matt Ryan in 2008.

True. Here’s what’s worse. Since 2013, the Falcons only AFC home win is against the Houston Texans. Dan Quinn’s first AFC game, and home of the city we were in the Super Bowl. That’s a big yikes for our chances against the Titans and even the Jags this year. That’s 1-11 since 2013 at home vs the AFC. We’ve been better on the road vs the AFC, but as of late it’s been the entire AFC that’s given us trouble. The AFC North is the worst. We went 3-1 vs the AFC North in 2010 when we were 13-3, but now we’ve gone 0-8 throughout 2014 and 2018. That’s a home to home sweep by all AFC North teams against us. The AFC North’s biggest strength, smash mouth run the ball down your throat with big physical O-lines, has been the Falcons weakness. That Vikings game in week 1, looked like an AFC North team beating us last season, but that’s behind us now.

Michael Vick. I became a Falcons fan in 2002.

The 1998 Colts were 3-13 in Peyton Manning’s rookie season and the best Falcons team ever win-loss record 14-2 beat them, and we caught the 2-14 Colts in 2011 at the perfect time between Peyton’s last year and Luck’s first year. That Falcons team finished 10-6 and got a wildcard spot. The good news is that all the Falcons teams who beat the Colts made the playoffs, and after Luck’s retirement it’s possible this Colts team will be really bad. The bad news is, most Falcons teams who lost to the Colts missed the playoffs, and it’s not guaranteed if this Colts team will be 3-13 or worse.

The Chargers, Chiefs, Patriots, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots (again), Bengals, Steelers, Browns, and Ravens are all of our AFC losses since 2016. That’s 1-10 in the last 3 years, not 50 years ago. Also, our 2-14 record vs the Colts is throughout our whole history. Which includes, 2003, 2007, and 2015 losses to the Colts, more than our only two wins in 1998 and 2011. Similar goes for the Browns who we were supposed to blowout last season.

Deion Jones came back in the middle of 2018 and our defense was still trash. I believe the early season injuries after the Philly opener and the Saints shootout at home completely broke the defense. Now they’re back together.

I know for a fact, this will be a low scoring game in the teens, like 19-13, 16-13, 17-14, or 18-16. It just has that feel. The Falcons have struggled with backup QB’s in the past (since Luck is gone not a backup anymore but you get what I mean). However, I believe this defense is really good as long as they can stop the run consistently. A big road win vs an AFC opponent against a franchise who has owned us, would be big and it would set up our season. We have to be 2-2 after the Texans. Can’t be any worse.

I still haven’t forgotten about that last season. Still a painful memory for me.