Weaker NFC South is the Last Hope for the Atlanta Falcons

The situation is dire in Atlanta, but the NFC South's bumpy starts gives the Falcons a chance to salvage the season.

Author:
Brady Pfister
Publish date:
Oct 1, 2020 4:39 PM EDT

If you’re concerned about the Falcons, you should be.

What we have seen through three weeks of football has been disheartening, to say the least.

But as painful as these three games have been, there’s still one sliver of hope for the Falcons. It’s not much, and won’t be worth anything if Atlanta can't pull it together immediately, but there is a bright spot worth noting.

The NFC South isn’t what we thought it would be.

When the Falcons’ schedule was released a few months ago, Atlanta fans shuddered at the gauntlet facing their team heading into the 2020 season. Now, however, three weeks into the year and that apprehension should be relaxed after an underwhelming start from the Saints, Buccaneers and Panthers.

In other words, cool it with the “NFC South is the toughest division in football” narrative. That storyline no longer holds any water.

And that’s a good thing for the Falcons.

Coming into the year, the Saints were not only the favorites to win the division for the fourth straight season, but claimed the fourth best odds of winning the Super Bowl in the NFL.

But after a 1-2 start, Michael Thomas has already missed a game due to injury while Drew Brees’ ability to make downfield passes is clearly gone. A year ago, Brees averaged an NFL-worst 6.4 yards per attempted target.

This year? 4.6 yards per attempt, worst in the league.

Brees looks old, and, as a result, much more beatable for the Falcons. Even with their horrible defense.

Tampa Bay, the lone NFC South team with a winning record thus far, shouldn’t garner too much respect quite yet.

Sure, they looked great against the Panthers and Broncos, but in their opening week tilt against the Saints, the preseason hype around the new-look Bucs was quickly drawn to a halt. They boast the 24th most productive offense in the NFL and have injury question marks all over the depth chart on that side of the football.

But what really makes the Bucs less frightening than the hype machine will want you to believe is the fact that they’re the Bucs. They’ve been the bottom-feeders of the division for over a decade now.

That culture doesn’t just evaporate overnight, no matter who your quarterback is.

The Panthers, unlike Tampa and New Orleans, have been exactly what we thought: A bad football team.

Christian McCaffrey, the lone bright spot in Charlotte, is on the injury reserve already, making it difficult for a team to move the football that was already challenged in that department to begin with. Even with Teddy Bridgewater.

Seeing Carolina twice on Atlanta’s schedule is encouraging, to say the least.

Now, does all this make up for the fact that the Falcons can’t get out of their own way? No. It doesn’t matter who Atlanta plays--they have found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory.

Though these offenses aren’t all that the experts predicted they would be, the Falcons’ defense is still giving up an average of 463 total yards per game.

Even in a weak division, that’s not getting the job done.

There are plenty of reasons to be down on Atlanta right now, but the division schedule isn’t one of them.