The Falcoholic
This has been one of the most frustrating Atlanta Falcons seasons in recent memory. Not because the lows were shocking, but because the highs kept pulling you back in. It feels like a long road to get here, full of false starts, brief surges of hope, and the familiar realization that this team was never quite ready to take control of its own story. Performances like the one we saw on Monday remind you why expectations existed in the first place. For a moment, they looked like the kind of team that should win the NFC South.
But seasons aren’t remembered by moments alone.
This is the same Falcons team that lost both head-to-head matchups against the Carolina Panthers, now sitting in the driver’s seat for the division. The same team that failed to score a single point against the Miami Dolphins during the bleakest stretch of their year. And despite all of that, this season will likely end not with a sweeping reset, but with Arthur Blank retaining Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot, with the lone significant change expected to be the firing of special teams coordinator Marquice Williams.
Another offseason where the answers feel partial, at best.
That’s the exhausting part. This team asked fans to stay invested all year, even as the results rarely matched the promise. A lost season that never felt fully alive, yet not truly dead, just an arduous grind that carried Falcons fans all the way to January.
And yet, here we are, one last week left, with the NFC South still capable of doing the funniest thing possible. If the Buccaneers take care of business against the Panthers, Carolina could end up needing a Falcons win to get into the postseason. After everything this year has put us through, it would be fitting for Atlanta to still have a hand in the final result.
Most of the playoff picture is already set, outside of some elimination games in the AFC North and NFC South. There’s even a potential heavyweight matchup that could decide the NFC’s No. 1 seed. The league keeps moving forward, as it always does.
For the Falcons, though, this final week feels less about stakes and more about closure. One more game. One more chance to make sense of a season that asked for a lot and gave just enough to keep Falcons fans watching.
Okay, enough talk. Let’s get into the final week of power rankings:
Go ahead and load up the MVP chants. Drake “Drake Maye” Maye has captained a beautiful season for this Patriots team, and it has a chance to end with them snatching the #1 seed in the AFC.
Did they find a way to win? Absolutely. But I’m having flashbacks to the Sam Darnold that showed up at the end of the year for the Minnesota Vikings, and I’m having some trepidations. Still an amazing football team with a great...
