The Falcoholic
The gloom was pervasive, and it wasn’t just the weather. This Atlanta Falcons team had everything to play for—a small chance to climb the ladder in the NFC South, pride, their coaching staff, one another, and even not handing a top ten pick to the Rams in 2026—and they simply weren’t good enough to beat a Jets team that entered the day at 2-9. The list of failures was long, but what’s most remarkable is how many times the Falcons could have simply won this one outright against a Jets team that only had a couple of big plays on the day. They couldn’t do it.
You can, of course, point to the impact of injuries, something that will surely tempt this coaching staff, front office, and perhaps even Arthur Blank himself. But even with that accounted for and the team’s lack of playing time in rain and cold, this was a game where execution and planning doomed the Falcons more than a lack of talent. Kirk Cousins had plenty of zippy balls that were just dropped by Darnell Mooney, David Sills, and Dylan Drummond. The Falcons had enough success with Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Tyler Allgeier, and others straight up to make a third and short swing pass and 3rd and 8 screen look foolish. Nobody made Mike Hughes start running late and then slip working on a deep ball against AD Mitchell, or Kaden Elliss miss multiple open field tackles, or multiple defenders lose contain and eyes on Tyrod Taylor during his productive scrambles. And Jamal Agnew muffing a fair catch and Zane Gonzalez missing a 50 yard field goal were just mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.
The Falcons lost because, despite the individual acts of brilliance from Bijan Robinson and James Pearce Jr. and Tyler Allgeier and even for a brief shining moment David Sills, they were not very good. That could be their epitaph for the last eight years of Falcons football, frankly, and the sweeping changes sure to be ahead after this game do nothing to inspire fans watching this product at the moment. The Falcons are 4-8, have lost to the Dolphins and now Jets, and have an uncertain future at quarterback and a present defined by questionable coaching and a roster with more holes than pest-gnawed lumber. There’s no reason to think they’ll give us livelier efforts down the stretch, even if the return of Drake London will add something to the offense, and little reason after nearly a decade of losing to assume the decisions ahead will be the right ones.
There are worst places to be than passionately angry about a team you love; there is the lukewarm embrace of outright apathy and deep, cool cynicism, where you can’t be bothered to care what the Falcons do because you know in your heart of hearts they’re going to mess it up. Most of us will be here every week and all throughout the offseason regardless, foolishly holding on to some version of this...
