The Falcoholic
Six weeks in, the Falcons are playing winning football, and escaping the ghosts of recent seasons while they do so.
When did your eye start twitching? When did your heart pick up the pace? When did you start thinking “oh man, here we go again?”
The Atlanta Falcons have made us into nervous football fans over the years, and even if your doubts only cropped up for a fleeting moment, I have little doubt that they appeared in unwelcome fashion when the Falcons went down early, allowed that last minute touchdown drive to the Panthers in the first half, or at some other point. The Falcons have dropped too many of these games—the ones that should be laughers against bad teams like Carolina—to not spark worry.
And for a half and perhaps a little longer, the Falcons appeared on the cusp of stumbling. They let the Panthers get out to an early lead, allowed that touchdown to cut their own lead to 22-14 heading into the half, and let Carolina’s limited cast of playmakers feast for stretches. In years past, those cascading small mistakes would have doomed them.
In 2024, though, this game served as a welcome reminder that those frustrations can be momentary ones and the larger concerns don’t automatically equal losses. Despite some genuinely bad stretches of football, the Falcons won this game by 18 points and could have added more had Clark Phillips not made a Raheem Morris-applauded decision to cut his pick-six in the game’s waning moments short so Atlanta could kneel it out and cut Carolina’s .01% chance of a comeback down to zero percent. They scored 38 points, allowed just six points in the second half, and took full advantage of a depleted Carolina defense to run for over 200 yards. After two incredibly discouraging losses to Carolina in 2022 and 2023, the Falcons ground them to dust by the end of this one.
In doing so, the Falcons did more than overcome the Panthers, though their 3-0 divisional record and perch atop the NFC South is of course of the utmost importance. The Falcons overcame a recent past that has seen them fall victim to letdowns against bad teams, especially after big, emotional wins. The Falcons have now strung together three wins in a row, all against the NFC South, and dispatched each one with clutch plays and big second half stops. There are enough what ifs here to keep you up at night if you’re inclined to nerves, but those should be gradually fading as the wins stack up. Atlanta is putting its chronic troubles and sordid history behind them, and while it’s never going to be a clean break, the winning football and resilience are doing much to make us believe that this team might just be a little different.
They’ll continue to take each new challenge one week at a time, and we’re still waiting for a game where the run defense holds up and both phases of the offense...
