FanPost

Worth the Hype?


The Falcons look solid heading into their bye week. ESPN has the Falcons as the top team in their Power Rankings. They are also considered the top team in the NFC. My question is, do the Falcons deserve all of this praise? Your thoughts are most appreciated.

Personally, I do think the Falcons are the best team in the NFC. The only team worth mentioning in the same sentence right now is the Giants, and because of the fact I greatly despise Eli Manning, I give the Falcons the nod. However, there are some points of concern to me about our team.

  • 28: Our current NFL ranking in pass defense. Obviously this includes an outlier with the huge performance by Carson Palmer and the Bengals against a Falcon's defense that was missing Spoon and Robinson. But when you consider that we have played seven games, one 400 yard performance shouldn't send us to the bottom of the league, unless we were near the bottom already.
  • 1-2: Our record against teams with winning records. Our victory over the Saints is the only victory worth mentioning on the season. Against the other two teams with winning records, our offense was embarrassed by the Steelers D and our defense was embarrassed by D. Jackson and J. Maclin against the Eagles.
  • +36: Our point differential to date. This puts us seventh in the NFL and first in the NFC. We have lost two games by a total of 20 points, and won 5 games by a total of 56 points. Considering we beat the Cardinals by 34, that stat doesn't look as impressive, especially considering we have won two games by three points or less.

What are my feelings for the rest of the year? I have no doubt we should make the playoffs. We have already played the tougher part of our schedule including four tough road games. Most of our remaining tough games comes in the Georgia Dome, and we all know how good Matty Ice is in Atlanta. I am just a little worried that we might be getting an inflated record by beating up on weaker teams. I hope to see the Falcons in the Super Bowl. I also hope they are the best team in the NFC and will continue to keep that title. But I'm not getting my hopes up until we prove we can win consistently against the best teams in the NFL. Agree, disagree?

<em>This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.</em>