Atlanta Falcons have played disciplined football over the first three weeks of their 2016 season

Ask any football "expert" and he or she will tell you the jury is still out on the Atlanta Falcons. Some folks want to question the quality of their competition over the first three weeks of the season. Others are utterly convinced the Falcons will falter once they can't put up 40 points in a game and counter a lackluster defensive performance. But setting aside how well they can play offense and defense, let's talk for a moment about their affinity for disciplined football.

The Falcons have been a relatively disciplined team in 2016. Over three games they've only committed 18 accepted penalties. That technically ties them for 6th least penalties. (The Oakland Raiders are the least disciplined with 31 and the San Francisco 49ers are the most disciplined with only 12.) Only one Atlanta Falcon - I'm looking at you, Austin Hooper! - has committed multiple penalties.

Monday night against the Saints, the Falcons offense played particularly penalty-free football. In fact, over four quarters, the offense didn't get flagged once. To be clear, the Falcons didn't win the time of possession battle. But that said, they were on the field plenty, and they seemingly avoided mental lapses like Dave avoids his sobriety.

All things considered this is promising, but then again, we're only three games in. Your thoughts?