Falcons vs. Patriots reactions, takeaways, and extreme sadness

Adam Schultz

I never had this as a win. I didn't expect a win. I anticipated a serviceable showing and semi-avoidance of embarrassment. Instead, an inept team showed up in Gillette Stadium and proceeded to sling fetid feces onto an already dripping and stained resume.

Resiliency, brotherhood, “battling.” It all means jack until points are scored and games are won. I want to see exactly 0 hype videos until this team earns the right to produce them.

Hangover or not, the 2017 Falcons are just plain bad and I'm not sure this ship will get righted this season.

Kyle McClendon

I’ve reached the pinnacle of apathy. No, not really, but things appear to be in worse shape than anyone expected. Forget a Super Bowl hangover, the Falcons are still passed out drunk. Let’s hope they can wake up and get back to functioning at a normal capacity.

DW

The first tenet of Buddhism teaches that life is suffering. The second tells us that suffering arises from within us. I’d like to add another: being a Falcons fan. To be honest, I really can’t fault the defense much this year. They’re playing about how I thought they would. The offense, though, makes a dumpster fire look appetizing. Sark has no method to his madness and Ryan is missing throws that his 2016 version would have nailed without issue. I think this team has the talent to turn it around, I just no longer believe that they will. Fin.

Dave Choate

Being a longtime fan of the Atlanta Falcons and having to write about them daily makes for some confusing emotional states. On one hand, I was furious and sad and embarrassed after that game, but on the other hand, I can’t just swear and rant five times per day on The Falcoholic, lest you guys get sick of me in a real hurry. So you process and try to make sense of what’s next.

The trouble is that I have no idea what’s next. This team is too talented to play like utter garbage on offense forever, but we’ve now seen three straight weeks of play that suggests this could take a while. With a surprisingly game Jets team up next, my expectations are nonexistent. I’m just hopeful the team will learn from their mistakes and show it on the field, rather than just talking about doing so.

Kevin Knight

This performance was an embarrassment to Atlanta Falcons football. It’s hard to overstate just how putrid Steve Sarkisian’s playcalling was throughout the game. He appears to be completely lost as an offensive coordinator and genuinely in over his head. It’s a shame, because I think there’s a sharp offensive mind in there somewhere, and Sark seems like a decent guy. But there’s no doubt that he’s taken this offense from historic to abhorrent in the span of six games. Sark has neutered the offense with his particular version of bland, predictable, and wholly unimpressive calls. Look no further than the jet sweep call on 4th and 1, which everyone in the world knew was coming. Simply pathetic.

I don’t know exactly where the Falcons go from here, but they’re trending down. The playoffs are in serious doubt at this point, and I’m not sure how much better the offense can be with Sarkisian at the helm. Which sucks, because I think the defense has shown flashes of improvement in 2017. The bottom line is that Quinn may have wasted a year of perhaps the most talented roster in the NFL with his insistence on bringing in a project at offensive coordinator. Let’s hope it pays off in the long run.

Matt Chambers

I don’t think anyone expected the Falcons to break offensive records again under Sarkisian, but I don’t think anyone expected him to demolish a prolific offense. The team had a chance to get it right after the bye week, and then another chance in the revenge game against a bad defense. Same result. I can’t really tell you what he’s trying to do, and I’m not sure he knows, either. The blame really falls on Quinn for hiring someone unqualified to run the offense.

Torgo

Yep, I’m looking hard at Sarkisian too. We get frustrated with the defense, but they have played well enough for the Falcons to win every game. This young defense has allowed 23 points twice and held the other four opposing offenses to 20 points or less.

Whatever Sark is doing isn’t working. Last year’s offense AVERAGED over 30 points per game. This year’s offense has reached 30 points only once in six tries- hitting exactly 30 against the Lions. Sarkisian needs to make significant changes and do it quickly, before the divisional games get underway. If he can’t, Quinn will need to make a significant change of his own.

Caleb Rutherford

I, like usual, will take a slightly different approach than the rest of the folks to this. First of all, I have been high on the Fire Sark train since yesterday. To me, an offense this talented should not be playing THIS poorly. I would almost guarantee you could pluck a moderately intelligent fan off of Twitter and they would’ve conjured up 7 points against the Patriots…

...BUT the players themselves are not executing the plans, either. The Patriots possessed the ball for nearly 10 more minutes, even though they only ran ~a dozen or so more plays than us. Matty missed a wide open Sanu in the end zone in the first half. The BONEHEAD penalties on defense continue. Players have to know what they can and can’t do. You think a coach is saying to a player, “You can probably hit Brady late if we get a pick, it’s fine” of course they aren’t. At some point you have to look at the players and ask, “What were YOU thinking?” - And don’t you dare say the defense is blameless here either. The offense had 3 - count ‘em - 3 possessions in the second half. LITERAL PERFECTION (in terms of scoring, not constant 99 yard hail marys) from the offense in the second half would’ve still had us lose by 2. The Pats ran 4 minutes off the clock on their last possession to ice the game. Don’t even tell me the defense played well enough to win when the O only got 3 possessions in the 2nd half. The entire team sucks right now, and somebody needs to step up or we’ll be on the couch in January.