Hope is but a low flame for Falcons fans heading into Week 6

A week ago, less than a third of Falcons fans were feeling confident about the direction of the team heading into a matchup against the Steelers. Following an utter beatdown at the hands of Pittsburgh, we head into a plum matchup with the Buccaneers with less than one-fifth of fans feeling confident about the team. Woof.

As a reminder, we’re polling a select group of Falcons fans every week for these numbers. As you’ll see below, we went into the season with such hopes, but those hopes have been mercilessly dismantled in the weeks since.

Let’s talk about why that is.

Why is confidence so low this week?

The Falcons simply haven’t looked good. From Week 2-Week 4, while they were going 1-2 and losing a couple of agonizingly close games, their offense was at least a delight to watch. A week ago, even that evaporated, as the Falcons put up a dreadful 17 points against a lousy Steelers defense en route to a 43-17 ass kicking. If you were holding out hope that the Falcons were gonna turn this thing around, that loss probably killed it for you.

The remaining 19% who are holding out here, down from 30% a week ago, are probably betting on some defensive coherence helping Atlanta, plus two cupcake home matchups in a row. But the rest have looked at the way this team has played over the last three weeks and quite reasonably concluded it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

Will the Falcons pick it up this week?

I’m holding out some hope simply because these are the Bucs, and their defense is abysmal. The Falcons are a similar sort of team, with a great offense being dragged into the briny deep by the defense, but they’re a better team and a better-coached team on paper. Hopefully that’s enough.

A win would absolutely lift this back up, likely to around where it was before the Falcons lost to the Steelers. Victories equal confidence in fan land, as they should.

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