Falcons break hilarious 12 game preseason losing streak

The Falcons took not caring about preseason results to its logical end, transforming losing into a genuine art form. It’s not just that the Falcons literally lost 12 preseason games in a row, stretching all the way back to August 2017. It’s that they did so seemingly with delight, frittering away leads and choosing to see exactly how their third-string back would respond to three carries up the middle rather than something more productive.

The results of all that evaluation-focused game action have been mixed, but it’s been to the team’s credit that they could not possibly be bothered to care about winning preseason games that have no reflection on the team’s regular season standings. They’ve simply evaluated, again and again and again, in the hopes of building better depth. When it’s worked (2017, hopefully this year) we all have very little to complain about, but when it hasn’t (2018) those results come into sharper focus.

Happily, we don’t have to debate whether this team’s winless preseason is going to translate into major problems in 2019, because they ended up going 1-3 (1-4 if you count the even more meaningless exhibition game against the Broncos) and thus are not eligible for the curse of zero preseason wins or whatever you wish to call it. With the roster looking healthy, the depth looking at least better, and Matt Bryant on his way back, it’s okay to feel good about where these Falcons stand, and feel good about the thumping they just managed against Jacksonville’s backups.