Falcoholinks: All the Falcons news you need for Thursday, Sept. 19

We’ve celebrated, and now we focus on a key road game against the Colts. Get your coffee, tilt your monitor to the perfect angle so your boss can’t see your screen, and dive into Falcoholinks on a Thursday.

Colts on deck for Week 3

Coming off of a huge victory over Philadelphia, the Falcons are slated to travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts on Sunday. They’ll be greeted by new starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who assumed the role when Andrew Luck announced his retirement prior to the season.

The Colts don’t possess the potent air attack that they once did with Luck, but they’re sitting at an even 1-1 due to offensive efficiency and limiting turnovers. The bookmakers once again have Atlanta as slight underdogs, and until they string together a couple of convincing wins it’ll likely remain that way.

The Colts offense has transformed itself into a punch-you-in-the-mouth unit focused on the trenches, and they tout some top-shelf names along their offensive line. The Falcons will need to shut down the run if they hope to come away from Indy with a win.

Takk’s big week

Takkarist McKinley entered his third NFL season with very large expectations for himself. He famously promised to cut his dreads off if he did not end the year with double-digit sacks, and although he did not get home against the Eagles, he was a nightmare for Carson Wentz throughout the entire game.

The sacks eluded him, but McKinley finished tied for second-most quarterback pressures in Week 2. His progression is mighty encouraging, and with his continued level of elevated play it makes sense that he’ll eventually convert those pressures into sacks.

Early favorites?

The Falcons sit at 1-1 and tied for first in the NFC South, but recent developments have the division entirely up for grabs. Saints quarterback Drew Brees will be out at least six weeks after getting his throwing hand mashed by Aaron Donald, Cam Newton looks like a shell of himself, and the Bucs are ... well, the Bucs are 1-1.

Falcoholic Podcast hosts Jeanna Thomas and David Walker are joined by Cat Scratch Reader’s Brian Beversluis to discuss the state of the division in the latest episode, and whether these developments mean the Falcons are favorites to take home the title.

A gridiron Gemini

Slipknot’s single “Duality” tells of fingers in eyes and veins collapsing and all sorts of gnarly nu-metal imagery set to the back beat of baseball bats hitting beer kegs. This section has nothing to do with that.

Our Cory Woodroof’s latest column examines the implications of Atlanta’s thriller against Philadelphia, one that saw them shed their unfortunately established identity of blowing leads — at least for the moment. No, it’s not something that we like to discuss, but Cory does so with aplomb and eyes (without fingers in them) to the future.