What the Atlanta Falcons are doing is completely unprecedented. Following the onside kick comedy in Dallas, Dan Quinn’s football team blew a 15-point fourth quarter lead for the second week in the row last Sunday.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse, the schedule dictates that the next opponent for the Birds will be the red hot Green Bay Packers, who have spent the first three weeks throughly dismantling NFC competition. Oh, and the game will be televised nationally for the entire country to see, on Monday night.

Let’s dive into the major what if scenario this week, looking at the circumstances surrounding the Falcons if they win against Green Bay and looking at if they lose, now that football is a couple of days away from being played again.

If the Falcons win

It would legitimately be the biggest upset of the 2020 NFL season thus far. The Falcons would win their first game of the year while handing the Packers their first defeat of the campaign.

The pressure would be off Dan Quinn for at least a week. His mandate has been to make the playoffs and we can at least say that he’ll have taken the first step in reaching that goal with a win at Lambeau Field. Don’t get me wrong, Quinn will still firmly be on the hot seat but the temperature of that seat won’t be raised for at least a week.

With a game against the Carolina Panthers coming up to kick off the easiest part of the schedule after this week (Panthers x2, Lions, Vikings, Broncos before the bye week), Atlanta will have some confidence as they look to regroup and string a few manageable wins together in pursuit of at least reaching the .500 mark before the bye.

The Falcons also won’t be the laughing stock of the NFL, the way they have been the past two weeks. At least until the next blown lead happens.

If the Falcons lose

It wouldn’t be a surprise in the least. But for the love of God, please don’t blow another double digit lead, on national television. The Tuesday morning ridicule would reach peak levels in such a scenario.

The hot seat would get even more toasty for Dan Quinn and probably General Manager Thomas Dimitroff as this would be the third straight season where their football team will have endured a losing streak of four or more games.

The Falcons have already gotten off to their worst start to a season since 2007, but even Bobby Petrino’s squad won in Week 4 to move to 1-3. This will be the first time since 1999 that the Birds will have lost four games in a row to start the new campaign.

The Falcons will solidify themselves as early season players in the draft sweepstakes, matching the Jets and possibly a few others for the worst record in the league after the season’s first quarter.