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The nice thing about Sundays and Mondays is that they serve to either confirm or dispel the narratives that have been building all week around a given football team. By very early Tuesday, we’ll know whether the Falcons have managed to discover their missing lead-keeping aptitude and can get to 1-3 with an impressive win over a great football team or whether they’re simply this team and more or less toast at 0-4.
The urgency here is well-understood for Dan Quinn and company. The Buccaneers are 3-1 and the Saints and Panthers are both 2-2, so falling to 0-4 would put this team at least two full games behind everyone else in the division. I know there’s one additional playoff spot available in 2020, but the reality is that only one 0-4 team has ever made the playoffs after starting with that record, and that was the 1992 San Diego Chargers. This team’s chances of digging out of that particular hole with six tough divisional games and the Chiefs on the docket are basically nil. Even 1-3 is going to be tough to get out of, but it’s the only thing that can save the season, or at least give us the illusion it’s being saved.
Use this as your open thread, and go Falcons!
Atlanta Falcons @ Green Bay Packers, Week 4
When: Monday, October 5, 9 p.m. EST
Where: Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Channel: ESPN
Announcers: Louis Riddick, Steve Levy, Brian Griese
Streaming: ESPN.com or the ESPN app
Radio: 92.9 The Game
Key Questions: How healthy will this Falcons team be, given that they need all hands on deck for this one? Can the Falcons passing attack get back on track and be elite, which is the only way I can see this game ending in a win for Atlanta? Is this team capable of snagging the kind of backbreaking turnovers that have gotten them past Rodgers in the recent past?
Prediction: All three games thus far have seemed winnable, but the Falcons blew it. Not doing that to myself again, which will probably engineer a win in and of itself. Packers 35 - Falcons 27
SB Nation Opposition Site: Acme Packing Company