Falcons fan confidence goes on a journey to the center of the earth after loss to Saints

I hope everyone’s been enjoying their Thanksgiving and not thinking about the Falcons too much, but now I’m going to make you think about the Falcons. It’s sort of the deal you make by coming here, I’m afraid.

Last week, I suggested a close loss to the Saints would certainly cause fan confidence in the Falcons to drop, but not necessarily to crater. What I wasn’t expecting was perhaps the single most anemic game of the year against New Orleans, one where the team put up just 9 points en route to a lopsided clobbering at the hands of the team we all hate the most. The result was that in this week’s Falcoholic Reacts survey, fan confidence went from a healthy 63% heading into the bye to....0%.

Yes, 0%.

Given that the Falcons were 3-6 heading into the week, this isn’t particularly surprising, because it meant that those fans who were feeling confident were likely feeling that way because of the recent 3-1 stretch and better play along the way. The balloon-puncturing loss to the Saints made it clear that Atlanta’s not actually that much better than they were a year ago, that very good teams can beat the snot out of them, and that they are depressingly bad against the Sean Payton-era Saints not matter who is at the helm. That was more than enough to ensure that no fans were willing to express confidence this week, and with tough matchups against the Raiders and Saints (again) coming up, it’s hard to blame anyone.

In summary, the below is true.