Falcons fan confidence rises tepidly as fans fear to love again

Fan confidence has looked like a roller coaster this season. A majority of fans seemed to be feeling good coming into the season, with 69% reporting some optimism in Week 1. That got all the way down to zero in the midst of Atlanta’s five game losing streak, and has since risen and fallen based on whether the team wins or loses, as is traditional.

This week, the bounce from the win over the Panthers is much less impressive than the bounce after the drubbing of the Vikings. Atlanta fans were able to get genuinely excited about the Minnesota win because it was a dominant blowout, but the subsequent narrow loss to the Lions and the narrowness of the margin against Carolina have tempered even modest expectations. I wouldn’t expect a big bounce even if the Falcon beat Denver this weekend.

That 39% feels fair. Nobody quite knows whether the defensive improvements we’ve seen will continue and the offense remains a work in progress being led by an offensive coordinator who often seems incapable of progress, but the team has certainly looked better on balance the last three weeks than it did through the first five. That’s cause for some people to feel optimistic, and the rest of us to feel like we have no idea what they’re gonna do and that’s fine.

We’ll see what the Broncos game does to these numbers, but expecting this team to clear 50% without a big win streak is probably asking too much for the rest of 2020.