Takeaways and lessons learned from Falcons - Raiders

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s the last day where we’ll be looking back fondly on the matchup we witnessed Sunday before we turn out eyes to the hated Saints. With that in mind, we gathered up the Falcoholic team from their various caves, bunkers, and pontoon boats to deliver some key takeaways for what we watched on Sunday.

That was incredibly fun

Just like the massive win over the Buccaneers in 2014, this victory didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things but was a joy to watch and an indication of what the Falcons are capable of. Atlanta famously would get off to a rollicking start in 2015 and go to the Super Bowl in 2016 with the core of that 2014 team mostly there, plus some critical additions, and we’re hoping for something similar for the next regime with this 2020 Falcons squad.

In this one, encouragingly, it was once again the defense doing a ton of heavy lifting. Atlanta regularly managed to get into field goal range but was not particularly impressive offensively all day, leaving the defense to hold the Raiders to 6 points, force a ton of turnovers, and carry the day en route to a blowout. We just don’t get to see that often enough, so if nothing else I’m going to choose to enjoy this one and put some stock in this defensive improvement, which augurs well for next year even if there are no guarantees. -Dave Choate

Proved me wrong, which I don’t mind

It was not just a win. It was a complete thumping. Against a team that is not quite in the upper echelon of the league, but a team that is not far from it. Last week against the Saints was a smack in the face. But this week, they smacked a team in retaliation. I can’t help but wonder if a win such as this would have came with Dan Quinn still on the sidelines. The effort by this team was great and the execution in certain spots could’ve still use some polish to be fair about things. But this was the most complete game of the year. This is a win that Falcons fans have wanted for quite some time. A convincing win from start to finish. - Eric Robinson

It’s still only one game

Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching the Falcons dominate a team for 60 full minutes. We don’t get this very often, so enjoy it while you can. That said, the NFL is cruel. A win one week means nothing for the next. Even after that game, I still carry many of the same concerns I did before the game. In fact, some of those concerns amplified even after the thumping.

The Dirk Koetter experiment is still awful. Ryan was still holding onto the ball as the pedestrian routes and confusing play calls forced him to look for openings to play out over time. They relied heavily on field goals early on and were it not for the mind-boggling number of turnovers the defense registered, I’m not sure this offense puts up nearly as many points. The defensive performance was encouraging though, particularly against a talented group of weapons including Darren Waller and Josh Jacobs. In total, I enjoyed the game and I hope they do it again. I’m just not sure that lightning is going to strike twice this year. - David Walker