Where do we go from here? The Falcons choked away an all but sure victory last Sunday in a fashion that they’ve become accustomed to under the Dan Quinn regime. As I wrote in an earlier article, when Dan Quinn is your football team’s head coach, no lead is ever safe.

The Falcons sit at 0-2 with two NFC defeats to start the season. Morale must be at an all time low in the locker room as it surely is within the fanbase. Quinn’s perpetual underachievers have to get things figured out quickly, or they’ll be staring at another disastrous first half of the season which all but eliminates them from playoff contention for the second consecutive year.

Let’s dive into the major what if scenario this week, looking at the circumstances surrounding the Falcons if they win against Chicago and looking at if they lose, now that football is under 24 hours away from being played once again.

If the Falcons win

Confidence in this team certainly wouldn’t be close to restored after the travesty we witnessed in Week 2, but it would be a start.

The Falcons would end Chicago’s undefeated run on the young season and would put themselves back on track in the divisional race. It certainly helps that none of the other NFC South teams have started the season 2-0. Division favorite New Orleans faces a tough test against Green Bay and could find themselves in a tie with the Falcons at the end of Sunday night.

Dan Quinn should firmly be on the hot seat at this point, but a win wouldn’t see that seat get hotter for this week at least. With the schedule being light over the next six weeks (not other than the Packers), a win could see the Falcons possibly generate some momentum for a nice run before the Week 9 bye.

There’s very few locker rooms and fanbases in the NFL who need a win more than the Falcons, if for no reason other than to get the disgusting taste of the Dallas game at least partially out of our mouths.

If the Falcons lose

The horrible start to the season would be compounded, and we’d be on a rapid pace to seeing this article series become a defacto “draft standings watch” feature each week, like it was in the second half of last season.

This feels like as close of a must win scenario as you can get this early in the season, coming off the heels of a historic collapse. The Falcons would be 0-3 and with a trip to Lambeau Field to face the red hot Packers on the horizon, pretty much staring 0-4 in the face.

We’d wonder if it’s only a matter of time before Quinn is finally fired, though I am hesitant to say that because it’s the same thing we wondered last season before the entire coaching staff was retained to “run it back” and to keep that 7-9 continuity.

The Falcons would move their record in the first half of the season to 9-18 over the past four seasons. Losing to Mitch Trubisky really would be rock bottom, and it would be time to officially press the panic button.