Falcons fans, weary in their bones, feel tiny surge of confidence after narrow loss to Chiefs

This Falcons team has been simultaneously hard to love and hard to quit. We’ve run our weekly The Falcoholic Reacts surveys all year, and invariably losses have sent people careening off the bandwagon and wins, no matter how unimpressive, have brought people back. Because we’re asking open-endedly about confidence each week, it’s probably an open question whether people are feeling more confident in the team’s long-term future or for 2020, but either way about a quarter of fans are feeling some confidence heading into Week 17’s matchup with the Buccaneers.

The loss to the Buccaneers two weeks ago brought that number dangerously close to 0%, but the close game against the Chiefs restored some confidence because it was a reminder that this team can really play sometimes, even if it’s never a complete game. That four quarters of competitive, hopefully winning football will be the key to winning back fans this offseason, amidst all the changes in the front office, (likely) to the coaching staff, and to the roster. You’ll still expect to see fan confidence spike in the offseason.

We have one more result to collect, but the Falcons will probably end up in much the same place as they did a year ago. It’s been a roller coaster year that featured some hope coming into the season, some brief bursts of optimism, and three weeks where not a single Falcons fan was willing to say they were confident in our survey. Hopefully next year’s numbers run a lot, lot higher.

Year-to-Date Reacts Results

End of 2019: 14%

Free Agency: 80%

Draft: 73%

Week 1: 69%

Week 2: 15%

Week 3: 14%

Week 4: 0%

Week 5: 0%

Week 6: 48%

Week 7: 58%

Week 8: 12%

Week 9: 39%

Week 10: 63%

Week 11: 63%

Week 12: 0%

Week 13: 33%

Week 14: 13%

Week 15: 23%

Week 16: 8%

Week 17: 27%