Falcoholinks: All the Falcons news you need for Tuesday, Dec. 7

You don’t want anything standing between you and your links, except maybe a fresh cup of coffee and your morning newspaper. It is still the 1990s, right?

Let’s get to it.

The wounds, they’re self-inflicted

When your margin of error is thin, you’re not supposed to make a lot of errors. As David Walker and Evan Birchfield discussed in this week’s postgame podcast, that’s exactly what the Falcons did, undercutting their effort with way too many mistakes. Fortunately for them, the decaying Panthers are next, and they make a lot of mistakes too.

As Dave Choate wrote in his recap (hey, that’s me!), it was tough to expect the Falcons to beat the Buccaneers given the talent disparity between the two teams. That will hopefully change in the years to come, but in the meantime better pass protection and fewer mental mistakes are going to be necessary to avoid dropping some winnable games.

Hayden Hurst is almost back

The Falcons have been without the services of tight end Hayden Hurst for a few weeks now, but it appears that will change soon. The Falcons waived tight end Parker Hesse on Monday, clearing the way for him to return to the practice squad, and cleared Hurst to return from injured reserve as soon as this weekend. Hopefully Hurst can add something to a passing attack that has been lacking production of late.

Road dog

Carter Breazeale writes that the Falcons are 3 point underdogs to Carolina, who they’ll face on the road this Sunday. Atlanta’s been better away than at home and the Panthers aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire without Sam Darnold’s legs to carry them, but they did beat Atlanta earlier this year and some skepticism seems fair.

Marlon Davidson magic

It was somewhat of a disappointing day for young players in Atlanta, but Marlon Davidson’s huge play was something we’ll talk about for years to come, as Will McFadden wrote.