While the left side of your brain attempts to process the logic of a 5-8 team being tied for first place — and the right side screams, “Shut up! We can win the Super Bowl!” — it’s important to start with this: The Falcons’ bar this season should not be set as low as winning the NFC South.
The South’s champion almost certainly will finish with a losing record. “Losing record” and “success” don’t intersect in the dictionary. They certainly shouldn’t intersect in sports. Whether the Falcons, New Orleans or Carolina win this division, the first-place team merely will have inadvertently tied their shoes together one less time than the other two.
The Falcons’ loss in Green Bay last week was not a success, regardless of how much some want to paint it as such. They lost. Nobody expected them to win in Green Bay, but that doesn’t excuse being dismembered 31-7 in the first half on national television, even if they showed heart in the second half and rode the wings on Julio Jones’ feet to narrow the final score to 43-37.
“They didn’t quit,” should not qualify as a highlight.
Which brings us to this week: If the Falcons are serious about winning a division, we’ll find out Sunday. They play Pittsburgh at home (don’t let the 30,000 Steelers fans fool you). If the Falcons win and the Saints lose Monday night in Chicago, next week’s game in New Orleans is a potential division clincher. If they lose to Pittsburgh, it’s a potential eliminator.
“If we lose, the pressure’s on,” Roddy White said.
This week isn’t a must-win situation only because must-win situations clearly don’t exist in the NFC South this season. But do the Falcons really want to count on the Saints losing to the Bears and then probably having to win in New Orleans? The Falcons won in the Superdome in 2010, but otherwise have largely struggled there.
“We can’t go into this game thinking, ‘Well, if we don’t win this game we’ll be all right,’ because then it will be a lot of pressure on us to win the last two,” White said. “You never want to go on the road, especially (against) those guys. They’re going to be playing for the same thing we’re playing for.”
The Falcons played their best game of the season against Arizona two weeks ago. They reverted to form in the first half against the Packers. That sums up their level of consistency this year.
If they win their final three games, they’re in the playoffs. But that’s a bit much to expect for a team that has won only nine of its past 29 and hasn’t won three straight in more than two years (Nov. 18-29, 2012).
They would love to have that level of consistency the next three weeks. And I would love to win the lottery. The odds might be relatively congruent.
“I don’t want to say it would be an anomaly,” guard Justin Blalock said when asked if the team could play with consistency for the next three games. “But to this point we haven’t strung together more than two games playing that well. Most of the time, it’s not even a full game. Just to get one under our belt would be phenomenal. That said, we’re in a position where we have to win this game. Whatever position guys are taking, like, ‘Win this play or win this block,’ that’s what’s going to have to happen from here on out.”
Seattle is Falcons’ new standard, not just because the Seahawks are the only previous NFL team to win a division with a losing record (7-9 in 2010) but because of what followed. They upset the defending Super Bowl champion Saints in the first round of the playoffs. If the playoffs opened this week, the Falcons would play the defending champions: Seattle.
Referencing the second half of Green Bay, White said, “If we go out and play with that kind of desperation, we’ve showed what we’re capable of doing. It’s like the years we’ve won 12 or 13 games.”
The Holy Grail this year is eight. Seven wins might get it done.
But one great half each week won’t get it done.
