Last year’s NFL MVP was outplayed by the guy who might be this year’s MVP. Last season’s NFC champ was overwhelmed on its field by a team that might be this season’s NFC champ. Last year’s happy story has yielded to this year’s, and these Falcons keep writing chapter after chapter in their up-from-oblivion saga.
In 2015, they were the team that couldn’t qualify for postseason after a 6-1 start. In 2016, they’re officially headed to the playoffs as NFC South champs. The clinching moment came with Tampa Bay’s loss Saturday in New Orleans, a game that went final after the Falcons had landed at Hartsfield-Jackson. Let no one say these Birds didn’t earn their title. They’ve been good for a while now, and they look sleeker and meaner with every week.
“To me, good teams continue to get better as the year goes on,” said Matt Ryan, who posted a passer rating of 121.8 Saturday, almost three times better than Cam Newton’s 44.8. “It hasn’t been easy … but I do think we’re getting better.”
Last December, Falcons coach Dan Quinn stood in a smallish room deep within Bank of America Stadium after his team had fallen to then-unbeaten Carolina 38-0 to slide to 6-7. That was rock bottom, and the sensation he felt that day – his darkest as a head coach – can still trigger acid reflux.
“Those struggles and those scars you definitely remember,” Quinn said, speaking in that same room moments after his Falcons had beaten the no-longer-preening Panthers 33-16 on Christmas Eve. “You remember those more than some of the wins. I remember that game. I’ll never forget that game.”
Fifty-four weeks later, the wins are coming hand over fist. The Falcons are 10-5 against a demanding schedule. They’ve won six of eight. If Sunday’s victory lacked the separation gear on display against Los Angeles and San Francisco, it didn’t lack much else. The Falcons led 13-0 after a quarter and 20-3 at the half. The only time there was even a kernel of doubt, they authored a moment that reminded us that this year’s team isn’t last year’s team.
Start of the fourth quarter, Falcons ahead 20-10 and facing third-and-21 at their 14: A lot of teams would run a draw and punt and play defense. The Falcons didn’t exactly send all five receivers deep and loose a pass and a prayer. There was method involved, as there always is with this offense.
“We had Julio (Jones) going down the middle,” Ryan said, but Jones was covered. So was Joshua Perkins, the undrafted rookie tight end who’s playing because other tight ends are hurt. The third option was Tevin Coleman out of the backfield. The offensive line blocked so well that Coleman had time to get far enough downfield – 21 yards is a long way – and Ryan the time to wait on him.
“It was a safe (play) that we did,” Quinn said, but it wasn’t a give-up draw. This offense is so well designed that even a safe call can yield a 31-yard gain. And then, on the next snap, Coleman burst off right tackle to score the clinching touchdown, and by the time he broached the goal line the Panthers had given up on trying to catch him.
When first these teams met this season, the Falcons routed Carolina because their two best players – Ryan, with 503 yards passing, and Jones, with 300 receiving – had career days. On Saturday they beat the Panthers with Perkins and D.J. Tialavea, a tight end just promoted from the practice squad, snagging their first career touchdown receptions.
To his credit, Ryan could name all the tight ends who were deployed this day. (“It’s good to know your teammates,” he said, taking mock-umbrage at the suggestion he might not.) But the Next-Man-Up is working so well that two defensive backs – Brian Poole and Jalen Collins – took their first interceptions off the famous Cam, and Deji Olatoye, a cornerback cut by three other organizations, broke up a third-down pass for the Panthers’ Greg Olsen.
Who are these guys? Well, they’re Falcons, and they’re division champs. After Saturday’s game, loud music – and not Christmas carols — could be heard emanating from the visitors’ locker room. (And this was hours before Tampa Bay lost.) “When you put everything into it with one another,” Quinn said of the celebration, “you want everybody to be into it.”
Saturday marked the Falcons’ third victory over Carolina since the humiliation of Dec. 3, 2015, the third in a row over a team that had won the South three years running. “It’s going to be a terrific rivalry for years and years and years,” Quinn said. “They’re a tough team and we are, too.”
Yes, they are. And smart and fast and resourceful and all that other good stuff. These Falcons could go a long way, but it would wrong not to note how far how they’ve already come. From 38-0 losers in this stadium to NFC South champs in 54 weeks: That’s an ascent worthy of, er, a falcon.
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