Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tale of the tape

The coaches

What these two coaches have in common is that they are trying to rebuild struggling NFC South teams. Lovie Smith took on a tougher task by trying to improve a Buccaneers team that had finished 4-12 the year before. Ultimately, it needed to get worse before it got better.

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Winning just two games last year, the Bucs hit rock bottom. But now, we are finally seeing Smith right the ship. They have their quarterback with Jameis Winston, and they are now on the bubble of the playoffs entering December, with over twice as many wins as they had all of last year.

Dan Quinn is still in his first year, and he’s hit the first bump in the road. After flying off to a 5-0 start, his Falcons team has hit a wall with five losses in six weeks. But even with the rough midseason form, the Falcons are moving in the right direction under Coach Quinn. The notable difference has been on defense, which we will come onto.

These two coaches share one aim, and that’s to dethrone the Carolina Panthers atop the NFC South. That won’t happen this year, but both of these coaches will still believe they could meet Carolina in the playoffs later in the season.

Next: The quarterbacks