Atlanta Falcons: Tough schedule will be major test in 2016
Weaving their way through the NFL’s toughest schedule might be the biggest obstacle the Atlanta Falcons are faced with this season.
A year ago, the Atlanta Falcons were blessed with the league’s easiest strength of schedule. While this needs to be taken with a grain of salt, only five of the Falcons’ opponents went onto earn a playoff berth.
The Falcons were tasked with taking on quarterbacks such as Zach Mettenberger, Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Mallett and some of the league’s worst ranked defenses, including the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Despite all of the that, Dan Quinn’s first season as head coach ended in frustration with the Falcons crashing and burning from a 5-0 start to finish 8-8.
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Although it’s too early to tell exactly how good each team will be, on paper at least the schedule looks considerably tougher this time around. If last season felt like taking a road trip through the league’s worst teams, this year will be more like driving through an asteroid belt.
Seven of the Falcons’ 16 games come against teams who reached the divisional round of the playoffs last season. Two games against Carolina, home slates with Green Bay, Arizona and Kansas City and road trips to Denver and Seattle in consecutive weeks will put serious strain on Quinn’s roster. That’s before we even mention the league’s up-and-coming teams such as Oakland and Tampa Bay.
To put together a playoff season, the Falcons will need to take care of their home games and avoid slipping up in the ‘easier’ games.
The key to the season will be surviving the first 10 games before the final stretch of six. If they can take five wins from their first 10 with most of those victories taking place inside the division, they will have hope to see out the deal in the home stretch.
In this spell the Falcons will get to test the Los Angeles Rams, who will be led by a rookie quarterback in Jared Goff. The San Francisco 49ers have all sorts of problems, particularly at quarterback. The New Orleans Saints always bring their ‘A’ game against Atlanta, but this game will be the Georgia Dome sendoff.
The stretch would also require the Falcons to find a win or two from their games at home to the Cardinals and Chiefs and on the road to the Panthers.
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In 2016, the Falcons should have more talent across the board, but a daunting schedule poses a major obstacle to make a playoff bid.