2016 Atlanta Falcons: Why they are Super Bowl Contenders

Versatile Offense

The Falcons are flying high into their matchup with Seattle, riding a four game win streak. In those four victories, Atlanta has demonstrated the ability to beat their opponent in a variety of ways.

Against Oakland in week 2, all cylinders were firing at max capacity. Matt Ryan spread the ball around to nine different receivers — his full arsenal of weapons — in route to an impressive 35-28 triumph.

Week 3 brought a similar result against bitter division rival New Orleans. Eight receivers touched the ball in the game, but only one reception was recorded by the almighty Julio Jones. The Falcons did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for a season high 217 yards on 31 attempts. Atlanta cruised to a 45-32 victory.

In game four, Julio Jones more than made up for his quiet night from the week before. “Jet” shredded the Carolina Panthers secondary for a franchise record 300 yards, becoming only the fourth receiver during the Super Bowl era to accomplish this feat. The Panthers had no answer for the Falcons aerial assault and the final score indicated it—Falcons 48, Panthers 33.

Last week presented the season’s stiffest challenge to date. The defenses faced in the three prior weeks all had dreadful secondaries. The same could not be said for the Falcons’ week 5 adversary, thanks to the Broncos’ “No-Fly Zone” secondary.

However, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan saw the chink in Denver’s defensive armor — their linebacking corps. Shanahan isolated linebackers Brandon Marshall and Todd Davis in coverage on arguably the Falcons fastest playmaker, running back Tevin Coleman.

The matchup proved to be no contest. Tevin exploited the Broncos for 132 receiving yards, including a 31-yard touchdown grab that put the game on ice.

These four games demonstrated that the 2016 Falcons have multiple ways to beat you. Gone are the days where Julio Jones has to have a Herculean effort for the Falcons to leave victorious.

For context, Jones was targeted 203 times out of a possible 621 passes last season. Factoring in that Julio racked up 1871 of the 4602 receiving yards and it becomes apparent how reliant the Falcons offense was on their star receiver in 2015.

Jones projected stat line this season is 77 catches on 131 targets for 1654 yards. While the yardage is comparable, the catches and targets are a far cry from his previous campaign.

And the Falcons are better off because of it. The Falcons were 2-5 last year when Matt Ryan threw the ball over 40 times. Atlanta has had no such games this year, thanks to a more balanced approach in year two of Kyle Shanahan’s offense.

The 2015 Falcons became a one dimensional offense during their second half meltdown due to the regression of their ground game. The 2016 running attack has showed no signs of slowing down, which brings us to the next reason why this team will not falter down the stretch.