Yahoo! Sports says Atlanta Falcons should be Super Bowl favorite
By Randy Gurzi
On the heels of their three-game winning streak, Jordan Schultz of Yahoo! Sports says that the Atlanta Falcons should be Super Bowl favorites
After three convincing wins, many are ready to get back on the Atlanta Falcons hype train. They started the season out with three straight wins, but a 1-3 stretch followed and soured many who were high on the defending NFC Champions.
Then they got hot again. The Falcons picked apart the Dallas Cowboys and then won a Monday Night Football contest against the Seattle Seahawks. After that, they saw wide receiver Julio Jones go for 253 yards and two touchdowns as they took out a divisional rival in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Now on the heels of that success, Yahoo! Sports NFL Insider Jordan Schultz says the Dirty Birds should be favorites to get back to the Super Bowl after losing to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 51 following their stellar 2016 season.
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Schultz highlights the offense — especially the offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkisian and quarterback Matt Ryan — as reasons why they’re so deadly.
"“During the three-game winning streak, the Falcons’ offense has averaged 29.3 points per game, with Ryan absolutely dealing. The 32-year-old quarterback has thrown for seven touchdowns and just one interception, while posting a 110.5 passer rating and a Total QBR of 88.8, which trails only the surging Case Keenum. For the season, the Falcons are third in yards gained per possession (36.7), as well as fifth in both points per possession (2.24) and three-and-out percentage (29.5 percent). Those are sensational numbers.” – Schultz said of the Falcon’s offense"
The Yahoo! writer talks about how Sark found his rhythm lately after a sluggish start to the season. Such growing pains should have been expected though as the former college head coach had never coached at the pro level. he was also taking over an offense that was already in place, rather than forcing the players to completely adapt to something different.
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In the end, it was worth the risk and it’s nice to see some of the praise headed towards the former USC head coach rather than so much blame. He came into an impossible situation where he was expected to be the orchestrator of the best offense in the league — or risk being labeled a failure. Now that he and Ryan are on the same page and making it look easy, people like Schultz are taking notice.