The Atlanta Falcons owe their fans more home wins
By Ross Terrell
The Atlanta Falcons have yet to live up to the lofty expectations that come along with a new stadium. Especially when some fans wondered if building a new stadium was even necessary.
When the Atlanta Falcons opened the billion dollar Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2017, it was with the expectation that the team’s play could justify the new high cost of getting inside. However, when the state of the art retractable roof wasn’t ready for its first season, we should’ve known something was up.
In fact, in the 16 regular season home games the Falcons have had since moving into the stadium and out of the Georgia Dome, they are 9-7, just one game above .500. Their play at home has been downright disappointing at times.
Let’s give them props. They closed out the Dome, the house that Deion built and Vick rebuilt and Matt Ryan renovated, in style- a dominant NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers.
The Dome was the last time the Falcons actually seemed to have an advantage when playing at home. The crowd there, especially in the playoffs, could turn up the volume to be something special.
Since then, they’ve been nothing special at home. Last season the Falcons lost a shootout in OT to the Saints and followed that with a one point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals of all teams. Home field advantage didn’t seem to matter as they went 4-4 last year in their climate controlled setting.
Attendance was even well below the reported marks. Actually, the Falcons don’t really have an impressive win at home since moving to the new place. They dropped home games to the Dolphins and Bills.
They beat the Saints once on a game winning interception, easily the most memorable play. The other outbursts, a 40-14 win over Arizona came against a fledgling Cardinals team with a rookie quarterback and interim offensive coordinator.
Oh yea, Adrian Clayborn set the Falcons sack record with six in one game versus the Cowboys in 2017. That Cowboys team lost 27-7 and they didn’t have Ezekiel Elliott. The next year, with Zeke, Dallas walked away the victors.
The Falcons had a chance to make their home confinement an intimidating place to be. No team wants to travel to Heinz Field and play the Steelers in the winter, and I don’t know too many teams hankering to play in Arrowhead or even the Superdome.
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But what teams fear coming to Atlanta? If you can’t think of one, then we’ve got a problem that only the Falcons can fix.