Atlanta Falcons found a new way to be terrible

What a week a difference made for the Atlanta Falcons.

However, this time it wasn’t what the Atlanta Falcons were hoping for. There was a lot of optimism for the Falcons and the ability to build off of what they started last week against the Vikings Instead what the Falcons showed was the same nonsense that got Dan Quinn fired two weeks ago.

Coming into Sunday, the Falcons offense should have been able to put up a myriad of points. The Lions defense was 24th in the NFL in scoring defense, allowing 26.9 points per game while the Atlanta Falcons offense was averaging 27 points per game, which was good for the fourth highest-scoring offense in the league.

Instead, the Falcons were held to just 14 points for the first 59 minutes of the game until a late touchdown run and two-point conversion put the Falcons up six with a minute left.

As we have seen throughout the history of football, a prevent defense does nothing but prevent you from winning and that is exactly what happened to the Atlanta Falcons.

Same Atlanta Falcons, different Sunday.

The Falcons have blown multi-touchdown leads in several games this season, only the LIons had blown more fourth-quarter leads than the Falcons in 2020.

Interim Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris had us fooled. The team looked like they had been reborn last Sunday against the Vikings as they forced three turnovers and scored a bunch of points in the win. They had their best game plan in three seasons and executed better than we have seen in quite some time.

However, against the Lions, the guys again looked like they had other things to do. Missing blocks, giving up on routes, arm tackling instead of hitting, and coaching not to lose instead of coaching to win.

These were all reasons that got Dan Quinn fired and things that Morris was supposed to be working toward getting rid of and instead, these things simply took a one-week hiatus. Sure, we can blame the horrible officiating but it still comes down to execution and the officials didn’t leave tight end T.J. Hockenson wide open for the game-tying touchdown with 00 on the clock.

The bright side is the more this franchise loses in 2020, the higher the draft picks become and this team needs a lot of high-end talent if they were ever going to get back to a Super Bowl in my lifetime.