Atlanta Falcons must learn how to make adjustments

The Atlanta Falcons still don’t understand how to make adjustments.

Weeks after Dan Quinn’s firing, the Atlanta Falcons seem to not have been able to shake his mindset: refusing to change your philosophy, even when it fails.

We saw that three seasons in a row with Quinn and it’s what led the Falcons to an 0-5 start and ultimately his demise. But it seems that thinking has lingered around the organization. That’s what happens when you have an interim coach from Quinn’s staff step up to the plate. So, should we be surprised?

Two weeks ago the Falcons lost 24-9 against the Saints. They looked listless, lost, uninspired on offense. The bright side was the Falcons got to play them again two weeks later and for the first three and a half quarters of the game, they looked the exact same.

Unable to run the ball, pressure in Matt Ryan’s face minus the sacks, and no touchdowns through a large part of the game and three field goals.

They did eventually find the endzone. But that is a product of not adjusting your game plan, play calling, doing nothing different, and expecting to win. It’s that same mentality from the Atlanta Falcons organization that led them to the results they’ve seen in the past few seasons.

After a slow start and turnaround in 2018, Arthur Blank gave Quinn another chance. The same thing happened in 2019 as the Falcons made no adjustments. Blank gave him another chance. And the same thing happened to start in 2020.

The Atlanta Falcons offense is a microcosm of this thinking.

Dirk Koetter makes no adjustments drive by drive, nor does he at half time. Yet, Morris and the rest of the organization still have faith in him. How many chances does a coach in Atlanta get before the powers that be realize they aren’t effective?

If the Atlanta Falcons don’t get ahead of the curve on decision making, fans will continue to see a team struggling to make noise in the regular season until it’s too late. The silver lining is that a new general manager can bring some fresh eyes to the organization. And his first order of business has to be finding a young, innovative offensive coordinator.

For all the talent on this team, Koetter has consistently failed to put them in positions to be great. As bad as the defense has been year to year, fans have at least seen improvements as the season wears on.

Unfortunately, that has carried over year to year, but at least they’ve shown they can make a change. That’s how the Falcons got to the Super Bowl in 2016, the defense eventually hit their stride.

So long that Koetter is still up top and in charge of this offense, adjustments won’t be made and the Falcons will continue to be frustrating to watch on that side of the ball.