Getty Richie Grant #27 of the Atlanta Falcons is congratulated by Jaylinn Hawkins #32 after making an interception against Seattle.
It’s been almost six years since the Atlanta Falcons have had the national media speaking highly of them.
However, that has changed after the club had two exciting back-to-back wins, putting them 2-2 to start the season––their best start since 2017 when they went 3-1 under Dan Quinn.
And Falcons now sit tied with rival Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccanneers for 1st in the NFC South.
Many critics wrote this Falcons team off months ago as a “rebuilding” team, but NFL Network’s Peter Schrager is making up for all of the naysayers and gave the Atlanta team a whole lot of love during Tuesday’s Good Morning Football segment.
“I love this Falcons team,” Schrage said. “Love this Falcons team and how unorthodox their style is, Love this team and the way that they’re getting contributions from everyone.”
Schrager Compares Falcons to 2021 Bengals
With a questionable quarterback situation, the Falcons were rated very low on the totem pole heading into the 2022 season.
“You guys wrote our obituary back in May and you’ll continue to write our obituary, Arthur Smith said following the team’s Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints. “Who cares because we’ve got 16 games and we will learn from this and get better.
“Write whatever y’all want. The same guys that ranked us 45th buried us in May. Bury us again. We don’t care. We’ll get back to work.”
The media continued to debunk them.
And then in Week 2, the Falcons lost to the LA Rams by only three points and then the same team that everyone, for the most part, had written off, followed those losses up with two wins.
Schrager couldn’t be more impressed, so much so, that he compared them to the 2021 “rebuilding” Cincinnati Bengals, who ended the season with a Super Bowl appearance.
“You’re asked who the most impressive team is. I think everyone’s penciled this Falcon Zero as a rebuilding year,” Schrager said. “You’ll draft a quarterback, you’ll go from there. And then Falcons are two and two. They’re top of the NFC South right now, right there with the Buccaneers. They play ’em this weekend, kind of like the vibe.
“And Arthur Smith is a little salty. The Falcons might be the team that nobody talked about––the Bengals last year.”
Can the Falcons Be the 2021 Bengals 2.0?
So, the Falcons are finally getting the respect that they deserve and it’s nice to see, but comparing them to a Super Bowl roster seems a tad far-fetched.
They’ll have to prove themselves a bit more than with just wins over the Seattle Seahawks (2-2) and Cleveland Browns (2-2).
No to mention that their quarterback situation is concerning. The Falcons were able to rely heavily on their run game in their wins, but they won’t be able to do that in their upcoming games against sturdy Tampa Bay and San Francisco defenses.
In their more recent win over Cleveland, Marcus Mariota was an embarrassment under center, completing just seven of his 19 passes for 139 yards and tossing an interception.
That kind of play is not the same kind that we saw from Joey Burrow in 2021, who had completed 25 of 32 passes for 348 yards and two touchdowns in his Week 4 outing last fall to put Cincy at 3-1.
Mariota has a lot of work to do in order to live up to that status.
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NFL Analyst Compares Falcons to 2021 Championship Bengals