I tend to remember the season as a four-part book that had all the makings of a fascinating season.
The first part that I remember about our Falcons is how wrong we all were about this team in the preseason.
Remember how our biggest concern during the preseason was the kicking game with Matt Bryant and whether or not Vic Beasley would get to 15 sacks this year? We were way off on our diagnosis of these Falcons before the season.
We were so wrong, that many of us said that this team was guaranteed to win at least 10 games.
The part two of the Falcons season that I’ll remember is the first 8 games.
Suddenly this team that was “Some unlucky injuries away from being good last year”, looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Yes, the kicking game and the pass rush were problems, but now new problems emerged like the O-line's inability to block, the running game was nonexistent and the secondary got torched every week by AJ Brown, Will Fuller and rookie QB Kyler Murray.
I remember sitting just shocked each and every week during those first eight games just in shock at how bad everyone looked. Freeman looked old, Matt was throwing interceptions, and the O-line looked like plywood. Even beasts like Grady and Julio didn’t seem to have the same edge.
Part three of how I’ll remember the 2019 Falcons was the bye week/fire week limbo that we all went through when all anyone could talk about was firing DQ and Thomas Dimitrov.
I mean everyone thought they were sure gone for sure. Heck even I started to lean towards the idea that they might be let go at the end of the year. Yet, nothing ended up happening.
Part four of how I’ll remember the 2019 Falcons is the complete 180 by the team over the final eight games. I mean this team started to pass protect, this team started to defend in the secondary and for a few games here and there they actually created sacks.
This is a football team that couldn’t beat Indianapolis, Arizona or the Titans (before they were good), that suddenly was beating New Orleans, San Francisco and the Panthers.
Adjustments were made from a coaching standpoint, people were held more accountable, injured players returned and poof, almost like magic the Falcons we expected at the beginning of the year were actually in front of our eyes.
A lot of people look back on the 2019 season, see the 7-9 record and immediately chalk this season up as a failure, to me, that’s a little too “Judging a book by its cover”.
I choose to see this season as a four-part story that started with high expectations, continued with terrible results, had us captivated with possible firings, and finished with what we expected (aka winning six of their last eight games).
(And) Guess what...I think the Falcons ending to the season sets up for a very exciting sequel in 2020.
