After losing the Super Bowl to the Patriots in February 2017 the Atlanta Falcons took a step back last season. The Falcons finished 10-6 to make the playoffs as an NFC Wild Card team only to lose in the divisional round against the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Although they did beat the Los Angeles Rams on the road in the Wild Card round it’s safe to say that the 2017-18 season was a disappointing one for the Falcons. This season, it’s Super Bowl or bust once again for the organization and they’ll need to improve in several areas to reach their second Super Bowl in the last three years.
So, what are the key areas that need to be fixed in order for the Falcons to reach their goal?
1.- Bring the defensive intensity all season long: When Dan Quinn first got his job as the Falcons’ head coach after coming from Seattle people had high expectations as he helped the famous “Legion of Boom” there. Although replicating that in Atlanta will be almost impossible, Quinn must help the Falcons find their defensive identity.
Atlanta’s defense needs to bring a different level of intensity. Although the Falcons “D” was very inconsistent during the regular season, they played at a completely another level against the Rams in the playoffs as they managed to hold the league’s most explosive offense to 13 points. They need to perform with that intensity all season long if they want to return to the Super Bowl this season.
2.- Stay motivated to do it all over: A lot of teams can quickly get bored of doing it all over with the same guys or grow too confident that their regular season success will be easy to replicate year after year. With the NFL being so competitive nowadays teams have a hard time even reaching the playoffs season after season.
In order for the Falcons to accomplish their lofty goal, they first have to realize that they can’t take anything for granted and must stay motivated to start from zero all over again.
Falcons can’t look forward to the playoffs or save their best efforts for the postseason because if they do they may not even reach them. They can’t let inner conflicts and adversity tear them down and must find ways to stay motivated all season long to live up to their potential.
3.- Falcons offense must live up to its full potential: After being the most explosive offense in 2016-17, they regressed last campaign as they ranked 15th by the end of the regular season. Last year the Falcons hired Steve Sarkisian as new offensive coordinator to replace Kyle Shanahan, who was hired as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and it was evident that the transition hurt the team.
In Sarkisian’s second year it’s time to show that they’ve ironed out all the kinks in their armor and they can be way more efficient and lethal. They need to prove that the offense has a better understanding of his play book and that Sarkisian can build a better rapport with his weapons to perform better on the field.
4.- Play their best the full 60 minutes: Last year the Falcons failed to finish games that they were in position to win. Regardless of what caused to stumble near the end of games, they need to focus and play their best week in and week out to secure more wins.
If last year they had done that they could have finished the regular season 13-3 instead of 10-6 and their path through the playoffs could have been a lot easier. With the Super Bowl this year being at their own stadium the Falcons need to excel for the entirety of the games to try to secure home-field advantage through the playoffs and become the first team ever to host and play in a Super Bowl the same year.
