As they’ve done for much of the 2023 season, the Falcons let an opportunity slip by. They are still technically alive for the division title, but their 37-17 loss to the Chicago Bears provided few reasons to believe this team deserves to be in the postseason.
There were some excellent individual performances, which I’ll highlight here in a moment, but the lack of connectivity between the offense, defense and special teams continues to plague the Falcons. For a team to reach the postseason it needs to play winning football in all three phases more often than not; Atlanta hasn’t done that nearly enough this season.