This week was an emotional rollercoaster for Atlanta, which saw two players hit the reserve/COVID-list, Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff fired with all the resulting coaching staff changes that followed, and a trip to Minnesota down both their defensive line coaches. That’s a lot of change in one week for any organizations, and for the Falcons it figured to either be galvanizing or deflating.
It proved to be the former. Atlanta still had familiar miscues and foibles along the way, but they looked like a very different football team in this one. Matt Ryan was sharper, the defense was startlingly good, and players like Julio Jones and Russell Gage who were injured or struggling in recent weeks got going.