Heading into the bye, in Week 9, you would’ve been forgiven if you expected the ceiling of this Falcons team to be 3-13—or worse. Atlanta was playing miserable football and was in the midst of a 6-game losing streak. They had, at one point, gone over a month without a sack. The Falcons had only managed 4 turnovers on defense, and were giving up over 31 points per game on average. Sure, there were some competitive games mixed in—Arizona, Seattle—but also some absolutely embarrassing blowouts.
Going into Week 10—a road game against the hated Saints—many of us expected a blowout loss that would likely end the tenure of head coach Dan Quinn.