Atlanta Falcons: Super Bowl 50 Contenders?

The Atlanta Falcons remain unblemished through the first quarter of the 2015 NFL Season. Is it too farfetched to think this team can earn a Super Bowl 50 berth?

A 4-0 start for the 2015 Atlanta Falcons seemed unrealistic entering the first year of the Dan Quinn Era in Flowery Branch. Yet, here we are. Nobody goes undefeated in the NFL, but looking at the Atlanta Falcons’ 2015 Season Schedule, I’m struggling to see if the Atlanta Falcons will lose four times this fall.

A 12-4 record would certainly put the Dirty Birds back in the Playoffs, with possibly a 1st Round Bye. However, does that mean the 2015 Atlanta Falcons are now contenders for a Super Bowl 50 berth?

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I’d love to believe so, but I feel that there are three things standing in the way of this Atlanta Falcons team reaching the 2nd Super Bowl Berth in franchise history this February: 1. The Atlanta Falcons have not won back-to-back playoff games since 1998. 2. Matt Ryan is 1-4 in the NFC Playoffs. 3. The Atlanta Falcons play in the same Conference with the Green Bay Packers.

Since the improbable 14-2, 1998 NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons team, Atlanta has only won three playoff games: the 2002 Wild Card Round @Green Bay, the 2004 Divisional Round vs. St. Louis, and the 2012 Divisional Round vs. Seattle. Keep in mind the Atlanta Falcons are 7-12 all-time in the postseason in their 49-year existence. Could that all change in 2015, the 50th year of Atlanta Falcons football? Potentially, but history is not the franchise’s side entering its Golden Anniversary.

Matt Ryan may stand as the most successful passer in Atlanta Falcons history, but he boasts a 1-4 playoff record: losing in 2008 @ Arizona, 2010 vs. Green Bay, 2011 @ New York, and in the 2012 NFC Championship at home to the San Francisco 49ers. Ryan is an 8-year NFL veteran and 3x Pro Bowler. He has the skills to win in the postseason, but he can’t afford to make his weekly bonehead pass in January. The opposing defense will be too good to not capitalize on an errant throw deep in the NFC Playoffs.

Lastly, who will beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC? Seattle? Arizona? Atlanta? Does Green Bay beat themselves? It might resort to that last alternative. QB Aaron Rodgers doesn’t throw interceptions in Lambeau Field. I’m struggling to envision a scenario where the Packers don’t win the NFC North and earn a first round bye.

Perhaps Atlanta finishes 13-3 and Green Bay’s regular season ends at 12-4, so the Atlanta Falcons would get home field advantage in the NFC, assuming Arizona or Seattle don’t have anything to say about that.

Beating Green Bay in Lambeau Field in the postseason is arguably tougher than beating the Seattle Seahawk in Century Link. Not to mention, University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale is pretty difficult to win on the road in as well.

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Don’t get me wrong. I love this 2015 Atlanta Falcons team, but I’m not sure that the path to Super Bowl 50 is a realistic one entering the second quarter of the 2015 NFL Season. We might have to revisit this before Week 9, should Atlanta remain undefeated or boast a 7-1 record at that juncture.

At this point, Atlanta’s best shot to win the NFC would have to mean that the Falcons go 13-3, clinch home field advantage in the NFC, and they would have to only play one of these three teams (Arizona, Green Bay, and Seattle), that game being at home in the 2015 NFC Championship.

I want this team to keep proving doubters wrong and make the entire Atlanta region believers in this football team. If the Coach Bud Era of the Atlanta Hawks can command Atlanta’s respect, why can’t the Dan Quinn Era of the Atlanta Falcons do the same thing? Get behind this coach and this year’s football team, Atlanta. Rise Up!

Next: Atlanta Falcons: NFC Power Rankings, Week 5

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