Atlanta Falcons: 2018 Preview
The Atlanta Falcons had a somewhat disappointing preseason in regards to performance. That should not affect the overall outlook on their season though.
Despite a lackluster performance during the preseason, the Atlanta Falcons should be fine heading into the regular season. They will have Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman back on offense, and will definitely bolster the offense. The Atlanta Falcons do, however, open the season in Philadelphia this coming Thursday night. This will not be an easy game even if Nick Foles is the starting quarterback.
Actually, looking at the schedule, the first half of the season looks to be a lot harder than the second half. With opponents like the Steelers, Eagles, Giants, and Saints in the first half of the season, it will definitely be a hard test, with little room for error for the Atlanta Falcons.
The hardest games of second half of the season would be the Saints at New Orleans on Thanksgiving, and the Packers in Green Bay.
In sum, the first half of the season is much harder than the second half, and if the Falcons can survive those sets of games mentioned before, then they are sitting pretty heading into the final half of the season.
With all that being said I am going to go out on a limb and say that the Falcons are going to go 11-5 on the season. I think the five losses will be to the at Eagles, at Steelers, at Saints, at Packers, and then one game that could go either way. My guess will be either to the Saints again, or to the Giants. If they can win one of those five games, then they can easily go 12-4, or even better than that. Atlanta has one of the most talented rosters in all of the NFL, and it will be interesting to see how well they will fare against tough opponents like the Eagles, this coming Thursday.
Lastly, it will definitely be interesting to see how Steve Sarkisian does in his second year with the offense. Last year was a bit of a disappointment and so was the preseason, but I think Freeman and Jones being available full-time, will definitely help him.
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As mentioned before, the Atlanta Falcons open up the season in Philadelphia, as the Eagles are playing their first game as World Champions. The Falcons will be looking to spoil that.