Atlanta Falcons Left With Much to Prove After Week One Loss

The Atlanta Falcons have a lot left to prove after a crushing opening loss to the Eagles. The Falcons issues on offense were troubling leaving a lot of questions for Matt Ryan.

Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons played perhaps their most disappointing regular season game in recent memory. Ryan played horribly Thursday night struggling to look like the quarterback Atlanta is used to seeing.

Many of his throws were offline and lacked the zip his passes have in seasons past. What made the game maddening was the fact despite Ryan’s poor play Atlanta was in a position to win the game.

Holding the Super Bowl Eagles under twenty points Atlanta’s defense played tough making plays continuing to give the offense chances.

The game came down to a final drive a drive where Atlanta had five chances inside the ten-yard line to score and win the game.

Just as they had four chances in the first drive of the game to score, both times they failed and it was the difference in the game for Atlanta.

With perhaps the most weapons in the NFL the fact the Falcons cannot finish drives in the red zone is puzzling and upsetting. Many heads are turning looking at the offensive coordinator as the reason why.

With week one now behind them, the Falcons must shake off yet another tough loss and get ready for the Carolina Panthers.

Pressure will be mounting on the Atlanta offense their coordinator to prove they can score in week two. Prove their red zone troubles are a thing of the past and not what will end their season as it did in 2017 or lose them games as it did in week one.

The biggest culprit is Matt Ryan, who simply must play better. Ryan must stop force-feeding Julio Jones, spreading the ball around and giving all of his receivers chances as he did in his MVP season.

If not, he will continue to struggle and fail to live up to expectations. While Julio is one of the best receivers ever to lace them up he isn’t the key to the Falcons returning to the Super Bowl.

Ryan learning to make throws in crunch time and putting together clutch drives is what must happen if Atlanta wants to make the playoffs this season.

They must prove in week two they can not only drive the ball but most importantly score as they did in the 2016 season. Week two will be the Falcon’s first divisional matchup against the Carolina Panthers.