By Don Stone - Football Atlanta
The Falcons had one of the easiest schedules in 2015 and still were
unable to do better than 8-8. And the reward is a schedule next season that
looks twice as hard, literally.
Just look at the numbers. This past season, the only difficult
opponents were two with Carolina (15-1) and one with Minnesota (11-5)
Houston (9-7) and Washington (9-7). None of the other nine opponents made
the playoffs. In fact, none of the other nine opponents even had a winning
record. And, as you can see, the Texans and Redskins barely finished a game
over .500. The combined regular season records of all 2015 opponents was
118-122. Very deceptive because of the lopsided record of the Panthers. Take
out the three games with Carolina and Minnesota and you get a true image of
what Atlanta played. In thirteen of their sixteen games, the combined
opponents' record was 77-115. They lost 38 games more than they won. And the
Falcons still could muster only seven wins from within that group.
So, with that in mind, let's see what Atlanta has in store for next
season's schedule.
Of course, the NFC South remains the same. The other three teams in the
division finished 28-20 with over half coming from the Panthers. Double that
with a pair against each and you have 56-40.
Besides Carolina, the Falcons have games against five other current
playoff teams, Green Bay (10-6), Denver (12-4), Kansas City (11-5) Arizona
(13-3) and Seattle (10-6).
The only teams that resemble the level of opponent from this season's
schedule are rematches with two teams from 2015, San Francisco (5-11) and
Philadelphia (7-9). Both fired their head coaches. The other three
teams, oddly enough, are all teams that have applied to move to Los Angeles.
St. Louis (7-9), Oakland (7-9) and San Diego (4-12) round out the schedule.
Do the math. Add all of that up and the non NFC South opponents have a
combined record of 86-74. Add that to the NFC South totals and you have a
2016 quality of opponent with a 142-114 record as opposed to 2015 when the
opponents were 118-122. The 2016 teams won 24 more games and lost eight
fewer.
With that, will they even be able to squeeze out another 8-8 season to
close out their time at the Georgia Dome or will they be launching their way
into the new Mercedes Benz Stadium with a losing record?
Watch and wait. |