NFL Winners and Losers: The Falcons suck so bad

September 21, 2026 Comments (0) 8 Mins Read

The Atlanta Falcons are an absolute dumpster fire. Whatever hope you had for them evaporated in Week 2 as they suffered a soul-crushing divisional loss to the Carolina Panthers, who won 34-3 and pulled their entire first-team offense with over two minutes left, confident they’d coast to a win.

Trying to chalk this entirely up to Atlanta’s quarterback issues is misplaced hope. The Falcons rocked up on Sunday and played like a team that wasn’t remotely prepared, which happened in back-to-back games. Something is deeply wrong with their strategic planning and weekly prep, because at no point did Atlanta even appear like a team that had a plan for attacking Carolina’s defense or understood how the Panthers offense works.

This manifested itself in a ho-hum day from Bijan Robinson, who Carolina focused all their efforts on stopping, and as for the quarterback play — a picture speaks a thousand words.

It should have been extremely easy to pick the Panthers apart, given their focus on stopping Robinson in the backfield. Carolina spread their linebackers wide to prevent the outside run, essentially abandoning the center of the field. Some quick slants could have both moved the chains, and pressured Carolina to cheat back inside — but that never happened. Instead, Cooper Rush, and then Jack Strand were asked to run the Falcons base offense and they just couldn’t do it. They did have the arms, the pocket presence, or the ability to do anything — but Atlanta just kept on trying the same thing again, and again, and again. Boos rained down on the home team with every three-and-out, while the Panthers kept running up the score.

It all comes back to Kevin Stefanski, who owns this debacle. The Falcons’ offensive start to the season hasn’t just been bad by their standards, but is contending to be worst offenses in the history of modern football.

While the Falcons have to get better with a new QB, to put these numbers in context a -54.58 EPA would extrapolate to a -463.93. The worst offense in the last four years was the 2023 New York Jets with Zach Wilson at the helm. They finished that season at a -313.65, making this Falcons offense be even worse by a substantial amount, and they haven’t played against particular good defensive teams in Carolina and Pittsburgh.

Atlanta is the worst passing team by far, but it’s also completely derailing Robinson’s season, with the Falcons also managing to rank 26th in rush EPA. Now they’re on a short week before facing the Packers on Thursday night where they’ll throw Michael Penix Jr. to the wolves, and I’m not at all convinced that the people in charge of organizing the Atlanta offense can put him in a position to win.

Stefanski has largely been immune from criticism over the course of his coaching career, coasting on two Coach of the Year awards, which were earned purely because he took the Browns to “decent,” but never amazing — and even then he benefited from solid people around him. This era in Atlanta was supposed to be his opportunity to show his coaching potential inside a competent organization with more talent around him, but somehow in a short period he’s managed to make this team even worse.

This team is an utter mess, and they’re going to put it on display for the whole world to see with three primetime games in a row. We didn’t ask for this. We don’t deserve this. Falcons fans don’t deserve this.

Any discussion of the Falcons means we also need to talk about Bryce Young this week, who is playing as well as any quarterback in the league right now — seriously. It seems like this is the year he’s finally putting it all together, with the receivers Young needs to succeed and an offensive coordinator who knows how to use him.

Most importantly, the game has slowed down for Young in his fourth year. He’s no longer getting happy feet under pressure to the point where he’s throwing it away prematurely. There’s also been more faith in the playcalling, which has allowed him to add more verticaility to his game, which has all come together.

Young’s stats through two games are staggering: 46-for-73, 648 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT and 1 rushing touchdown.

There’s no doubt that Josh Allen is on another level right now, but Young really isn’t far behind — and that is staggering.

Loser: Everything about the Chargers

This team is a train wreck. Not to take anything away from the Raiders, who look like a revitalized team under Klint Kubiak and with Kirk Cousins under center — but the Chargers are a team that should be much, much better than what they’ve shown so far this season.

Sitting at 0-2 the next slate of games for them is a murderer’s row. They face the Bills, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans, and Ravens. It’s difficult to find a winnable game for them in the lot, especially based on how the team is playing right now.

This has quickly gone from questioning “is this their year?” to “do they need to blow this whole thing up?” The most bizarre part of watching the Chargers this year is the amount of regression Justin Herbert has gone through. It’s clear the offensive personnel isn’t comfortable with all the wrinkles that McDaniel has installed, and nobody is playing relaxed, natural football. I don’t know where this team goes next.

Which of these 0-2 teams is most likely to make the playoffs?

The NFL has one game left, but let’s take a look at this year’s 0-2 teams following Week 2 Sunday. The Rams could still lose and drop to 0-2, but given their preseason expectations, most folks probably still think they have a good chance of making the playoffs.

In the meantime, let’s look at the 0-2 teams following Sunday. Which of these teams is most likely to reach the playoffs this season?

Closes in 3 days • 372 total votes

Rec 1ReplyRead 29 replies

Winner: New Orleans Saints

The Saints are the NFL’s best team that nobody is talking about. They pushed the Lions to the limit in Week 1 in an overtime game they easily could have won, then followed it by beating the Ravens. Those are top-tier teams in each conference, and they rose to the occasion both times.

New Orleans is a weird team because they come out of the gate slow, then seemingly catch up after lulling their opponents into a false sense of security. It held that Tyler Shough is playing great football, but the Saints have become the NFL’s kings of the second half adjustment.

Keep an eye on them moving forward, because Kellen Moore’s team is sneaky good.

Not only is Rodgers playing garbage football in Pittsburgh this season, but he’s destroying his own legacy through mediocrity. There is nothing special about how he is playing right now, the Steelers worked to get him pieces for a playoff push, and it’s blowing up in their face.

At least the Falcons have the excuse that their QB situation is a total mess and they have guys in who shouldn’t be playing NFL football, but Rodgers doesn’t have that excuse. He’s the worst established quarterback in the league right now and he’s sinking this season for Pittsburgh. Luckily they played the Falcons in Week 1, or they would be 0-2 right now — or perhaps that’s a bad thing, because the Steelers need a high pick to get their QB of the future.

The big duel entering this weekend was how the masterminds of the Vikings and Bears managed to scheme around each other, and to put it bluntly: Brian Flores owned Ben Johnson.

At no point did the Vikings seem threatened by the Bears’ potent offense, even prior to Caleb Williams leaving due to injury. Flores went toe-to-toe with an immortal Chicago offense that appeared infallible, and turned them into a totally mediocre unit. If Minnesota was able to have a halfway decent offense right now they would be one of the best teams in the NFL.

Instead they’re just the best defense in the NFL — and that’s okay.

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