Falcons: 4 Openers and a 2-2 Record

[RFlagg]

Over the last 4 seasons, the Falcons have played 4 very different teams on opening day. In 2008, the Falcons played the Detroit Lions, 2009 the Miami Dolphins, 2010 the Pittsburgh Steelers and this season the Chicago Bears. While the Falcons won the first 2 openers, they've lost the last 2 and the offense has looked bad in each game. Has the offense regressed the last 2 seasons? I say no, I thnk the difference has been teh caliber of the defenses we've played. Here's what I mean:

2008 - Detroit Lions - Final Defensive Rank: 32
2009 - Miami Dolphins - Final Defensive Rank: 22
2010 - Pittsburgh Steelers - Final Defensive Rank: 2

That's a big difference in defenses. The Steelers have had one of the toughest defenses in the league for a long time, and it's tough to beat them. Add in that they were healthy and we played them in Pittsburgh and the loss is easily understood. Now let's look at this season's opener against the Bears.

In 2010, the Bears finished the season with the 9th ranked defense in the league, another tough proposition to open against. Similar to 2010, the Falcons opened on the road as well, and like Pittsburgh, Soldier Field is a very tough place to play. There once was a time where both of those games would have been chalked up as automatic losses simply because of who and where we were playing. However, last season the line was even and this season we were favorites, something that we should be proud of to begin with.

While no one like losing on opening day, hope should not be abandoned simply because the offense looked bad. When going against top ten defenses, very few teams do look good. I don't think we should expect our offense to look as bad as they did last week. Just looking at the defensive ranks from last year of our remaining opponent, we should expect to play better.

Remaining Road Opponents 2010 Defensive Ranks: 4, 17, 18, 20, 21, 27, 30
Remaining Road Opponents 2010 Defensive Ranks: 4, 5, 8, 12, 17, 18, 26, 28

So take this for what you will, but I look at the past 4 openeners and think that our looking bad wasn't entirely on us. We could have done things differently, but sometimes you're going to come up against teams that are better equipped to stop what you're trying to do.