So at the Midway point of the season, with the biggest game on the schedule so far looming over the heads of the Falcon players, let's take a look into what the Falcons have done so far halfway through the season. The Falcons' offense is currently averaging 37 points a game which is ranked third in the league. They are also third in yards, at 413 a game. The passing offense is ranked 4th in the league at 246 yards per game and the run game is third in the league at 167 yds per game. So there is balance in the Falcons offensive attack.

Defensively the Falcons are allowing 19 points a game which is the third best scoring defense in the league. The yardage that they have given up is middle of the road, more than likely due to some of these games being out of hand and the defense being in soft style coverages just to play the clock, so to speak. Looking at both sides of the football You can see that they are pretty stout and what they are trying to do as far as scoring points and allowing points, being third in the league in both.

Statistically speaking, Desmond Ridder, it's completing a pedestrian 60% of his passes so far, good for 2,200 yds and 17 touchdowns against eight interceptions. It is worth noting that five of these interceptions were perfectly timed user picks from newer players. On the ground the Falcons have scored a combined 27 rushing touchdowns. Bijan Robinson, who's having himself another monster season is averaging 7 yards a carry. Over 1200 yd and 18 touchdowns with eight games remaining. Robinson actually sat out two games ago due to injury and you wouldn't notice a different production because Tyler had a 100 yard and five touchdown performance against the Philadelphia Eagles. He himself is averaging over 5 yards a carry, so Atlanta is really good at running the ball.

And the receiving department Kyle Pitts is on his way to another thousand yard season and only has five touchdowns so far. Drake London is not having a season that he is proud of so far. It does feel as though he can turn it around but as of right now he only has 300 yards receiving. If the Falcons can get more explosives and their pass- lgame then we could get a situation where we have for 1,000 yard receivers before the seasons end.

Defensively, the Falcons have been getting a lot of quarterback tackles from their interior line. Stalwart Grady Jarrett has eight on the season which leads the team. Future superstar pass rusher Arnold Ebiketie is second on a team with seven and free agent signing, Khalil Mack has five. That doesn't mean they're not getting production for elsewhere as Onyemata also has five for the year. The defense only has two defensive touchdowns on the year and a handful of force fumbles but they have definitely made it up with interceptions and most of the team has participated in that. When you start to break down the film and look at what the Falcons are trying to do on defense You can see why they are where they are statistically and don't have all of these superstars in the trenches or on the second level. They are making it work to the best of their ability and it works for them.

The Atlanta Falcons have had a pretty decent schedule in terms of competition. They opened up week one against the Denver Broncos in which they eviscerated their opponent with the score of 55 to 13. Week two was a little bit different, but Atlanta handle business as usual and winded up winning that game 28 to 6. The third week of the season provided the first back and forth game of the season for Atlanta. They were able to pull away late and when that game 27-13. At the end of the first quarter of the season, Atlanta was handed its first lost by the Las Vegas Raiders losing by three points.

Motivated by a loss that has some controversy in it, the Falcons hosted the San Francisco 49ers who are stacked on both sides of the football and they were down early but in the second half pulled away winning 43 to 25. Week six presented a rematch with the Carolina Panthers which was closer than the first game and Atlanta somehow eeked out victory winning 30 to 20. Week 7, presented Atlanta with its second loss of the season. Losing in OT in controversial fashion to the Buccaneers. This absolutely motivated Atlanta. They rounded out the mid point of the season by facing another stacked team, Philadelphia. That game was close by halftime but in the second half the Falcons pulled away 43-17.

Now, in the third part of the season, Atlanta won convincingly 49-13 to complete the sweep on this Aints. This upcoming week, the Falcons host the #1 team in the NFC (well, they're tied with the Lions for those honors), the Dallas Cowboys in what will definitely be the game of the week. Coach Carter and Q know each other very well, competing over conference titles and division in the past, and this should be another good game. Obviously the Lions are probably rooting for the Falcons so that they can take sole possession of the one seed in the NFC. Either way, this should be a good game going forward.

The Atlanta Falcons have not been a good team defensively. If you look at the metrics of this particular season, it is a tale of two halfs for the most part. Atlanta, pre-patch was allowing opposing teams to score 30 points a game in which, the Falcons were on the wrong end of two lopsided games vs Nate and Gomes. Not necessarily what this unit envisioned early on in the season. However, post patch, the Falcons look like a truly rejuvenated defensive unit. Going from allowing 30 points a game, to allowing just 8 per contest now. The takeaways have ramped up as well..

"It becomes a little easier when Bijan Robinson is in the backfield doing his thing, making people miss and getting explosives for us", quipped the HC, "shit tends to keep our defense fresh. We like that." Indeed they do, because now the defense is playing sticky coverage, getting pressure, more active in stopping the run and is able to score without putting too much pressure on it's young QB, who just recenetly got injured. Defensive Captain, Jesse Bates has the Atlanta secondary riled up, taking the ball away quite often these days. One thing is for certain, as opposed to earlier this season, the future has just gotten brighter in the A.

Right now, the Falcons offense has been pretty pedestrian. The run game stalls and has moments of greateness where the line opens massive lanes and there are others where they are losing in the trenches. It's a young bunch, sans Jake Matthews, but, it is expected. However in the pass game, the protection has been even more of a struggle. But Falcons coaches are busy trying to mitigate the damage and looking forward to improvement in the very near future.

Enter starting Quarterback Desmond Ridder. As it stands right now, he has 0 TDs and 3 INTs. There are moments where he's missing open guys which happens with younger QBs who need to develop. However, he's occasionally made bad reads, which doesn't necessarily help his team out. "Unfortunately, until he can get his accuracy together, he needs to almost be perfect and pick his spots. That isn't to say we're going to lighten the load for him, but experience is the best teacher. "

There are some tough teams on the upcoming docket and if Atlanta goes where they want to go, they know they're going to need significant improvement from their signal caller. Ridder on the otherhand is completely motivated. Looking to move past his struggles with a Green Bay defense that they had the answers for, just struggled with the execution. But it gets no easier. Detroit may be even tougher. A former Superbowl champion in Bryce in on the early part of the schedule as well. Bijan has offered to do even more to help out the team but time will tell what happens... 90 snaps until hell on Earth. 

There's a new era in Atlanta. After Coach Q seemingly left Atlanta for good in order to explore other ventures, Atlanta was not really doing much with it's football program. The closest coach to even had a bit of success was Bryce. Outside of that, Atlanta was the place to get coaches fired and they went through quite a few over the last 3 cycles. Meanwhile, Q took his talents to Denver where he made them a perennial playoff contender, getting them to an AFC Championship appearance as well as then going to the Chiefs and Chargers, both netting them championship rings. 

But according to him, he felt like he needed to go home. After seeing what his beloved franchise had become, he knew what he needed to do. It became even more clear when, in the first round of the draft, the Falcons selected all-world Superstar running back, Bijan Robinson. The signing of Bates to pair with AJ Terrell made it clear that he would definitely have pieces to work with. So with being the case, Coach Q packed his bags and when back to the place where he won his first 11 SFL titles, Hotlanta. To try and bring them back to the promised land with one of the younger teams in the league. Only time will tell what willl become of his return but the fans of the Falcons have fond memories of the success Q brings and hopes he can duplicate that.

On a serious note. Let's stop being whistleblowers in the league community. The admins are paying attention to whats going on. The behind the scenes snitching and wanting retroactive justice just isn't the move. From the time the new punishment system went into place, we will be operating from there. We won't be going back before they to mete out punishments that are pointed out before this system took place. All owners have been spoken to in regards to previous infractions and it's understood that if these things happen again, they may incur worse punishment than anything that has currently been given out..

Let's just focus on scouting our opponents and using that to win vs the opponent at their very best rather than some of the nonsense that has been happening lately. With that being the case, every team left in the playoffs will play their next game with whatever roster they have intact. However, if any rules are broken in these games, punishments may go into the next season, so I'd do my best to folllw all the rules. Negligence is not an option at this point. Let's enjoy the rest of these playoffs.

The Kansas City Chiefs had a roller coaster type of season. Highs and lows. Ups and downs and it came to an end right on time, if you ask some of the coaching staff.

The Chiefs started off as hot as possible, steam rolling opponents after an "intense" win vs the Miami Dolphins who vowed to show the league that they could defeat the Chiefs. Post game, multiple owners called out the Chiefs for leaving points on the board for calling plays that were TDs. Afterwards, the Chiefs put their offense in park and practices the compelling storytelling concept of approaching games. Keeping most of them close.

It was very apparent that when the Chiefs were steamrolling the competition, viewership was very low. But if they were losing, half the league would sometimes watch as word tends to travel fast. Which lead to some losses to owners which this coach has never lost to before, but it made for an interesting playoff race in the grand scheme of things.

Despite all of that, the Chiefs held many owners playoff fates in their hands in multiple divisions and conferences and then exercised their right to eliminate them because it was in the interest of fairness. However, the playoffs was a different story. After actually preparing for the one game in the playoffs that mattered, the Chiefs and Ravens went to the wire before the game dropped despite being wired and having gigabit as well as all the necessary updates... The Ravens opted to not run it back and KC advanced to play the Browns. After some pregame shenanigans and being cussed out by some random NFC owners, the Chiefs lost to the Browns with 11 seconds left and there was a celebration for everyone, including the Chiefs. As they now head into the offseason to prepare for the upcoming Master Duel tournament.

Kansas City is starting to look like the team we thought they'd be. The offense has become clean and more efficient, there are less mistakes across the board. The defense has developed to a point where they are actually able to get stoos and force turnovers. One can't help but wonder, what would have happened if this was them earlier in the season. They'd probably be competing for a bye right now, but that's another story for another day. 

The catalyst in all of this was actually Malek and the NY Giants, who basically pushed the Chiefs to their breaking point which has allowed this onslaught to come over the last five games or so. Rodgers (Green Bay) has recently admitted that he hasn't been pressured like that all cycle and as a result has moved his AllPro Left Tackle around to sort of mitigate this disaster. Fumbles haven't been forced at an alarming rate but the interceptions are there. 

Couple that with the offense and you have a recipe for success that may take the Chiefs to the promised land. Right now, all that matters is that the talent gets developed accordingly and after reviewing some of the great teams that had Truth amass 11 rings, it has reinforced what must be done on both sides of the ball. The Chiefs have been blessed with a multitude of picks and still must shed cap, but the plan is in place and this looks to be a fun cycle.

It took roughly six games, but, after that Kansas City was able to find it's identity. There are still some things that need to be ironed out offensively, but the offensive droughts they went into vs Tennessee and late into the delayed game vs the WFT should no longer be an issue. Coach Truth has figured out how to feature this team on offense for starters. Mahomes is currently completing 71% of his passes and has already thrown for 5K. There are still six games remaining. Go figure. Tyreek's workload has been scaled back so that Mecole would be able to eat. Everybody is eating in the pass game. Which is now paying dividends in the run game in a league that predominantly likes to trot out light boxes with three down lineman consistently. Truth is still adding to the ever growing, constantly changing playbook, aptly titled "Glorious Purpose." Should be interesting to see what's on the docket going forward as KC still has four division games left. 

Defensively, after allowing many many points to the Giants and Packers (two of the best offenses in the league), KC has had some key stars emerge as they've stopped allowing 50 points a game. "Stone Cold" Jones is back to dominating opposing offensive lineman and has brought F. Clark along for the ride as they've been terrorizing quarterbacks for the last four games. When given the opportunity to throw, you'll be hard-pressed to find another defensive back in the entire league who's playing better than Fenton. He's locked into a zone that Revis had a decade ago. After a game changing pick six vs the Giants that swing the tide in KC's favor, he picked off A-Rod 3 more times and added another house call to his name as well as forcing a key fumble to steal back momentum. Nobody's been as consistent as him. The Chiefs have been able to force fumbles, pick off QBs and pressure them at a good rate, which has translated into a win streak that keeps morale high. Heading into the bye week, things seem brighter than ever. They seem poised to make a run.

Raise your hand if you saw the Chiefs dropping their first two games of the young season? Right, I didn't raise my hand either. Yet and still, here we are. After the Browns and Chubb pretty much had their way with the KC defense, Lamar Jackson had a similar success, but with his arm. Now, the Chiefs were searching for answers for the entire defense.



Fast forward two more games and despite Patrick throwing a boatload of picks, the defense has finally buckled down and started playing competent football. After moving Honey Badger to the Texans, Kansas City is above .500 and is atop of the West. After dispatching the Chargers and then the Eagles in the rain, KC seems to be figuring out who and what they are on both sides of the football.


The defense is finally starting to gel. They're limiting the explosive plays. Getting pressure, especially in the Buffalo game. Offensively, Mahomes has cleaned up his issues after his coach came up with a better gameplay than he had in the prior weeks. So with improved play on both sides of the ball, you now have a Kansas City team who seems to be figuring it out and has the potential to be absolutely dangerous down the stretch and we're still in the early parts of the season.

Chiefs lose a heart breaker at the end to the Cleveland Browns. In a game where the Chiefs struggled to finish the game, Mahomes was quoted as saying that the Chiefs have to do a better job of remaining "locked-in" for four quarters and can't afford to have any mental lapses in critical moments. "Football is a game of inches, and we just didn't execute when it mattered most. Hats off to Cleveland. We knew what they wanted to do and it didn't matter. We gotta make corrections going forward, if we gonna be playing for the Lombardi."

Outside of that atrocity called the Chiefs defense who looked identical to their real-life counterparts, there were some good spots to talk about. The offense had a few issues but it can be cleaned up.. "We gotta do a better job with the nuances and details" quipped Mahomes. "We will be tough to defeat if we can clean this up and not have to punt. Which is what we're aiming for."

Next up for the Chiefs is Lamar Jackson and the Ravens piloted by six time champion, LB. So the road doesn't get any easier. The schedule is littered with Superbo champions and the Chiefs are ready to fix this and get back on the mark.

Limited:  (One Trade)

Lions

Fully Active: (2 Trades)

Raiders, WFT, Vikings, Saints, Steelers, Jaguars, Seahawks, Titans, Packers, Bucs, Bengals, Broncos, Ravens, Chargers, Chiefs

So what's next for the Denver Broncos?
The plan last off-season was to reload, adding to an existing young talent pool with Superstar veteran players who were supposed to take them past the WC round the previous season. The results: missing the playoffs and essentially finishing third in the division despite having the same record with two AFC West teams.

It anything, this season was growth for the development of young QB Drew Lock who has ascended to the upper echelon of QB, Truzz and believe in them. Fant put in a lot of work and became some to marvel at before the snap that decimated the Broncos roster..
So now, the team still has that young roster but may have more holes than they did before. So this is looking to be a very interesting off-season as Denver looks to reload and take over the West simultaneously.

The snap seemed to basically hurt or cripple every team in the West sans Kansas City who were one of the few teams in the league to fall on the good side of the "blip." Either which way, Lock is ready to lead his team to greatness. The Defense however, leaves a lot to be desired. Expect some minor or even major tweaks on defense going forward. 

What has happened to the Denver Broncos?
They won eleven games last year and looked poised for a deep playoff run but since then, everything's gone to hell it seems. Lock started the year off well but in games vs the Cowboys and Chargers he was a turnover machine. Nothing has changed since then. He's traded in the interceptions for multiple fumbles a game, which inexplicably get scooped up by the opposing team roughly 95% of the time. Joining him in his crusade is halfback Philip Lindsay who tends to have big games a lot. Whether it's rushing for a lot of yards or getting 3 to 4 touchdowns in a game. He normally fumbles in critical moments against the Raiders and now he's taken his string of bad luck into other games as well.


When you look at the offense as a whole, Denver still moves the ball with the best in the league, but just have inexplicable fumbles on the sideline with the player out of bounds or in the red zone which happens to serious damper scoring drives and puts them in holes in which superstar QB Drew Lock has to then throw them out of. "It really seems like an unfortunate amount of circumstances. If you told me, we needed completions with no timeouts and we get them and the player goes out of bounds to stop the clock WITHOUT being tackled, there's no reason why the refs would keep the clock running" quipped Lock who's superhuman heroics weren't enough as Denver dropped their fifth game of the season to the Eagles. "Nothing more you can do there. Hopefully we get some breaks."

On the defensive side of the ball, injuries have played a major factor in not being able to stop teams.. immediately after trading for Cam Heyward, he was injured in the first quarter. Von Miller missed five weeks with injuries. Corners have rotated in an out of the lineup for the better part of the first half of the season. All of these things have played parts in why this team has an inverted record. The rest of the season looks interesting as the Broncos will attempt to combat the meta from the Raiders and WFT, as well as fighting divisional games vs the Chargers, Chiefs and the undefeated Bengals. This is an interesting season. But Denver has a plan.