The Falcons are going to try, very hard, to thread the needle the rest of the way. That means one of the great runs in franchise history, and it begins with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Bucs are .500 and have a couple of strong wins this season, but their awful defeat at the hands of the Bears was even worse than Atlanta’s defeat at the hands of the Steelers. That leaves both teams coming off a humiliating loss, but the Bucs also are coming off a bye week. The Falcons’ season either all but officially ends here, or they live to fight another day, and there’s not much more to be said than that.