Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Whole Resume Is One Afternoon
Add Atlanta's three final scores together and the league's own ledger returns the same integer. Now notice that one road afternoon accounts for 35 of them, and ask what that leaves.
A team that has not won a game this season has scored more points than the Atlanta Falcons. Tampa Bay has 62. Atlanta has 51.
The whole division, all four rows: Carolina 89, New Orleans 81, Tampa Bay 62, Atlanta 51. Fewest in the NFC South. I am scoping that to the division on purpose - five NFL teams have scored fewer, and ESPN ranks Atlanta 27th of 32. Take the version that survives you checking it.
Thirteen at Pittsburgh. Three at home against Carolina. Thirty-five at Lambeau Field. Fifty-one. The league's own ledger reads 51 on two different routes. I took nobody's word for this. I added three finals and the ledger agreed.
Thirty-five of those 51 came in one afternoon in Wisconsin.
The rest is a number with my own name on it. I printed it September 24: 16 points in two games. Eight days and one blowout later, nothing has been added to it.
One more read, and it is a rate, so there is nothing to argue about. Yards per play, in order: 4.2, then 4.3, then 7.5.
Why? I do not know, and I am not inventing a reason. The distribution is verified. The explanation is not.
So I will price it instead. I'm 52% sure Atlanta does not reach 20 points Monday night at New Orleans. It has cleared 20 once in three games. The reason I am not higher: New Orleans has allowed 83 points in three games, and only seven teams have allowed more.
If Atlanta hangs 30 Monday, come back and I will write the piece that says I read a floor as a ceiling. Three days. Come collect.
The Tilt
Atlanta's 35-point afternoon is a sample, not an offense.
— Dex Ponce
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