Those once high hopes have curdled, and they have been replaced by a familiar dread that arises when our favorite football team is squandering an opportunity, as they so often do. They dropped their third straight game, all of them against quarterbacks making their season debuts, and they keep losing key players along the way. They’re third in the NFC South after sitting atop it just a couple of weeks ago. They’re 4-6 after 10 games for the third straight season. It was not hard to see the team getting a lift after they went 7-10 last year without all those pieces on defense, with a rushing attack that was great even without Bijan Robinson, and a passing attack expected to mature with new additions and a third year of work from the coaching staff. Tens of millions of dollars of free agent investments, the maturation of players on the roster, and a weak schedule and division were supposed to give the Falcons a legitimate shot at winning the NFC South.

The Atlanta Falcons, from their owner down to the front office down to their coaching staff down to their players, certainly nurtured and shared those high hopes. Many of us had high hopes for this season.