Dec. 31, 2017, 11:50 a.m.

By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

There goes Steve Sarkisian again.

Calling plays that are dropped passes.

Or interceptions.

Calling plays that are fumbled.

Or nullified by a penalty.

No matter, it’s all the offensive coordinator’s fault.

It isn’t, but that’s irrelevant to the fan base and no doubt knee-jerk parts of the media.

The loss Sunday to the Saints was no surprise, because these Falcons aren’t very different than the last time they had a new offensive coordinator.

Remember 2015? When the Falcons started off 5-0 and ended up 8-8 and didn’t make the playoffs?

Yeah, see, that’s the analogy people have to make when misguidedly grousing about Sarkisian and completely forgetting what they said in 2015 during Kyle Shanahan’s debut.

Don’t forget. Atlanta and it’s nice-but-nowhere-near-great quarterback and shuffled offensive line are on their third offensive coordinator since 2014: Dirk Koetter, Shanahan and Sarkisian.

Three. Don’t think that makes a difference? It does.

In all three cases, the OCs had to learn to play with a fair amount of weapons: Julio Jones for all three, Ryan and his inconsistencies, Devonta Freeman as a newbie and then as a highly paid “veteran”, Tevin Coleman, utilizing a pair of quality running backs, and normal stuff, like other teams showing up and playing.

They’ve had to deal with constant injuries to Jones, going from veteran Jacob Tamme to youngster Austin Hooper at tight end, more adjustments on the offensive line.

The number of OL starters in 2017 who started in 2015? Three. The number of returnees on the two-deep from 2015 to 2017?

And then there was the signing of former first-round pick Jake Long, whose body left him irrelevant, to the tune of 11 snaps.

The offensive line is what makes geniuses or imbeciles of offensive coordinators, and Atlanta’s has long been a rollercoaster.

Why, in 2016, when it was time to play some lottery numbers, Matt Ryan was sacked an average of 2.3 times a game, compared to 1.9 a year earlier and 1.3 this year.

Said it a few months ago, and nothing has changed.

The Falcons are the Falcons of 2015, not of 2016. Time to get a grip on a reality, folks.

They didn’t have consecutive winning seasons until 2008-09, barely achieving that with a 9-7 record in 09.

Momentum went “poof” from a three-year run of 36-12 to the next three years of 18-30.

That’s the Falcons, until they prove otherwise, an inconsistent collection of players and coaches.

Dan Quinn has been up and down in his general decision making, be it input on the game plan or player personnel or perhaps coaching hires.

Know this about every football team you watch. The coordinators are doing what the head coach wants. No matter the forte of the boss, he is the boss, and he determines the length of each coordinator’s leash.

We see Nick Saban going crazy on Lane Kiffin, because there’s always a camera on Saban because he’s always going crazy. But we don’t hear the screaming in the headset or other tantrums other head coaches have.

And we sure don’t hear the meeting-room conversations. Steve Sarkisian is utilizing Dan Quinn’s offensive philosophy with his own tweaks, just like Kyle Shanahan did in 2015 when people wanted him run out before they wanted to adopt him a year later.

The memory loss afflicting our nation’s citizens is increasingly epidemic.

Ryan, a nice-but-nowhere-near-great quarterback, inexplicably gets a pass on all these offensive problems.

The guy has started since 2008, thrown more than 5,500 passes, handed off a few thousand times, and has nice stats.

He can’t change a play? Is he agreeing with the playcalls each snap?

And to that, how do we know he’s not putting the Falcons in the wrong play at times? Is he misreading a defense, being suckered into changing a play?

Note that he got sacked more in 2016 than every year except 2013, when the Falcons went 4-12.

How does that exactly happen? Could be iffy decisions that worked out one year and have been around normal the other eight seasons since he took over.

Matt Ryan deserves at least as much blame as Quinn and Shanahan for that Super Bowl debacle, because it was so very much in his control to change it. Except for the defense that didn’t step up.

He can’t look to the sidelines with a “what the hell?” look? He changes the plays and they’re going to take him out?

Uh, yes he can and no they’re not.

Much has been made about the Falcons being in the same spot record-wise this year, entering last week, as last year, and that’s true.

It changed, because the Falcons are a different team, as every team is every year. A new OC has weapons to learn how to use. Players get injured. Defenses and special teams may be helpful one week and an albatross the next.

No doubt Sarkisian has made some interesting decisions.

No doubt the message boards in New England and Seattle and New Orleans are lit up on a regular basis. Fans in general are an unhappy bunch that doesn’t think much longer past what they just saw. Understanding that there is a reason for a playcall is ignored, as is the fact that a missed block or read or hearing the wrong playcall makes everybody look like Curly or Moe.

But Brady, Russell Wilson, and Drew Brees make more plays. There is, this year notwithstanding for injury-riddled Seattle, a difference in quarterbacks and in organization.

So until the Falcons start doing un-Falcons-like stuff – say, get that playoff record to above .500 with consistent playoff runs and first-game wins – you’ll have to just calm down and wait.

The 2016 Falcons weren’t who we thought they were.

They weren’t the Falcons. Not the normal Falcons. And until that changes with more dominant regular seasons – the 13-3 years were major teases, a 9-7 team surviving inferior performances for a 13-3 record – next year will continue being next year.

Folks need to quit thinking that one good season every so often deserves the same standards as seven good seasons out of nine. The Falcons aren’t there, and again, three offensive coordinators in four years makes that tough. Stability is an underrated key to success and consistency.

Yes, it’s important – obviously – to make the playoffs, even if the Falcons are one and done. But this is a wacky team, so who knows? If they don’t make the playoffs, it has – and the typing is slow here – nothing to do with a Super Bowl jinx or blowing that lead or any other crap people – and broadcastcomtwits – blather.

The Falcons are the Falcons of 2015 and 2017, and the years in the past. That doesn’t make it any easier for crazy people, but a grain of salt is rarely a bad thing. And we can expect the Falcons of 2018 to learn from the Falcons of 2017.

Kinda like the Birds of 2016 learned from 2015. Remember that? And your shock?

Remember this, too. While all that may depressing, those teases being so tantalizing, take some solace in the fact that the Falcons have never been as bad as the current Browns.

Take what you can get. There, that hint of optimism and reality, is my gift to you.

Belated Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, happy holidays, and may Monday not suck like Mondays do.