NFL Power Rankings: Panthers, Patriots and Bengals at the top entering Week 14

How fortuitous for the Atlanta Falcons that there is construction for a new stadium right by the Georgia Dome. That way they can throw the dead and battered carcass of this team into the giant, gaping hole for the $1 billion football church on the mount, bury it deep down below the earth and forget the myriad of ways these Birds have murdered themselves in late-game situations.

It is absolutely facinating to think back to the season’s first two months when everyone and their brother was high on the Falcons. That was a time when the offense was humming, the defense was making stops and the team was, well, winning.

Atlanta is in the middle of a free fall, and the only respite is the aforementioned hole in the ground. The honeymoon is over for Dan Quinn.

Matt Ryan has been pedestrian during this losing streak, and in nearly every game you can find a Matty Ice interception that broke the back of his team. He’s been so bad that it’ll have the normally placid Atlanta sports media in a tizzy.

If you want a microcosm of Atlanta’s second half, look no further than Jameis Winston steam-rolling right over half the Falcons’ defense late in the game. That’s gotta be hell for a defensive-minded coach.

R.I.P., Falcons, it was fun until the leaves changed.

Next: 18. New York Giants