We’re not used to thinking of the Falcons as a second half team, not with all the soul-snapping late collapses over the past several years, but last year that’s exactly what they were.
On only four occasions last season did the Falcons outscore their opponent in the first half; a couple of times they tied, but mostly they went into halftime trailing. Compare that to the 12 times out of 17 games where they outscored their opponents in the second half as the team got rolling, opponents let their guard down, Arthur Smith tapped into some dark magic, or whatever other factors you’d like to credit.