By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

There were a lot of similarities between last year’s Falcons team and the Panthers team from the year before.

Both were NFC South teams that started the season off as afterthoughts when it came to Super Bowl contenders, yet wound up playing in the title game. Both had high octane offenses, led by MVP winning quarterbacks, maximizing the potential fans had been yearning to see.

So, after the Panthers took a nose dive last season, it was almost in the cards for the Falcons to follow suit. If last season was Atlanta’s version of “The Wall”, you couldn’t blame fans for wondering if this would be “The Final Cut.”

Funny thing about sports, and I imagine it’s one of the reasons you enjoy it, is even when things work out almost exactly as you expect them to, the outcome somehow winds up to be completely different.

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