Through the first five weeks of the season, only one team has multiple wins against an NFC South team. After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers melted down on Thursday night, the Atlanta Falcons stand alone atop the division and have early control of an important tiebreaker.
Atlanta's win over Tampa Bay follows its victory over New Orleans. That gives the Falcons an advantage over everyone else, with a 2-0 divisional record. The Buccaneers have a chance to even things out with a win over the Saints next week, but New Orleans has the same incentive after losing to Atlanta.
It's entirely chaotic, but it also serves as a sort of feather in the cap of a division that typically gets written off as being nothing more than a motley crew of mediocre teams. The margin for error is already thin, and Falcons head coach Raheem Morris is sending a message to the rest of the NFC South after taking an early season lead.
Raheem Morris fires a helpful shot at the Buccaneers and the rest of the NFC South
After the Falcons overtime win over the Bucs, Morris spoke about how Atlanta plans to outrun the rest of the division -- because that's what is necessary to stay ahead of good teams.
“The importance of the division games are always of high magnitude," Morris said after the win. "We talked about outrunning the South and winning the South. The only way you can win the South is if you beat South opponents. That's always a bigger deal, especially getting two back-to-back like that in dramatic fashion. Then, being able to get a couple days off and go set up and get ready to play the next one.”
That's not exactly trash talk so much as it's a message that everyone in the division needs to hear. Atlanta controls the board for now, but a lot of things can change the rest of the way. Tampa Bay is licking its wounds, but by the start of November could be 3-1 in the NFC South despite how sour things taste right now.
Morris' message sort of feels like an evolved version of his Youngry swagger he oozed when coaching the Bucs over a decade ago. He's refined all of that into what we see in Atlanta now, which is the head coach we all hoped he might be in Tampa Bay but wasn't ready yet to be.
His message is directed at everyone, and the smart teams will listen. This division race is far from over and the Bucs needs to use both the loss to Atlanta and the message from its head coach as motivation.
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