The Falcons have jumped out to a 2-0 start this season, mixing strong performances from both their offense and defense to beat two teams some believe will be contenders for playoff spots in the AFC.
They'll face their third straight AFC team on Sunday in the Chargers and hope to build on their strong start, but they believe there's still a lot of room to grow and improve even more. On Thursday tight end Tony Gonzalez said the offense that is tied for second in the league with 33.5 points per game can still be better.
"We've got to keep improving, there's no doubt about it," Gonzalez said. "Offensively, that's something I can speak to, we've got to put touchdowns on the board. ...Definitely there's room for improvement, a lot of improvement and we will improve."
The Falcons have scored in 13 of their 20 drives this season and the 2-0 start is just the second start like that under head coach Mike Smith. In 2009 they also began 2-0 on their way to a 9-7 season, despite numerous injuries to key players.
Though they've started strong, they don't see it as anything more. Some football pundits may say they're emerging as an early playoff pick, but Gonzalez said the way they've started is what they set out to do. It's nothing more than that.
"It's just a good start as far as I'm concerned and I think that's the mindset of this team," Gonzalez said. "We've got a long season. I've been on teams where we start out great and then we don't even make the playoffs. There's no way that we could allow ourselves to even think that we've arrived or anything like that. It's just a good start. It's what we wanted to do. It's what our goal was. We've just got to keep building on it."
