Atlanta Falcons' primetime TV stretch set to annoy NFL fans across the country

There's a pretty good chance that you have not yet been subjected to watching Atlanta Falcons football this year.

That is mostly for the best, as Atlanta Falcons football has not been very pretty this year. While the main story of the Falcons' offseason was whether newly acquired Tua Tagovailoa or second-year Falcon Michael Penix Jr. would secure the starting job at quarterback, it turned out that neither of them would suit up in Week 1 as both were dealing with injuries. That left third-stringer Cooper Rush as the man under center to open the season, backed up by undrafted rookie Jack Strand.

As is often the case when starting a third-string quarterback in the NFL, it did not go well. Atlanta was able to hang around with the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1, but Rush threw a pick-six right into the hands of T.J. Watt for the game-losing score. In Week 2, the Falcons managed just three points against a Carolina Panthers defense that gave up 59 points to the Chicago Bears last week. Rush turned the ball over three times, and was eventually replaced by Strand. Final score: 34–3.

And that catches you up on Falcons football thus far this season. Unfortunately for the football-watching nation, we're about to watch a whole lot more of the Falcons in the coming weeks thanks to a quirk of the schedule.

Atlanta plays its next three games in a national window, traveling to the Green Bay Packers for Thursday Night Football later this week, then heading to New Orleans for Monday Night Football in Week 4, and capping off the run by hosting Baltimore on Sunday Night Football in Week 5. That is a whole lot of Falcons football.

Fans expressed their low expectations for the coming weeks on social media.

There may be some relief coming for football fans though, as ESPN's Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter reported that there is a chance that Penix is ready to go for Thursday's game against the Packers. While that would likely mark an improvement in quarterback play from what we've seen from the Falcons so far this season, making your return from injury on a short week with minimal offseason reps is not exactly a recipe for success either.

These kind of stretches are somewhat inevitable given how many national windows exist now. With games every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night, not to mention a few Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays now, and the Sunday morning international window, sometimes teams are going to wind up playing to a national audience a few times in a row, and if that team is struggling through injuries, or simply just struggling, things can get ugly.

While the Falcons' run on national television windows is not great news for football fans, it also might be pretty bad news for the Falcons. Already sitting at 0–2 on the season despite playing two beatable teams, Atlanta might be left to fall all the way to 0–5 to start the season as the whole country watches.