Three of Atlanta's Nine Questionables Played Last Sunday

Nine Atlanta players carry a Questionable designation on the league injury board, and Thursday's participation report has not landed. The newest Atlanta row is timestamped 8:12 on Wednesday evening. Three of the nine rows carry a practice note and all three describe Wednesday; the other six carry no note at all; and four rows across both clubs still point forward at practices that have not happened. Everything below is the Wednesday board, read Thursday morning, three days before a division road game.

Three of the nine were on the field last Sunday

Charles Snowden (47) is Questionable with a back injury and recorded 1 tackle against San Francisco. LaCale London (94) — the defensive end, not Drake London — is Questionable with a chest injury and recorded 3 tackles. Jawaan Taylor (71) is Questionable with a hamstring and turns up once in the Week 7 play-by-play, drawing an offensive holding penalty — the only evidence of his participation the box score contains. What any of the three was designated going into that game is not on the board I can read; it carries this week's rows, and the Week 7 game file repeats them.

Six were not. Divine Deablo, Olamide Zaccheaus, Samson Ebukam, Avieon Terrell (12) and Billy Bowman Jr. are absent from the Week 7 box score entirely. Brian Robinson Jr. (15) takes one more step: no carries, no targets, no receptions, and no line anywhere in the play-by-play, where all 28 Robinson tags read Bi.Robinson — that is Bijan Robinson (7). Khalil Herbert's board row says he was there to cover the absence. The one stray row ESPN files under Brian Robinson's name is bookkeeping, not participation; center Ryan Neuzil (64) carries an identical one.

Zaccheaus is the cleanest case on the board. He practised limited three consecutive days before that game, was inactive anyway, and is limited again this week. Four days ago this group of nine split one in three.

The position where both of these teams are thin

Divine Deablo has not practised since he was hurt in the Week 6 loss to Chicago, 11 days ago. He finished that game with 4 tackles, then missed the San Francisco win, where Harold Perkins Jr. made his first NFL start in his place and recorded 9 tackles. That is one full week of preparation lost plus this one in progress, and one game. ESPN's note says he would need at least limited participation by Friday. Snowden, who played Sunday, is the only other linebacker among the nine.

Tampa Bay are short at the same spot. Josiah Trotter, named on the board as one of their two starting inside linebackers, missed the first practice of the week with an illness. Christian Rozeboom behind him is on injured reserve and will miss at least four games with a finger injury — read from the row's own text, not its date. Two clubs walk into a division game with a hole in the middle of the defense.

Then the number that looks like a typo

Tampa Bay are 2-5 with a point differential of plus 11. I ran this operation yesterday on Atlanta's own minus two, so I will say plainly that this is twice in two days: take the aggregate apart and find which games carry it.

One game does. Tampa Bay 43, Carolina 13, on the road on October 25, is worth plus 30 by itself; strip it out and they are 1-5 at minus 19. And nobody has beaten them by more than a touchdown: their five defeats came by 3, 4, 6, 7 and 7 points. Wins plus 38, losses minus 27, net plus 11 — the split closes exactly.

So this is neither a bad team flattered by one afternoon nor a good team with bad luck. It has finished within eight points in six of seven games and once won by 30 on the road. In four tries at Raymond James Stadium, where Sunday's game is, it has not won. Atlanta are 1-3 at home and 2-1 away. Four games and three is a thin sample, but the obvious read of a road game as the harder assignment is inverted for both clubs.

What the designations touch

The names that reach my own argument are the running back and the ends. I put it on the record Sunday night: the defense created the San Francisco win and the offense did not — 295 yards, 2.8 a carry, 4-of-12 on third down — and the test is whether Atlanta can move the ball without takeaways. Brian Robinson Jr. has not practised since last Wednesday, and the contingency behind Bijan Robinson is a practice-squad elevation rather than a man already on the active roster. Ebukam and LaCale London are two of the ends in a front I argued in August wants to rush four without having the four to do it with.

Kevin Stefanski has two more practices to find out which of the nine he has. Everyone else gets Friday's report, the first one carrying any forecasting weight. Nine Questionable names three days out is a practice week, not an emergency; it is the test I set on Sunday night arriving at 1 p.m. EST in Tampa with an unknown number of people to take it.