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Atlanta Falcons Can’t Afford Another Loss to Tampa Bay

By John Buhler

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The Atlanta Falcons have to end their current four-game losing streak down in Tampa on Sunday. The Falcons can’t afford to go 0-2 versus the Bucs in 2015.

The losing is getting old. The losing of consecutive ‘must-win’ games is getting old. If the 6-5 Atlanta Falcons want to take back control of their 2015 NFL season, they absolutely have to beat their division rival in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

Atlanta can’t seem to get out its own way in the last month and a half, losers of five of their last six games. The club’s lone win during this awful stretch came against arguably the worst team in the AFC against the now 2-9 Tennessee Titans. If there is ever a time to win a game, it is Sunday down in Tampa against a Bucs team that doesn’t play particularly well at home.

-= Related: Atlanta Falcons Lose 4th Straight Game, 20-10 to Vikings =-

While I said previously that 10-6 would guarantee an NFC Wild Card berth, that win total may have dropped to 9-7 with the Atlanta Falcons’ most recent loss to the now 8-3 Minnesota Vikings. Entering Week 13, the Atlanta Falcons have an identical record with the reigning NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks at 6-5, good enough for 6th place in the NFC.

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Seattle has clawed their way back to playoff contention after a rocky start to 2015, but losing RB Marshawn Lynch and TE Jimmy Graham for the season does not bode well for HC Pete Carroll’s team in the Pacific Northwest. Atlanta is ruining a great opportunity to make the NFC Playoffs with several 5-6 teams nipping at their heels as we enter the final weeks of the 2015 NFL season.

Of all the games left on the Atlanta Falcons’ 2015 schedule, their date with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday is the most important game of the season for so many reasons. A loss to Tampa Bay would give the Bucs a convincing 2-0 lead over Atlanta in 2015. That would also ensure that Tampa Bay would not only hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Atlanta Falcons, but it would guarantee that the Bucs would finish with a better overall record in NFC South play.

Tampa would finish no worse than 3-3 in NFC South play, while Atlanta could do not better than 3-3. Keep in mind that the Atlanta Falcons still have two more dates with the undefeated NFC-leading Carolina Panthers. A loss to Tampa Bay would also lock up a third straight division title for the Carolina Panthers. Only Atlanta can challenge Carolina for the NFC South title, but that would mean that the Falcons would have to win out and the Panthers would have to drop their final five games. That would include a season sweep by the reeling Atlanta Falcons.

It seems strange, but a road loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would feel like the final nail in the coffin for the 2015 Atlanta Falcons’ NFC Playoff aspirations, despite both teams being 6-6 with 4 games remaining. All hope in this team will evaporate with a fifth consecutive loss. Finishing at 8-8 would even seem like a stretch at that point. That would mean the Falcons would have to beat Jacksonville on the road and New Orleans at home because a win over the Panthers would seem almost improbable.

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The Atlanta Falcons are running out of opportunities to make the playoffs. Going against QB Jameis Winston and the Dirk Koetter offense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers doesn’t seem like a lot of fun in Week 13. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that the Atlanta Falcons would become a defensive team and have a worse offense than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Atlanta has to beat Tampa Bay on Sunday or the dreams of making the playoffs this year are just that: dreams.

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