Atlanta Falcons: Week Seven Preview and Prediction
By Kit Anderson
The Atlanta Falcons are coming off a rough loss and are headed back home to Atlanta. Can the Falcons bounce back against the Chargers?
The Atlanta Falcons are headed back home this week after back to back games at two of the toughest places to play in football. They split the games against Denver and Seattle going 1-1 in two very tough environments. Last weeks loss to the Seahawks is thanks in part to the officials, but never the less will show up as a loss and a disadvantage to the Falcons moving forward.
This week the Falcons job will be much easier playing the Chargers at home. While outside of the Browns there is no such thing as a soft opponent in the NFL having the Chargers at home as opposed to being at Denver or at Seattle will hopefully be a much easier game for the Falcons to win.
The Chargers have had an odd season keeping all there games close but seemingly falling apart at the end of games giving up big leads or hitting some inevitable disaster late in games. That changed this past week with the Chargers upsetting Denver and gaining another win in the young season. They will have a hard time repeating this success in Atlanta.
Phillip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in the game but much like Drew Brees in New Orleans has little around him to help. He will keep the Chargers in this game for a time but Atlanta will not make it easy on him or the Charger’s offense.
One of the most underrated story lines of this young season for the Falcons if the way their defense has progressively improved throughout this season. Their bend but don’t break approach keeps the Falcons in games and is what allowed last weeks game in Seattle to remain close. Being down more than a score in Seattle without a solid defense often is game over. Due to the Falcon’s defensive approach they stayed in the game and put themselves back in the lead for a time.
The biggest change for the Falcons this week will be facing a San Diego defense that is much softer than what they have seen the last two weeks of the season and that along with home field advantage will be the deciding factor in this game.
Next: Players the Braves Need to Add
Final score prediction Falcons-31 Chargers-21. In the end Matt Ryan’s MVP like performance will continue and the Falcons will pull away late and continue to prove that they are real contenders this season. The game will kick off at 4:05 on FOX.