Atlanta Falcons Win or Go Home on Sunday
By Kit Anderson
The Atlanta Falcons may have been the most frustrating football team in the NFL this season. Beating good teams only to lose to the likes of the Dolphins and Bills in very winnable games. Now the Falcons must win on Sunday if they hope to make the playoffs.
Winning Sunday determines how the Atlanta Falcons season will be thought of headed into the next season. While that may seem like a knee jerk reaction take a minute to consider the following. The Falcons are coming off of a crushing Super Bowl loss one that will take time for the Falcons to move past.
Beating the Panthers means the Falcons will make the playoffs with a 10-6 record despite one of the toughest schedules in the NFL. What happens after that would not determine whether the Falcons had a good season.
While that may seem silly to say outside of winning the Super Bowl or collapsing again the Falcons will do a lot to boost their confidence and give their fans hope for next season simply by winning Sunday’s game and getting into the playoffs.
The problem for the Falcons is the fact that their lethargic offense is struggling to put up points and their defense seems to have one kryptonite. Running quarterbacks, and the Panthers happen to have the very best one in the League.
Cam Newton and company are not going to come into Atlanta with a vanilla game plan either as they will be playing for their division if New Orleans were to stumble on Sunday.
For Atlanta to have a successful season they must prove they can win a big game on Sunday and beat the Panthers in Atlanta. If not and the Seahawks win as expected the Falcons will have a lot of questions to answer this off-season including ones about the coaching staff.