NFL Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons Win Big In A State Of Desperation

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steven jackson

Dale Zanine- USA Today Sports

If anyone would have told me last Sunday that the Atlanta Falcons would immediately bounce back after their Week 12 debacle against the Cleveland Browns, I would have thought they were delirious. Well, it looks like I would have been eating crow at this point.

The Falcons came into Week 13 in desperate need of a win against the Arizona Cardinals, who too was coming off a crushing defeat against their divisional foe Seattle Seahawks in the previous week. You can label this game against Arizona whatever you want, but this game was a “redemption game” for coach Mike Smith and the coaching staff after poor clock management and misuse of timeouts on their last drive last week resulted in Atlanta gift-wrapping a win to the Browns.

I must give credit where credit is due. Outside of throwing a pick six in the second quarter, Matt Ryan played excellent, throwing for 350-plus yards. Julio Jones and Harry Douglas absolutely lit up Arizona’s potent secondary led by phenom corner Patrick Peterson.

Defensively, Atlanta played solid as well with a pair of interceptions from their secondary. Let’s not forget — kudos to Steven Jackson, who ran for 101 yards on a Cardinals defense who is in the top-five in the NFL in stopping the run.

Sure enough, the Falcons had all of the ingredients this week and executed the game plan against Arizona. However, this was not just another win. This win against Arizona could potentially salvage the Falcons’ season and has playoff and divisional title implications.

With the victory, the Falcons are sitting in a tie for first place in the NFC South with the New Orleans Saints despite an awkward 5-7 record. The last time an NFL squad went to the playoffs with a sub .500 record was in 2010 when the Seattle Seahawks made it and actually upset, ironically, the Saints in the wild card round that year.

I’m not trying to make any predictions by saying the Falcons will replicate those results this season. I’m not even predicting the Falcons will finish 7-9 and defy all odds by advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs. All I know is that the Falcons need to approach the final four games of the season on a week-by-week basis being that they have small margin of error at this point.

Next week, Atlanta will go on the road to face the Green Bay Packers. The Falcons need to go out and display the same type off effort used to defeat Arizona in order to have any shot at beating Green Bay. As solid as Atlanta’s secondary has been playing as of late, they are going up against Aaron Rodgers. One thing about Rodgers is that he makes very — I mean very — few miscalculated throws. The fact that he has only thrown three interceptions twelve weeks into the season and has not thrown a pick since Week 8 (again, ironically to New Orleans) is mind-blowing.

Ultimately, this upcoming game against the Packers will be an offensive showdown. At any rate, it is another must-win for the Falcons, but it will not be easy, that is for sure.

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