NFL Tickets
TV Schedule: Sunday, November 1, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOX
Stadium: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Ga.
Current Line: Falcons (-7.5)
If you didn’t have any reservations about the Atlanta Falcons before last week, you certainly have them now. While they did scrape by with a 10-7 win against the Tennessee Titans, Matt Ryan and company couldn’t translate their average days into points. Fortunately, the defense was able to hold Zach Mettenberger to a single touchdown pass and eke out the win. It’s also important to note the absence of Leonard Hankerson; as a result, nearly half of Ryan’s targets went to Julio Jones and that’s going to hamstring the offense plenty.
That being said, the Falcons’ offense still comes into this game owning the advantage across the board. The Falcons boast potent offensive stats, ranking inside the top five while averaging 27.5 points per game. Devonta Freeman has close to 1,000 combined yards and nine touchdowns, while Jones is just about tops in the league in receiving yards and touchdowns. Hankerson is still very iffy for this game, so it’s possible that without a Roddy White resurgence, Atlanta could be stuck feeding the ball to Jones and Freeman again and struggle to put up points.
Dan Quinn’s defense was the belle of the ball last week, and could very well be counted on like that again this week. The Falcons’ defense only let the Titans convert one of their nine third-down tries and had two very key, very well-timed interceptions to ice the game. Jameis Winston is notably turnover-prone, so I expect them to have themselves a day on that front.
The Buccaneers, meanwhile, had themselves a very bad day in Washington. It certainly wasn’t anyone’s fault except the defense — Winston had a solid performance with 297 yards and two touchdowns. The first half he had should have been more than enough to win. Doug Martin had a good day too with 171 total yards.
As much as I think the Buccaneers’ offense has potential, I don’t think they’ll have as good a week this time around. The Buccaneers are sort of in the same boat as Atlanta is offensively; with Vincent Jackson expected to be out, they really only have Mike Evans and Martin to move the ball. Winston will have to play mistake-free ball again to keep his team competitive.
Defensively, the Buccaneers had no answer for Jordan Reed which is a huge red flag. When they should have stood on Washington’s throat, they got gashed and let one slip through the cracks. There was no pressure, bad decisions in the secondary, and entirely too much dysfunction for a squad that has been lacking discipline all season long. If they can bomb that badly against a team like the Redskins, I don’t see how you can feel good about them in this game.
I think this game will come down this question: Will the Falcons stop Martin and Evans better than the Buccaneers stop Jones and Freeman? Personally, I think Atlanta has the edge that will ultimately give them the game. This will be a close, hard-fought game, but I’m taking the Falcons.
Prediction: Falcons 23, Buccaneers 17
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