Last week the Atlanta Falcons were huge favorites over the San Francisco 49ers. Why shouldn't they be? They were coming off an upset of the New Orleans Saints on the road and the 49ers had yet to win a game. As it turned out the game was a lot closer than many expected but that hasn't deterred the experts from showering the Falcons with prediction love again in Week 5.
Source | Winner | Notes |
ESPN Consensus | Falcons | All 10 experts picked the Falcons. |
Yahoo Sports Consensus | Falcons | Three of four (including Fan vote) picked the Falcons. Only Les Carpenter thinks the Browns pull the upset. |
CBS Sports Consensus | Falcons | A clean sweept for the Falcons as all five experts pick Atlanta. |
Fanhouse | Falcons | Dave Goldberg foresees a projected score of Falcons 17, Cleveland 15. |
What If Sports | Falcons | Projection reveals a three-point Falcons win, 23-20. |
Sports Illustrated | Browns | Peter King: Eric Mangini on this generation's Norm Bulaich, Browns jumbo back Peyton Hillis: "Even I avoid him in the hallway.'' I say Hillis eats enough of the clock against the Falcons to make this my upset special. |
USA Today | Falcons | All eight experts picked the Falcons. |
Sporting News | Falcons | Vinnie Iyer: Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez will cause problems for the Browns' secondary. Then Michael Turner will seal the deal. Falcons 24, Browns 20. |
For those of scoring at home, that's 29 experts in the Falcons corner with only two (Les Carpenter and Peter King) picking the Browns. It's getting really hard to keep playing the "no respect" card when the national media keeps giving the Falcons... well, respect.