It's a bit of letdown that the Seattle Seahawks won't be gracing the Atlanta Falcons with their presence in Saturday's NFL Playoffs divisional round, but that's just me being greedy. At the end of the day, the two biggest threats to the Falcons hoisting the Lombardi Trophy - and the two teams responsible for two of their losses this year - both played their final games of the season, with the New Orleans Saints losing Saturday and the Philadelphia Eagles falling Sunday. The Falcons remaining NFC competition includes the Chicago Bears, the Seattle Seahawks and their opponent on Saturday, the Green Bay Packers.
In an edge-of-your-seat-we-are-going-to-lose-oh-wait-I-knew-we-were-going-to-win game, the Falcons beat the Packers 20-17 behind a fortuitous special teams penalty and a Matt Bryant field goal. The Packers lost despite outgaining the Falcons 418 to 294, and that was before they found a running game. In their Week 12 meeting, Green Bay players not named Aaron Rodgers managed only 26 yards on the ground, but with the emergence of James Starks (123 yards vs. Philly), the Packers are suddenly multi-dimensional.
By all accounts, this is the toughest game the Falcons will have prior to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks played out of their minds against the Saints - and we thank them for that - but no one believes they could translate that performance into three straight playoff road wins. The Bears are the only other team that could play a game of No Respect poker with the Falcons and actually keep pace, but they'd as well be underdogs in Atlanta.
A home win against the Packers brings the Falcons one step closer to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1998 and would give them their third straight win over the Packers. Much more on this game throughout the week.
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