Atlanta Falcons Match Up Well Against the NFC South

Regardless of how the Falcons fare against non-divisional opponents, they have a great chance to improve their division record from a year ago.

Last year, the Falcons went 3-3 in their division, winning all three contests at home and losing all three games they played on the road.

Tampa Bay also had a 3-3 division record—and are the team that gave the Falcons the most trouble of all their divisional foes.

After beating the Falcons in Tampa Bay, the Bucs forced the second game into overtime—which was the only overtime game Atlanta played the whole season. In both games combined, the Bucs only allowed Atlanta to score one touchdown, forcing them to kick field goals every other time the Falcons got in the red zone.

This will be more difficult to accomplish with the addition of TE Tony Gonzalez.
Gonzalez scored all 10 of his TDs in the red zone last year, and will make it much harder for Tampa Bay’s defense to stack the line against running back Michael Turner when Atlanta gets inside the 20 yard line.

Tampa made improvements of its own this offseason by adding Byron Leftwich from last year’s Super Bowl squad and running back Derrick Ward from the previous Super Bowl winner.

Leftwich played well filling in for Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh last year, while Ward rushed for 1,025 yards with the Giants. The Falcons will need to score more than the 13 points they scored when these two teams met in Atlanta last year in order to beat the Bucs this upcoming season.

The New Orleans Saints were 2-4 in the division, despite having the league’s number-one offense last year. There weren’t many teams that could keep the Saints under 30 points but the Falcons managed to do it twice last season.

The only problem is that the Falcons may have to score 30 in order to beat them—and that may be a little harder to do this year.

The Saints are transitioning to an attacking 3-4 defense which they think will be beneficial to players like linebacker Jonathan Vilma.

Atlanta beat the Saints pretty handily at home and were close to beating them in New Orleans until Atlanta’s special teams allowed an 88-yard runback that set up the winning score for the Saints.

The Carolina Panthers won the division with a 4-2 record last season, and will be the favorites to win it again this season. They were able to hold Atlanta to nine points in Carolina—but the Falcons exploded for 45 points against the Panthers in Atlanta.

It’s not likely that the Falcons will have another 45-point scoring output against Carolina this year, but they will probably need to score around 30 in order to beat them again this season. Carolina scored 24 and 28, respectively, against the Falcons last year and have too many weapons on offense to be contained by the Falcon’s defense.

When these two teams meet this year, the Falcons will have to score better than the 24.4 points per game they averaged last year.

Neither team committed a turnover in their two meetings but Atlanta’s special teams played exceptionally well in both games. Atlanta also committed less penalties in the two games.

The NFC South will definitely be a tougher division this year—but expect the Falcons to be up to the task. I wouldn’t look for a sweep in such a competitive division, but I predict the Falcons will improve to at least a 4-2 record this season.