The Falcons try to claw their way back to .500 against the NFC South’s resident basement dweller.
The Atlanta Falcons just lost a winnable game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with all the major divisional implications that loss carries. To try to keep pace in a once-again competitive NFC South, they badly need to get back to .500 and win this next game.
That’ll involve knocking off another divisional opponent and moving their NFC South record to 4-1, which may help them down the line. The Carolina Panthers will host Atlanta, hoping to play spoiler in a way they weren’t able to against the Saints and Buccaneers the past two weeks. One of the worst teams in the league, the Panthers have managed to hang around against their divisional rivals but not finish the job, and the Falcons can’t become their first victim.
The last time these two teams met up, it was close until late, when the Falcons started piling up the points to win by 14, their largest margin of the season. A decisive road win against an inferior opponent would buoy the team’s confidence heading into a final three game stretch against the Colts, Bears, and Saints, but they can’t afford to look past the Panthers with the way they’ve been playing most of the season. It only takes a little catching fire in Carolina to earn the upset against a sloppy, injured Falcons squad, after all.
We’ll round up all our coverage for the week right here in this StoryStream, so keep it open!