The Falcons aren't in the playoffs yet, but if they get in, they're a team I'd want to avoid if I were in the NFC.
After a dominating 30-14 win over New Orleans on Sunday, the only thing standing between Atlanta and playoff berth is a Week 17 winner-take-all NFC South showdown against the Panthers -- and that showdown's in Atlanta.
The Falcons set up the big Week 17 game by manhandling the Saints in New Orleans, a place where they'd only won once since 2004.
The most surprising part of the win was that the Falcons defense actually showed up. Atlanta went into the game ranked dead last in the NFL in total defense and it was dead, dead last, not just dead last. However, the defense came up big in the Big Easy.
The Falcons forced three turnovers and sacked Drew Brees five times in the win. Not only was Atlanta's sack total its highest of the season, but it was almost one-third of the Falcons total in their first 14 games combined. Before sacking Brees five times on Sunday, the Falcons had only sacked opposing quarterbacks 16 times all season.
Although Atlanta's impressive defensive showing was a complete surprise, the offensive showing wasn't -- and that's what should scare potential playoff opponents.
Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are two players that can keep the Falcons in any game. Jones caught several big passes against the Saints, including a huge 24-yarder that took the Falcons down to New Orleans' 3-yard line with only eight seconds left before halftime. That gave Atlanta time to run one play, a play the Falcons used to score a touchdown on, allowing them to take a 13-7 lead into the half.
If the Falcons do sneak into the playoffs with a 7-9 record, chances are, they're going to be confident -- and they should be.
Since Week 8, the Falcons have played the Cardinals, Lions and Packers -- all teams they could potentially play in a first-round playoff game. The Falcons have already beaten the Cardinals once and they know they can play with the Lions after losing a 22-21 heartbreaker in London.
The Falcons also lost a 43-37 Monday night shootout to the Packers, but that game was in Green Bay. If the Falcons beat the Panthers next week and improve to 7-9, they'll be hosting a game in the wild card round as the NFC South champion.
And let's not forget, once you get to the playoffs, 7-9 means nothing, just ask the 2010 Seahawks. After winning the NFC West with a 7-9 record in 2010, the Seahawks knocked off an 11-5 Saints team in Seattle in the wild card round.
After starting 2-6, it seems almost impossible to think of the Falcons as a dangerous team, but if they beat Carolina, they're not a team I'd want to see in the postseason.
| Team | Grade | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Broncos at Bengals | ||
| D- | The story of the night was Peyton Manning doing his Andy Dalton impression and then some. The 38-year-old quarterback threw four interceptions and the final two were back-breakers. But it's not like the offensive line, special teams or run defense did him any favors. Denver has a lot to sort out between now and the playoffs. | |
| A | Huge win and it came on national television. Andy Dalton's record in such games (including the playoffs) is now 3-9, so that's something. More importantly, Jeremy Hill continues to impress and the defense got after Manning all night long. If the Bengals beat the Steelers next week, and the Broncos lose to the Raiders, Cincy will move into the No. 2 seed. | |
| Seahawks 35, Cardinals 6 | ||
| A+ | The Seahawks entire roster went Beast Mode on the Cardinals. Seattle totaled 596 yards, breaking the franchise record of 591 yards that had stood since 2002. Russell Wilson and the Seahawks defense were both amazing, but it was Marshawn Lynch who stole the show with a 79-yard touchdown run that was "Better than the Beastquake," according to Wilson. | |
| F | No one expected a team quarterbacked by Ryan Lindley to go out and beat the Seahawks, but that doesn't explain the complete and total breakdown suffered by the Cardinals defense on Sunday. Arizona couldn't stop anyone and will now likely be heading on the road for the first round of playoffs. | |
| Falcons 30, Saints 14 | ||
| A | A healthy Julio Jones is almost impossible to stop. After sitting out last week, Jones returned to catch seven passes for 107 yards in the win. The best news for the Falcons is that Matt Ryan has been on fire lately and he stayed hot on Sunday (30 of 40, 322 yards, one touchdown). | |
| D | The Saints offense has been ugly this season, so it's fitting that their playoff hopes ended with an ugly offensive performance. The Saints turned the ball over three times in the fourth quarter, which means Sean Payton should probably be yelling at someone besides defensive coordinator Rob Ryan after this loss. | |
| Steelers 20, Chiefs 12 | ||
| C | The usually conservative Andy Reid pulled out all the stops against the Steelers, but it wasn't enough. The Chiefs ran a successful fake field goal, but they were also unsuccessful on a fourth down attempt from the Steelers 12-yard line in the second quarter. The big problem for the Chiefs in this game though was their inability to get anything resembling a running game going. | |
| B | The Steelers offense struggled against Kansas City, but it didn't matter because the Pittsburgh defense brought its 'A' game. The Steelers sacked Alex Smith six times and held Jamaal Charles to his lowest rushing total since 2012 (29 yards) in a game where he had nine or more carries. Thanks to the win, the Steelers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2011. | |
| Texans 25, Ravens 13 | ||
| F | Joe Flacco's quarterback rating at halftime on Sunday was 0.0 -- and things didn't get much better after that. Flacco threw three picks in the game and was pretty much outplayed by Houston's third-string quarterback, Case Keenum. | |
| B+ | J.J. Watt might not win the MVP award, but he's going to make it as difficult as possible for voters. Watt recorded one sack and three tackles for a loss in the game. Offensively, the star of the game for Houston was Arian Foster, who rushed for 96 yards and THREW a touchdown pass. | |
| Packers 20, Buccaneers 3 | ||
| B | Aaron Rodgers was slightly under the weather against the Buccaneers, but that didn't seem to slow him down. Rodgers threw for 318 yards as the Packers clinched a playoff berth for the sixth straight year. | |
| D | The Buccaneers have played some ugly games in franchise history, but this was one of the ugliest. Tampa had ZERO offensive yards with five minutes left in the second quarter and finished with 109, the team's second lowest total since 1992. The Buccaneers have had some horrible teams since 1992, so putting up the second lowest offensive total in 22 years is about as ugly as it gets. | |
| Dolphins 37, Vikings 35 | ||
| B | The Vikings might have lost, but they have to feel good about Teddy Bridgewater being their quarterback of the future. Bridgewater looked sharp and completed over 70 percent of his passes (19 of 26) for the fourth straight game. | |
| B+ | It appears that the best game of Ryan Tannehill's career has saved Joe Philbin's job. Tannehill threw a career-high four touchdown passes and added 396 yards (the second-highest total of his career) in the win. The good news for Philbin is that after the game, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross announced that Philbin would be sticking around for another season. Merry Christmas, Miami! | |
| Lions 20, Bears 14 | ||
| C | There was a quarterback in this game making his first start in four years and for the first two quarters, it looked like Matthew Stafford. Stafford threw two first half picks before returning to his bread-and-butter: Calvin Johnson. Megatron finished with six catches for 103 yards. | |
| C+ | Whatever the expectations were for Jimmy Clausen going into Sunday's game, he exceeded them. Going up against the No. 2 defense in the NFL, Clausen kept the Bears in the game with two touchdown passes and 181 yards passing, numbers that would've been bigger if the Bears receivers hadn't dropped seven passes. | |
| Panthers 17, Browns 13 | ||
| C- | The most frustrating thing for the Browns coming out of this loss is probably the fact that they still don't know if Johnny Football can actually play football. Manziel was 3 of 8 for 32 yards before being knocked out of the game after a huge hit in the second quarter. | |
| B | Jonathan Stewart picked a good time to have his second biggest game of the season. The Panthers running back rushed for 122 yards, including a 30-yard run on third down with under two minutes left that sealed the win. Stewart also had a touchdown catch. | |
| Patriots 17, Jets 16 | ||
| C | Tom Brady got beat up, the Patriots had no running game, but New England was still able to pull out the win thanks to a great performance from -- who am I kidding, no one had a great performance. Sometimes you win ugly and that's what the Patriots did against the Jets. | |
| C | The Jets loss to the Patriots was the team's seventh one-score loss of the season. Rex Ryan won't have much to hang his hat on after his likely firing next week, but he'll likely feel good about the fact his team didn't quit on him. | |
| Giants 37, Rams 27 | ||
| A | It appears that Eli Manning has personally taken it upon himself to save Tom Coughlin's job. Eli threw for 391 yards and three touchdowns against St. Louis. The Giants 37 points was impressive because it came against a Rams defense that had only given up an average of 9.2 points per game over the past five weeks, including a Week 11 game where the Rams held Peyton Manning to seven points. | |
| C | After looking historically good over the past five weeks, the Rams defense was historically bad against the Giants. New York put up 514 yards on the Rams, the most St. Louis has given up since 2011 and the third most since 1997. | |
| Raiders 26, Bills 24 | ||
| D | Letting Kyle Orton throw the ball 49 times is not a way to win games in the NFL. Doug Marrone found that out in Oakland and now the Bills are eliminated from postseason contention. | |
| B+ | The Bills defense shut down Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, but it couldn't shut down Derek Carr. The rookie quarterback threw two touchdown passes and all of the sudden the Raiders will take a three-game home winning streak into 2015. That might not sound like much to build on, but this is the Raiders we're talking about, a team that's building on anything they can. | |
| Cowboys 42, Colts 7 | ||
| F | Andrew Luck was pulled in the third quarter, the Colts only rushed for one yard and the Indy defense gave up a 43-yad touchdown pass to Brandon Weeden. That about sums up the horribleness that was the Colts on Sunday. | |
| A+ | When the Cowboys have needed a big December win under Jason Garrett, they usually don't manage to get it, but this December has been different. Tony Romo was almost perfect (18 of 20, 218 yards, four touchdowns) as the Cowboys rolled Indy and won their first NFC East title since 2009. | |
| Redskins 27, Eagles 24 | ||
| D | There's a lot blame to go around in this loss for the Eagles. Mark Sanchez threw a pivotal fourth quarter interception, the offensive line didn't block in the first half (three sacks), kicker Cody Parkey had his worst game of the season (1 of 3) and Bradley Fletcher -- well, let's just say Fletcher and Parkey might be looking for jobs soon. | |
| B | It's amazing what the Redskins offense can do when RG3 hooks up with DeSean Jackson and Alfred Morris averages four yards per carry. On the other end, the Redskins defense got lit up to the tune of 495 yards, but they saved face by forcing two huge turnovers that led directly to two Kai Forbath field goals. | |
| Chargers 38, 49ers 35 OT | ||
| B- | Not everything Philip Rivers does is pretty and Saturday's win was a perfect example of that. Rivers threw three interceptions against the 49ers -- including a second quarter pick-six -- but he rebounded by throwing for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the second half and overtime combined. Overall, Rivers finished 33 of 54 for 356 yards and four touchdowns in the game. | |
| C- | It's not easy to blow a 21-point lead in the NFL and it's also not easy to lose after rushing for over 300 yards. The 49ers managed to do both against San Diego. The 49ers rushed for 355 yards, which is the highest total in NFL history for a team that lost. The 49ers also became just the fifth team this season to blow a 21-point lead. | |
| Jaguars 21, Titans 13 | ||
| C- | The Titans lost, but they also sorta won. By falling to 2-13 on the season and watching Jacksonville shoot up to 3-12, Tennessee moved ahead of the Jaguars in the 2015 draft order. As of now, Tennessee is still in contention to land the No. 1 overall pick. More so than anything else that happened in this game, that's the most important takeaway from the Titans loss. | |
| B | At times, the Jaguars looked explosive, especially during Jordan Todman's 62-yard touchdown run or when Blake Bortles was converting long third downs. After allowing the Titans to score a touchdown on the game's opening drive, the Jaguars defense clamped down on Tennessee for most of the game. It wasn't always pretty, but this was a nice win for Jacksonville. | |