{"id":2704,"date":"2017-01-14T08:11:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T13:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2017-01-14T08:11:17","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T13:11:17","slug":"divisional-weekend-nfc-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2704","title":{"rendered":"DIVISIONAL WEEKEND – NFC (SATURDAY)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Wow, what a collective dud last week\u2019s wild card games were.\u00a0 All home teams won easily.\u00a0 Now, things get a little trickier (unless you\u2019re the Patriots). \u00a0Seriously, a 16 point favorite??? \u00a0I hate New England. \u00a0Anyway, let\u2019s look to today\u2019s NFC matchup.<\/p>\n

Seattle at Atlanta (-4.5), 4:35 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can Atlanta finally translate regular season dominance to post-season success?\u00a0 Atlanta won 7 of their last 8 and ran away with the NFC South title, and they did it with the one thing this team has lacked in past years:\u00a0 balance.\u00a0 You knew Julio would get his\u2026ending the year 2nd<\/sup> overall in receiving yards with 1,409. \u00a0 But now that have a running threat. \u00a0Devonta Freeman is a legitimate running back.\u00a0 He ran for over 1,000 yards, good for 9th<\/sup> overall.\u00a0 And, Matt Ryan had a fantasy<\/span> career resurgence, throwing for 4,944 yards, bested only by Drew Brees.\u00a0 Take note, NFL:\u00a0 You have a Top 10 rusher, receiver, and passer. \u00a0That equals balance, and balance gets you a bye and a home playoff game.<\/p>\n

\"Change<\/a>

Change of pace back my ass.<\/p><\/div>\n

You know what also helps?\u00a0 Scoring a shit ton of points.\u00a0 The Falcons lead the league averaging over 33 points a game.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the defense. \u00a0Perhaps more importantly, the Falcons have found balance defensively as well.\u00a0 Vic Beasley lead the NFL with 15.5 sacks.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Falcons have not been dominant at home.\u00a0 They were only 5-3 at home this year, and had a better road record of 6-2.<\/p>\n

Seattle has a losing record on the road this year.\u00a0 However, they are piquing at the right time.\u00a0 They looked dominant last week in their playoff win over the Lions, and found some balance of their own.\u00a0 Russell Wilson threw for 2 scores, Thomas Rawls ran for 161 yards, and Doug Baldwin topped 100 receiving yards.\u00a0 But they will have a much tougher task against the Falcons. \u00a0No doubt the matchup of the week will be these two:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Machine thinks, despite Matt Ryan\u2019s wretched 1-4 playoff record, that Atlanta just has too much firepower for the Seahawks to contain.\u00a0 The Legion of Boom is down a member, and will have their hands full with Julio and Co.\u00a0 The spread is set perfectly at 4.5 (it\u2019s like these Vegas guys know what they\u2019re doing).<\/p>\n

Final Score:\u00a0 Atlanta 28, Seattle 24<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I love the South.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, what a collective dud last week\u2019s wild card games were.\u00a0 All home teams won easily.\u00a0 Now, things get a little trickier (unless you\u2019re the Patriots). \u00a0Seriously, a 16 point favorite??? \u00a0I hate New England. \u00a0Anyway, let\u2019s look to today\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-HC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2709,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/2709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}