Early Seahawks versus Falcons Preview
This Sunday the Atlanta Falcons will take on the Seattle Seahawks in a highly anticipated NFC playoff match. This game will determine who moves onto the NFC Championship game.
The Seahawks are red hot at the moment coming off a huge win against the Washington Redskins. The Falcons got a bye out of the Wild Card games so they have had a couple weeks of rest. However, they ended their season on a low note losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I for one am surprised at how close book makers have set the odds for this game. The Seahawks are the underdogs just by a +1 point spread. Also, many sports writers are predicting that the Seahawks are going to win this game. It feels like that the Seahawks, having to over come the Wild Card and with a rookie quarterback at the helm, should be a huge underdog in this game, but they are not. The reason they are not is simply the style of football they play is perfectly suited to beat the Falcons.First on defense, they have fourth ranked defense in the NFL. Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman will be up against Matt Ryan’s two favorite targets Julio Jones and Roddy White. It will be an interesting match up, but no one doubts that Browner and Sherman will be able to keep up with the Falcons stand out wideouts.
Also, the Falcons are not a running football team. They are 29th in the league in rushing. The Seahawks defensive line will not only stifle any running attempts made by the Falcons but will also put pressure on Ryan.
If the defense is able to stay off the field by enacting the strategy above that will keep the ball in the hands of the Seahawks offense. The Seahawks do not hurry to the red zone. They slowly gain every yard they can, often converting on third downs consistently and they run the ball a lot. This style of offense chews up clock. It was this style of play that led to the Seahawks win against the Redskins. It will also be this style of play that could give the Seahawks the win over the Falcons.
The current money line in this game is +110 for the Seahawks and -130 for the Falcons. The over/under is 46 points. The game is on Sunday at starts at 1 p.m. ET.
