With the Green Bay Packers’ 42-24 victory over the Houston Texans this past Sunday night, the Atlanta Falcons are now the lone undefeated team in the NFL.
Atlanta is cruising at 6-0 right now and 1-0 in the division. In fact, this is their first 6-0 start to a season in franchise history.
The Falcons defeated the Oakland Raiders this past Sunday on a Matt Bryant 55-yard field goal at the end of the game. Atlanta had some difficulties with the Raiders and was pushed to the limit, almost losing the game near the end.
Even when Asante Samuel scored a touchdown on a 79 yard interception return with 2:40 left in the game to go up 20-13, the Falcons still gave up a late touchdown to the Raiders as they marched 80 yards down the field to tie the game 20-20 with 41 seconds left. Not exactly what you want to see out of the best team in the league.
However, at this point every team will be giving 100% when playing Atlanta. And besides, in the NFL a win is a win, it doesn’t matter how you come across it. This has been a season where there isn’t a clear “favorite” in the NFL. Not one team particularly stands out as the best in the league. Even with the Falcons at 6-0, there are some analysts that don’t believe Atlanta is the best team in the league, or even the best team in the NFC for that matter.
Some people believe that the defending champion New York Giants are still the team to beat in the NFC, or maybe one of the NFC North teams. And even though the Falcons are 6-0, some still say that the San Francisco 49ers are still the top team in the NFC, even with their two losses to the Vikings and the Giants.
Ultimately, it is still too early to tell. Next week the Falcons could lose their first game of the season but still be viewed as one of the top teams. At this point anything is possible and nothing should come as a surprise, you never know what can happen.
This week the Falcons are on their bye before they travel to Philadelphia to face off against Michael Vick and the Eagles next week, by no means an easy game for Atlanta. In fact, the Falcons have already played the easier part of their schedule; it only gets tougher as the season goes on. After the Eagles game next weekend the Falcons host the Dallas Cowboys and then travel to New Orleans to take on their division rival Saints. The Falcons still have to play the Saints and Buccaneers twice as well as one more meeting with the Carolina Panthers.
Outside of their division they have to travel to Detroit in week 16 and play host to Arizona in week 11 and a big matchup in the Georgia dome in week 15 when they host the defending champion New York Giants.
The Falcons are more than capable of finishing the season as the number 1 seed in the NFC, but even if they do that, let’s not forget what happened a few years ago when Atlanta cruised into the playoffs as the number 1 seed with a 13-3 record. Having a great regular season, as the Falcons are doing now, means nothing if you can’t take care of business in the playoffs; hopefully Atlanta will do some damage in the playoffs this year.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.
