BROWNS @ FALCONS
After 11 rounds who would have thought the (4-6) Atlanta Falcons would be atop of the NFC South Division with a winnable and important game for their season when the Cleveland Browns (6-4) come to the Georgia Dome on Sunday.
In what was a battle between two teams fighting for top spot in the division, the Falcons had one of their best performances of the year beating division rival the Carolina Panthers last week. The Falcons are a team that boast a few top end players that on their day can match it with a lot of teams in the League, none more important than QB Matt Ryan (pictured right). Ryan has been impressive under centre for the Falcons this year posting a 93.2 QB Rating, 17 Td's, 8 Interceptions and 2,793 passing yards. Defensively the Falcons are struggling this year. It has been a rough year for both the secondary and defensive line giving up a whopping 403.4 yards of offense per game to opponents and only managing 13 sacks and 9 interceptions as a whole. One diamond in the rough for the Falcons is Inside Linebacker Paul Worrilow with 97 tackles, 2 sacks and 2 forced fumbles after 11 weeks.
For the Cleveland Browns this season has been a coming out in sorts with the team finally managing consistency and a win loss ratio over .500. Much of their success can be credited to the fantastic play of the secondary with the browns 3rd in the league for interceptions with 14 total on
the season so far. Offensively the Browns regain their star wide receiver Josh Gordon from a 10 game suspension this week who will slot straight back into the number 1 receiver role and give QB Brian Hoyer (11 td's, 5 interceptions, 2,542 yards and a QB rating of 86.0) an instant playmaker and redzone threat.
Cleveland would rate their chances of walking away with a win against the below .500 Falcons in this match up but coming off two wins and now leading the NFC South division the Falcons should go into this game with plenty of confidence and underneath the Georgia Dome where they have beaten the New Orleans Saints this year why not? Pass Rush isn't the strength of either of these teams so it comes down to a battle of QB's vs Secondary's, The Falcons have the better QB but the Browns boast a better Secondary so expect this game to come down to who turns the ball over less and don't expect a shootout.
CLEVELAND by 3.
Tim Fernando