Hoping to get back on track from their loss in Week 3, the Atlanta Falcons are back on the field this Sunday afternoon.
Atlanta will play host to their most hated division rival New Orleans Saints at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. ET and you can catch the game LIVE on FOX, NFL Sunday Ticket and other various streaming platforms.
Both teams are coming off of somewhat close losses in their respective games. The Saints fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, with running back Saquon Barkley leading the way for Philadelphia. Saints quarterback Derek Carr had a bit of a rough outing compared to prior weeks, having recorded only 142 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception.
The Falcons on the other hand, fell just short to the Kansas City Chiefs on ‘Sunday Night Football’. Atlanta’s offense showed some bright spots including wide receiver Drake London catching a touchdown on the team’s opening drive to take an early 7-0 lead. The offensive line began to struggle at the line of scrimmage after two starters – RT Kaleb McGary and C Drew Dalman – left the game just before halftime. At the end of the day, Atlanta showed some good things as well as some bad things and they should only be able to grow and improve from here on out.
Before we see the opening kickoff, however, we will take a look at four bold predictions that could take place at any point during the game for the Falcons:
Falcons Pass-Rush Capitalizes
The time has finally come for the Falcons defense to light it up, specifically at the line of scrimmage.
Heading into this game, the Saints took a blow to their offensive line when Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy suffered a groin injury, sidelining the veteran for the next six to eight weeks. Another key piece to New Orleans’ offensive line, guard Cesar Ruiz, was ruled out with a knee injury. While this is bad news for New Orleans, this could be the turning point for a Falcons pass rush waiting to dominate.
Through the first three weeks of the season thus far, Atlanta has recorded just three sacks and I predict that number to expand a little bit more after this matchup. While it is mostly expected for the Falcons to feast on this offensive line, I’m still going to include this. What I’m going to boldly predict is exactly how much they eat.
The Falcons have a prime spot to take advantage and see outside linebacker Matt Judon and Co. destroy the game up front with at least five sacks.
Kirk Cousins Shows Off Arm Talent
Through the first three games, Kirk Cousins has had rather mediocre performances.
His best statistical game came in Week 2 when he notched 241 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. However, Cousins has only four passing touchdowns on the season thus far and I could see the veteran quarterback achieve close to that in just one game.
I will predict Cousins to have a breakout performance so to speak, by achieving over 300 passing yards with three passing touchdowns and remind everyone why Atlanta paid him the big bucks.
WR2 Has A Massive Day
As each game goes by, Darnell Mooney has become more involved in the passing game.
Mooney has seen his targets increase week by week. In Atlanta’s opening matchup, the speedy receiver had only three targets, before increasing to seven in Week 2 and eight in Week 3. Through 18 total targets, Mooney has hauled in 12 of those for 169 yards and one touchdown.
I already boldly predicted Cousins to hit 300 passing yards and to do that, he is going to need a player to be his main eye candy of the afternoon. Insert Mooney. I will predict the veteran receiver to have a big day against the Saints secondary, by tallying up to 100 yards and one touchdown, leading the way for Atlanta’s receiving corps on Sunday.
Alvin Kamara Explodes…Again
Of course, it won’t obviously be sunshine and rainbows for the Falcons.
Just two weeks ago Saints running back Alvin Kamara had a massive day where he had four total touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys. The veteran running back has had a huge start to the season thus far and Kamara could likely continue his reign of terror in this matchup.
While I did predict the Falcons pass rush to get after Carr, there is a chance that they have a bit of a tough time getting after Kamara and slowing him down. However, the veteran running back has been dealing with both rib and hip injuries throughout the week thus far, and has been listed as ‘questionable’ heading into Sunday. If Kamara does end up playing, it may not be particularly bold to say Kamara will have a nice performance. But we’re gonna do it anyway. I will predict the 5x Pro-Bowler to notch 150 total scrimmage yards with at least two total touchdowns.
While these all may not come to fruition, that is the goal of ‘bold predictions’, to think outside of the box for a regular season matchup.
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