Projected line: Atlanta by 6 points
While Denver was very impressive last week in Sunday Night Football against Pittsburgh, Atlanta wasn't less impressive in their huge road win in Kansas City. Their offense was simply on fire and even though the Chiefs are definitely struggling on defense in this early season, the great efficiency from Atlanta's offense has more to do with their great quality on every area of their offense than anything else. Not only Matt Ryan is definitely a very solid quarterback, as he has a great receivers corps, headed by WR's Roddy White and Julio Jones plus TE Tony Gonzalez. With a very good Offensive Line in terms of pass protection, the Falcons have one of the deadliest passing games in the league, full of options to be fed by Matt Ryan. Denver has some issues in terms of pass defense (#20 last season in passing yards allowed per attempt) and I don't believe veteran CB Champ Bailey and CB Tracy Porter will be able the limit the Falcons passing game at their own home. Bailey may be able to limit the receiver he will guard (however I don't think he can handle the speed of Julio Jones), but I don't believe Porter will be able to handle either White or Jones tonight, even with some extra help that can't be a lot due to Tony Gonzalez being on the field as well. Atlanta's passing game is very hard to stop at home, especially when the opponents can't simply forget about RB Michael Turner, who is still a good running back and who looks ready to bounce back this week after a poor performance in Kansas City last week. Atlanta has a great well balanced offense, full of quality options in every area and I don't believe Denver's average defense will be enough to stop the Falcons offense tonight.
Sure Peyton Manning looked amazing last week. No doubt about it. 19/26 253yds 2TD 0INT are excellent numbers, especially against Pittsburgh and in a National TV game. However, the question in here is to know if someone who didn't play last season is capable of having such a clean performance for the second week in a row on National TV, but this time in a road game against a potential SuperBowl contender. Sure Atlanta's defense isn't as good as Pittsburgh's on paper and they just lost CB Brent Grimes, however they still have two very good cornerbacks in Asante Samuel and Dunta Robinson. I believe the Falcons should be able to guard well the Broncos receivers in most plays today and limit Peyton's big plays to a minimum. The Falcons also have a decent run defense and they should stop Denver's running game with some ease, putting some extra pressure on Manning. It's a fact that Manning is more than used to this kind of games, but he will be playing his first official road game with a Denver uniform, Atlanta has some decent defenders and I don't believe Manning will be as perfect as he was last week against Pittsburgh. He will be good, but that won't be enough in comparison with Atlanta's great offense tonight.
The Falcons also have an edge in the special teams, with a more reliable kicker and punter plus Rodgers, who looked great on kick returns last week, so I believe Atlanta will be better than Denver in every aspect of this game, not by a huge margin, but good enough to have them earn a comfortable win tonight. Therefore, I'll be taking the Falcons in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 226 Atlanta Falcons (-3) @ +100 / 2.00 on Bookmaker
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