Atlanta Falcons Do Their Part: Set Up Panther Showdown
The Atlanta Falcons did their part for the cause yesterday, beating the New Orleans Saints 30-14 to set up the loser leave town match with the Panthers next week in Atlanta. The Falcons relied on turnovers to keep Drew Brees from engineering the comeback that we are so used to seeing from him. In fact fumbles were the key plays of the game.
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Graham Shall Not Pass
The first fumble occurred when Goldsboro’s Jimmy Graham appeared to catch a pass and was about to tug his way over the goal line. He was met by two Falcons defenders, one who kept him out and the other who stripped the ball which the Falcons recovered. Atlanta maintained their 20-7 lead instead of a 20-14 game that could have gone either way.
The complaints about the call are in two camps. There was a camp that said Graham’s forward momentum had been stopped and there should have been no fumble. There was another camp that said Graham actually crossed the goal line and scored. Replay upheld the call on the field and neither of those things came to pass.
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Atlanta Falcons vs Carolina Panthers, As It Should Be
The Panthers will now get to make a trip to Atlanta with everything on the line. They will face a Falcons team that got a three hundred yard game from Matt Ryan. Big Atlanta receiver Julio Jones will test the young Panthers secondary with his veteran wing man Roddy White.
The Falcons defensive line got four sacks of Brees, and so they will test the Panthers offensive line. The ghost of Osi Umenyiora ran back a late fumble for a touchdown as a final reminder of what that defense can do.
On the other side, the Saints had no sacks of Matt Ryan which is a stat that the Panthers must do better at. The Falcons line has not been very good this year up to now. We will need Kawan Short to plant Ryan at least once to prevent Matty Ice from shredding the secondary.