Interesting that Matt Ryan is actually BION available in my FFL on waivers. He's ranked the #1 QB in fantasy FB thru the first 4 weeks. Most felt he wouldn't deliver against the perceived strong D of the Panthers, who are missing corner Josh Norman more than they will admit. He and Julio Jones of course blew up the Panthers this past week. So, certainly shouldn't Ryan be picked up this week? I'm sure he will be.
But, here comes 2 road games at Denver and Seattle. We've seen the Falcons just a season ago start out hot going 5-0 only to lose 7 of their next 8. The NFC South defensively is horrible. Just horrible. Of the worst scoring defenses in points allowed per game, the NFC South has the #32 (Saints), #31 (Bucs), #29 (Falcons) and #28 (Panthers) teams. That's 4 of the worst 5 in the NFL...only the Colts at #30 are mixed in that group of bottom 5.
Paint me skeptical, but should be interesting to see how the Falcons do in this division that plays no defense. It helps I guess when you have the #1 (Falcons), #3 (Saints), and #5 (Panthers) scoring offenses in the NFL. For a bettor like me, I guess I'll be playing the OVER in any NFC West division games for certain.
Funny that it once again is an example of a head coach (Quinn from Seattle) brought in with a big defensive reputation whose defenses are suspect but has a powerhouse offense. It reminds me that O'Leary was a defensive coach with a good reputation, yet his defenses were nothing special - and a couple of seasons downright bad - and his offenses (under Fridge) were the backbone of the program. The flip side was Chan Gailey was known as an offensive guy, yet his offenses were consistently mediocre (even with a guy named Calvin Johnson) and his Jon Tenuta-led defenses were consistently good and at times dominant.
Weird.
edit note: if the Falcons can put up some points in their next 2 games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, then I'll go from skeptical to pushing forward the Falcons as legit Super Bowl contenders...and yes, I said "Super Bowl" contenders...if you can score big on those 2 defenses, you can (and probably will) beat anybody in the NFL