Baltimore Ravens vs Atlanta Falcons: Game Preview
After an absolutely dominating performance in Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which the Baltimore Ravens cruised to a 48-17 victory, John Harbaugh’s squad will stay in the NFC South and host the Atlanta Falcons. There are a lot of intriguing things about this match-up.
First off, it will be only the second time in Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan’s career that they will face of head-to-head. Matt Ryan and the Falcons came out on top in the first match-up on Thursday Night Football in 2010.
The two have been linked to each other since the beginning of their respective careers. They were both drafted in the first round of the 2008 draft and have had very similar numbers since then.
Flacco has had a huge advantage on Ryan in one aspect, however, and that comes in the playoffs. Joe Flacco has won nine postseason games and a Super Bowl in his career, while Ryan has grabbed just one postseason victory and has never appeared in the big dance.
They have been compared to each other since the beginning of their careers, but why choose? They’re both great quarterbacks and leaders and have both done a great job for their teams.
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Another position to look at is the wide receiver position. The young, talented superstar Julio Jones is, well, already a superstar. He is only in his third season and he has established himself as one of the best receivers in football.
The Ravens have a young talented receiver of their own. Although Torrey Smith hasn’t been nearly as successful as Jones, he has started his career with a pretty loud bang as well. It will be interesting to see which young receiver puts up better numbers on Sunday.
The last game between these two teams came down to the last second, but this one could be different. The reason is because the Falcons struggled mightily in 2013 as they ended the season with a 4-12 record, and they have started off 2-4 through the first six games of this season. Maybe they just aren’t the same team. I don’t buy that theory, but it’s something to think about.
I still think this will be a close game. The two teams are very evenly matched and each team has their own fair share of advantages. One thing I will tell you about this game is this: the Ravens will NOT win by as large a margin as they did last week.