Over the last few years, there has always been something interesting to see when the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks hook up. Since the 2012 season, these teams have met four times, highlighted by two Atlanta wins in the postseason. This Monday night, we'll have a new chapter added to an unpredictable and unappreciated rivalry.
In November of 2013, Seattle throttled Atlanta, 33-10. That was small measure of revenge for a tough playoff defeat in the divisional round the previous season. In that postseason clash, the Seahawks were down 27-7 to start the fourth quarter only to have their furious comeback defused by a late 49-yard field goal from Matt Bryant.
Last year, Julio Jones infamously ripped the Seahawks for 139 receiving yards in Seattle. Meanwhile, Matt Ryan has now exceeded 330 passing yards to go along with 3 touchdowns in each of the last two meetings after the most recent postseason victory.
As for this matchup, Seattle was a 3.0-point home favorite as of Thursday night despite having lost several key pieces on their vaunted defense. Richard Sherman was recently placed on injured reserve with an Achilles injury. Last month, a troublesome neck issue ended Cliff Avril's season. Now it appears that the heavy-hitting Kam Chancellor is a serious doubt this week with a neck injury of his own.
However, it looks like Earl Thomas will return from a two-game absence as he nursed a hamstring ailment.
All of those injuries -- in addition to a total lack of a running game on the offensive side -- have resulted in Seattle putting everything on the arm and legs (he leads the team with 290 rushing yards) of Russell Wilson, our highest-projected fantasy player (not just quarterback) for Week 11. Meanwhile, Doug Baldwin comes in as the third-highest-scoring wide receiver. Those in daily fantasy contests involving the Monday night game take note.
Atlanta has done well containing opposing quarterbacks recently. Over the last two weeks, Cam Newton and Dak Prescott combined to average a mere 156.5 passing yards against the Falcons, and neither threw for a touchdown. However, both found success on the ground and ran for a score. Clearly, we fully expect Wilson to shatter that brief trend.