Turnovers have been the biggest factor in the decline of the Falcons. They’ve dropped games to the struggling New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers, and don’t really have a win over quality competition yet this season.
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Jameis Winston led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a sweet comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, and the story of how Mike Evans got the winning touchdown is a good one. McCoy’s absence should allow Freeman and the rest of the Atlanta Falcons to attack the depleted Buccaneers’ defense more efficiently.
The No. 1 overall pick was sacked a season-high five times last week after going down eight times in the previous six games as Tampa Bay went 4-2. Each week, we plug in the numbers, filter out quarterbacks who barely played, and compare.
While losing wide receiver Leonard Hankerson to season-ending IR hurts, getting back both Freeman and kick returner Devin Hester adds some much-needed explosiveness to the Atlanta Falcons’ offense as the fight for an NFC Wild Card berth down the stretch.
The performance of the Falcons will likely hinge on the play of Matt Ryan. Ryan has not played all that well of late, partly due to the ineffectiveness of his receiving corps. Winston joins Glennon and Shaun King as the only rookie quarterbacks in team history to have earned the award.
-Guard Ali Marpet (ankle), who missed the last three games, had full participation in practice Wednesday and should start against he Falcons.
The Falcons have kicker Matt Bryant (right quadriceps), cornerback Phillip Adams (healthy), safety Charles Godfrey (healthy), running back Terron Ward (healthy), tackle Bryce Harris (Healthy), tight end Tony Moeaki (hamstring) and defensive end Malliciah Goodman (healthy) out.
Atlanta enters their Week 13 game against the Bucs as a 1-point road favorite.
“Let me say this… if I was going to curse the team, the game that they won, they wouldn’t have”, Williams said.
Tampa Bay failed to earn a third straight win with last Sunday’s 25-12 loss at Indianapolis but remains confident, knowing its playoff chances could improve by sweeping the season series from Atlanta for the first time since 2007.
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The game will likely go down to the wire like the previous meeting in Week 8.
