Atlanta Falcons bettor’s cashed in on their teams week 16 victory over the toothless Detroit Lions 31 to 18.The win for the Falcons secures home field advantage for them throughout the 2012 NFC Playoffs.
The Falcons went off as 3.5 point road favorite, as 66% of the public bets went on Matt Ryan and company. Minutes before kickoff the total was sitting on 50 and paid off for nervous under bettors as it landed on 49 points. In the 1stquarter the Falcons jumped out to an early lead as Matt Ryan hooked up with Rowdy Roddy White on a perfectly thrown 44 yard touchdown pass, later in the quarter the Lions answered with a field goal which would be the closest that they would get too the high flying Falcons. The Falcon outscored the Lions in the second quarter 14 to 3 and took a 21 to 6 lead into halftime!
In the third quarter the Lions showed some signs of life as they outscored the Falcons 7 to 0, but they quickly faded in the final quarter with the Falcons adding 10 more points to the Lions 5. Matt Ryan connected on 25 of 32 passes for 279 yards. Ryan passed for four touchdowns which tied a career high for him as a Falcon. Michael Turner ran for 41 yards on 13 carries but the real story was Roddy White catching 8 passes for 153 yards two of those for touchdowns!
Matt Stafford was 37 of 56 for a total of 443 yards passing in a losing effort. The only shining star for the Lions was that Calvin Johnson broke Jerry Rice’s single season receiving record going over 1848 yards ;ate in the 4th quarter. Johnson is the first player with 100 or more receiving yards in 8 straight NFL games and the 1st NFL receiver to have caught 10 passes 4 games in a row!
The Falcons are playing solid football with an overall record of 13 and 2 and will be tough to beat at home. They finish the season at home next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with nothing more to play for you would imagine that the Falcon starters will get a well-deserved break!
