Monday Night Football features a matchup between The Atlanta Falcons (5-4) and the Seattle Seahawks (6-3) at CenturyLink Field.
For this game, Atlanta could be without one of its most explosives pieces in running back Devonta Freeman who is in concussion protocol after leaving the game against the Cowboys with a head injury. This of course after Freeman missed two preseason games with a concussion earlier this year.
The Seahawks are also dealing with several significant injuries with the one to cornerback Richard Sherman being the most significant one.
Sherman, arguably the Seahawks best player on defense, left the week 9 game against the Cardinals with an Achilles injury and is out for the rest of the season. Seattle signed Byron Maxwell last week to replace Sherman.
The main issue with Sherman’s absence is that Maxwell and Jeremy Lane (who is expected to start in Sherman’s place) can take his place on the field, but they can’t replace his numbers or on-the-field performances.
Sherman was such a dominant player on defense that many times opposing teams decided not to throw in his direction, so Seattle basically had to worry about defending half the field.
The main concern for the Seahawks is that Atlanta beat them 36-20 in the playoffs last season with Sherman in the lineup. Now that he’s missing Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan will try to exploit that void by going to Julio Jones early and often.
Keep in mind that Ryan had a perfect passer rating when targeting Julio Jones when he was covered by someone else other than Sherman in two games against the Seahawks last year.
On the flip side the Falcons defense will face a mobile quarterback for the third game in a row (they faced Cam Newton in week 9 and Dak Prescott last week) and so far, they have struggled against them.
Newton torched them for 86 rushing yards and a touchdown, while Prescott ran for 41 yards, but he still found a way to get into the end zone once.
This time they face Russell Wilson, who leads the Seahawks in rushing with 290 yards. Wilson is an outstanding rusher who will destroy opposing defenses if he’s allowed to get outside the pocket and find a running lane to get into the open field.
That’s what the Falcons have to avoid if they want to win this NFC matchup in the Pacific Northwest.
