Thursday Night Football: New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons

To kick off Week 13 of the NFL, the Saints come marching in to Atlanta hoping to duplicate the success of knocking off the Falcons a few weeks back, while Matt Ryan and the Falcons look to avenge their only loss of the season thus far.

Dustin: Falcons- Yes, the Falcons have looked sketchy at times these past few weeks, barely eking out victories against teams they should be beating by considerable margins and yes, Matt Ryan’s early MVP front-running seems to have cooled down after a few atrocious games (including a 5-INT game two weeks ago) but there’s one difference between the Saints and the Falcons: the Falcons have won the close games. Announcers love to talk about what-ifs and had a few plays gone differently, X-team would be sitting at this record instead of the record they have. The Saints are one of those teams this year, struggling mightily and finding the inability to close out a game or even keep games close in crunch-time, something the Falcons have excelled at all year. It’s not always pretty or fun to watch, but the Falcons are finding ways to win whether it be offense, defense or special teams, I don’t really see the Saints D stepping up to slow the Dirty Birds down, adding one more disappointment to a season full of them. Falcons – 37, Saints – 24.

Cameron: Falcons – In what could possibly be the best Thursday Night Football game of the year, the ‘Dirty Birds’ look to avenge their lone loss of the season. The Saints have dominated the ‘Birds’ the last three years going 7-1 and the only win for the Falcons came in their first meeting last year. Plain and simple the Saints have owned the Falcons. I believe in this Falcons team’s ability to overcome the odds, learn from it’s mistakes and destroy all in it’s path. Falcons – 27, Saints – 21.