Throughout most of this season -- especially in the last few weeks -- the Atlanta Falcons have relied on their defense to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive. Last Saturday the defense held the No. 1 scoring offense in the league to just 13 points and the week before that, with a playoff berth on the line, it shut down Cam Newton and the Panthers running attack.
While ESPN.com writer Dan Graziano has few doubts in the abilities of the Falcons' stout young defense, he is concerned as to if the defense "can keep it up."
“Over the final eight weeks of the regular season, only four teams -- the Patriots, Vikings, Chargers and Eagles -- allowed fewer points per game than the Falcons' 17.88. Atlanta improved that average in a wild-card matchup in which the Falcons allowed just 13 points to a Rams offense that averaged a league-leading 29.88 points in the regular season,” Graziano wrote. “Philadelphia was the league's third-highest scoring offense in the regular season, and thus, another potentially stiff test (though more on that in a second). Obviously, it helps when you have 37 minutes, 35 seconds of possession on offense, as Atlanta did Saturday. But while the Falcons' offense doesn't look as explosive as it did this time last year, they can win by playing ball control and keeping teams out of the end zone.”
The Falcons opened as favorites over the Eagles in part because their starting quarterback Carson Wentz suffered a torn ACL last month. The replacement, Nick Foles has been adequate, however the offense has averaged just 19.6 points per game since the injury.
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