The Falcons will spend this week unsure of whom they play next, but you won't hear any complaining from the team.
By securing the NFC's best record, Atlanta earned a first-round bye and the luxury of sitting at home waiting for its next opponent to emerge this weekend.
Because the Falcons are the No. 1 seed for the first time since 1980, they will host the worst remaining seed in the divisional round. Of the NFC playoff teams, they know that won't be the No. 2 Bears or No. 3 Eagles, both of whom won their divisions.
Depending upon what happens this weekend, they could see No. 4, the winner of Sunday night's Seahawks-Rams game; No. 5 New Orleans; or No. 6 Green Bay. Whoever it turns out to be, the preparation has already started in Atlanta.
"We've already been breaking those teams down," Atlanta coach Mike Smith said. "We've got a pretty good idea of how things may go and how things could have went (Sunday). You've got to have contingency plans. Believe me, we've been working on that all through this week, and we'll continue to work on it all through next week."
That week won't begin in earnest for the Falcons players until Wednesday, when they'll get to work to iron out any wrinkles from what the coaches saw from Sunday's win over the Panthers.
Most of the NFC playoff teams will be back to work before that.
The Packers head to Philadelphia to face off Sunday night with quarterback Michael Vick and the Eagles, who finished the regular season losing their last two.
With the Saints expected to be favorites against either the Seahawks or Rams on Saturday afternoon, NFC South rival New Orleans may be the most likely second-round opponent for the Falcons. That would be a rematch of last Monday night, when the Saints handed the Falcons their only home loss of the season.
Indeed, the Falcons have played all three potential opponents this season, so they'll have some familiarity heading into the game.
"I think it helps," Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. "But, with that said, they know us too. It's one of the stranger things, translating from college to the NFL, where you play a team twice in one year. It doesn't happen a lot in college, so it's different when you're playing teams multiple times in one year. They get a feel for what you're doing; you get a feel for what they're doing."
Familiar or not, it's unlikely that there will be any easy games. This may be one of the most wide-open NFC fields in quite some tim.
"I don't think anyone's afraid of anyone," Fox NFL analyst Charles Davis said. "I don't think anyone's sitting in a locker room where your coach says, ‘We're going to take on' and you put anybody's name out there, and the players say, ‘Well, we can't do that.' I don't think Atlanta cares about that. I feel like it's like that across the board in the NFC."
On the AFC side, the Patriots are the No. 1 seed and can host throughout the conference playoffs. Receiving the other bye was No. 2 Pittsburgh, the AFC North champions.
This weekend’s AFC games will be the No. 6 New York Jets at No. 3 Indianapolis and No. 5 Baltimore at No. 4 Kansas City.
New England was the only team in the NFL to best Atlanta’s 13-3 record, closing on an eight-game winning streak to finish 14-2. The Steelers beat the Falcons in Pittsburgh in the season opener 15-9.
The Colts are getting healthier in the backfield and may be peaking at the right time, but Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco has thrown 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions in his past 11 games.
The Chiefs are probably the biggest surprise on either side, and they’ll host a Jets team that lost three of its last five after a hot start to the season.
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