UNDER PRESSURE
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The Falcons finally ended their playoff losing streak at four games so they finally can relax, right?
Wrong, says NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk.
“If they enter this game thinking that the pressure is off them, then they will have only won just one (playoff game). That’s it,” Faulk said on NFL Game Day Final. “The pressure is just going to continue to build and that is what Matt Ryan and the Falcons and Mike Smith are going to find out.”
The Falcons are in the conference championship game for just the third time in their history. They won at Minnesota 30-27 in the 1998 playoffs before losing to Denver in the Super Bowl. They lost the 2004 conference title game at Philadelphia 27-10.
NOT IMPRESSED
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ESPN’s “NFL Live” asked its analysts whether they were more impressed with the Falcons beating the Seahawks on Sunday or with the Seahawks rallying before losing.
“I came away more impressed with Seattle,” Tim Hasselbeck said. “Atlanta won the game but if you look at a couple sequences there, whether when they called the timeout leaving too much time on the clock (before kicking the deciding field goal) then you had the (botched final) kickoff. Those things bother you.
“And let’s look at Matt Ryan’s performance in the fourth quarter. Outside of the two final throws, he fell apart. The wheels came off. They won the game, they should be thrilled. I was impressed with the Seahawks.”
PLAYOFF TICKETS
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A small group of people waited in the rain at the Georgia Dome on Monday waiting for tickets to go on sale at 10 a.m., only to be told tickets aren’t sold at the dome. They are available through Ticketmaster, though only single seats were being offered as of Monday evening.
There were plenty of tickets available on the secondary market. StubHub.com was offering roughly 11,000 tickets starting around $180 and the NFL’s official exchange at Ticketmaster had about 6,000 seats starting at about $175.
VIEW FROM SAN FRANCISCO
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Eric Branch, writing in The San Francisco Chronicle, says the Packers weren’t ready for 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s running ability. Branch suggests the Falcons may struggle to slow Kaepernick after Carolina’s Cam Newton ran wild against them during the regular season and Seattle’s Russell Wilson did the same on Sunday:
“In contrast to Green Bay, the Falcons have faced a slew of running quarterbacks this season. The good news for the 49ers? (The Falcons’) performance against Seattle’s dual-threat rookie Russell Wilson in Sunday’s 30-28 divisional playoff win was in keeping with their struggles against those mobile signal-callers.
“Wilson accounted for 445 yards, three touchdowns and averaged 8.6 yards on seven carries. … Unlike the Packers, the Falcons won’t be ill-prepared for Kaepernick’s array of skills. After facing Wilson, however, they know it’s hard to stop quarterbacks who can do it all.”
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