One might wonder how well Matt Ryan slept last night. He is under a bit of pressure to perform this year. Much like the young Peyton Manning, he has the rap of being not so effective in the playoffs. In Ryan's case, he is 0-3, including a real stinker of a game last year against the Giants. Today he faces one of the hottest teams in the league with one of the top defenses. The Seahawks are serious contenders. There is some question about Marshawn Lynch's injury status, but it looks like he'll play. Russell Wilson was solid last week against the Redskins and has to feel a bit of confidence coming into this game.
The spread on this one is just 2.5 in the Falcons favor despite being the top seed playing a wild card team - likely because of the issues mentioned above. The over / under is 45.5.
And if today is half as good a football day as yesterday then it should be entertaining. Enjoy! I will set this up to auto-publish at 9:45 PST while I'm hopefully on my way to the sports bar for the game. (Given how cold it was last night and the state of my battery I'm hoping to have enough juice to get started.) So if I miss some of the game, that is why.