The Detroit Lions want to be more balanced on offense but against the Falcons they will be tempted to throw the ball a lot.  As long as the O-Line does a good job keeping DEs Jamaal Anderson and John Abraham away from Jon Kitna the Lions should have success throwing the football against the Falcons.  Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams are huge mis-matches for CBs Brent Grimes and Chris Houston.  Don’t forget that the Lions also have Shaun McDonald and Mike Furrey at WR to cause even more trouble for the Falcons.  Rookie RB Kevin Smith and Rudi Johnson might have a hard time establishing a ground game against the very underrated linebacking corps of the Falcons (Curtis Lofton, Keith Brooking and Michael Boley).

The Falcons are going to run the ball a lot in this game to protect rookie QB Matt Ryan in his first NFL start.  Michael Turner will be making his debut as a featured back in the NFL and he will likely have a good game as long as the Falcons can control DT Cory Redding.  OLBs Ernie Sims and Alex Lewis of the Lions will have their hands full with Jerious Norwood who has the speed to get around the edge of the defense.  The Lions are solid in the secondary with CBs Leigh Bodden, Travis Fisher and Brian Kelly so the Falcons would be smart to keep the passes short. 

PREDICTION:  DETROIT LIONS 24, ATLANTA FALCONS 13

The Falcons have signed RB Kenneth Darby to the practice squad.  Darby carried the football 32 times in the preseason for the Buccaneers and he rushed for 102 yards (3.2 ypc).  Darby has only played in 1 NFL game in his career and in that game he carried the ball 2 times for 9 yards (4.5 ypc) and he also caught 2 passes for 16 yards (8.0 avg).  This was a nice little low risk move for the Falcons.

The Falcons have signed TE Justin Peelle after he was recently released by the Dolphins.  Peelle caught 4 passes in the preseason for the Dolphins covering 39 yards (9.8 avg).  Peelle has played in 93 games in his NFL career and he has caught 85 passes for 614 yards (7.2 avg) with 7 TD grabs.  This was another solid addition to the TE corps of the Falcons.

I have a feeling that the Falcons are going to surprise some people with Matt Ryan and Michael Turner in town.  I would take the over with the Falcons as I think a few teams in the NFC South are beatable.  The Falcons also drew a schedule with quite a few soft spots in it.

The Falcons have released veteran QB Joey Harrington.  Harrington completed 9 of 15 passes (60%) in the preseason for 98 yards with 0 TD passes and 1 interception.  The Falcons didn’t think Harrington would be able to handle the role of the #3 QB and that was the reason for his release.  Harrington played in 12 games (10 starts) for the Falcons last season and he completed 215 of 348 passes (61.8%) for 2,215 yards with 7 TD passes and 8 interceptions (77.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the football 14 times for 33 yards last season (2.4 ypc).  The Falcons won’t miss Harrington who is a below average NFL QB on his best day.