The Atlanta Falcons (4-1) are coming off a big 45-10 win over the 49ers and will bring that explosive offense to Dallas this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys (3-2).  The Cowboys have a pretty good offense themselves, so this should be an exciting and high scoring game.  The Falcons seem to keep improving each week and they have been led by quarterback Matt Ryan.  Ryan has been completing 65% of his passes and has thrown for 1162 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.  Three of those interceptions have come in the past two games though, so Ryan needs to make sure he limits his turnovers this week against the Cowboys.  The Falcons should feed it to Michael Turner a ton though, as the Cowboys are giving up 106 rushing yards per game.

The Cowboys defense is giving up a lot of yards (358 per game) and have been very inconsistent this year.  Their offense, which was supposed to be one of the top offenses in the league, has been even more inconsistent.  Tony Romo has been making a lot of mistakes in the passing game this year and has played pretty timid because of it.  He had a big two touchdown 351 yard game against the Chiefs in the Cowboys last contest, but the Chiefs are one of the worst teams in the league.  If the Falcons can pressure Romo early, he will probably either throw an interception, or just try not to make a mistake leading to three and outs.  The Cowboys running game should be more of a concern for the Falcons, as Marion Barber and Tashard Choice are a pretty good running back duo.  They both average 5.1 yards per carry and have combined for five touchdowns.  This should be a close, offensive game and I see the Cowboys edging out a close win at home.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Dallas Cowboys 34, Atlanta Falcons 31

The Atlanta Falcons (3-1) are at home against the Chicago Bears (3-1) Sunday.  These are two pretty evenly matched teams, as the Falcons offense gets about 40 yards more a game than the Bears offense, but the Bears defense holds opponents to about 50 yards less than the Falcons.  The Bears have had difficulty stopping the run at times this year, and the Falcons average 106 rushing yards per game.  They need to try and attack the Bears on the ground and open things up for quarterback Matt Ryan.  Ryan has passed for 977 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions, while completing 67% of his passes.  The Bears are holding teams to 226 passing yards, but also are great at getting turnovers.

The Falcons need to get to quarterback Jay Cutler, as he has a big arm with speedy receivers to throw the deep ball.  If they can pressure him, then he wont be able to go down field.  Bears running back Matt Forte had been struggling the first three games, but had some huge runs last game so the Falcons need to pay attention to him as well, especially since they are giving up 127 rushing yards per game.  This should be a pretty close game with two evenly match squads, but I think the Bears have the better defense so they will pull out the win.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Chicago Bears 30, Atlanta Falcons 24

The Atlanta Falcons (2-1) are on the road this week facing the much-improved San Francisco 49ers (3-1).  The Falcons are coming off a bye week and this will be a good match-up between them and the 49ers.  The Falcons need to make sure their run-defense does a better job this week against the 49ers running game, and luckily for the Falcons the niners’ star running back Frank Gore is still out with an ankle injury.  Glen Coffee is no Frank Gore as he is only averaging 2.3 yards per carry, but the 49ers will keep giving him the ball so the Falcons better be committed to stopping the run.  The 49ers’ passing game is not that big of a threat, as their quarterback Shaun Hill has only thrown for 700 yards in four games (175 avg).

Matt Ryan has been pretty solid for the Falcons in there first three games.  He has thrown five touchdowns and only one interception, while going for 648 yards on 60/91 attempts (66%).  Michael Turner has been playing pretty well for the Falcons’ running game too, as he is averaging 3.5 yards per carry.  This is probably the best defense the Falcons have faced so far, and they do a great job of stopping the run (79 yards per game).  This should be a close game and could go either way, but since the 49ers are at home I am giving them a slight advantage over the Falcons.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Atlanta Falcons 21, San Francisco 49ers 24

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.

It will be interesting to see how the Falcons handle rookie QB Matt Ryan.  One train of thought is to let him take his lumps like the Manning boys did and let him learn on the job.  The other thought is to let him watch and learn for a year like Steve McNair and Carson Palmer did.  Ryan is no doubt more talented than either Chris Redman and Joey Harrington and it’s up in the air how much he could actually learn from those two guys based on their careers to date.  With that in mind it makes sense to start Ryan if he beats out both Harrington and Redman in training camp.  The Falcons could also protect him in his first season by running a conservative offense.  After all, they did spend a lot of money on new RB Michael Turner and they still have the lightning quick Jerious Norwood too.  It makes more sense to just start Ryan this season but we will see how the Falcons handle it.

Chris Redman was effective last season after replacing Joey Harrington late in the season.  He had last appeared in a NFL game in 2003 with the Ravens before reemerging last season in Atlanta.  Redman has a decent arm and he’s a pretty smart guy who played well in limited action last season.  Defenses will be ready for him this time around because they will have a lot of game film to look at so Redman will probably have to adjust his game a little bit.  He will likely be the starter if the Falcons don’t deem Matt Ryan ready to go.  Redman played in 7 games (4 starts) for the Falcons last season and he completed 89 of 149 passes (59.7%) for 1,079 yards with 10 TD passes and 5 interceptions (90.4 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 8 times for 16 yards (2.0 ypc).  Redman’s numbers were a marked improvement over his career numbers so you have to wonder if it was a fluke or not.  Redman has now played in 17 games (10 starts) in his NFL career and he has completed 195 of 347 passes (56.2%) for 2,190 yards with 17 TD passes and 10 interceptions (79.5 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 21 times for 28 yards (1.3 ypc).

Joey Harrington re-signed with the Falcons thinking that he would have a fair shot to win the starting job in training camp but he will most likely be holding a clipboard and watch Matt Ryan and Chris Redman play.  Harrington wasn’t awful last season but he was still below average.  He has the tools to be a good QB but he often throws the ball where he shouldn’t resulting in a game altering turnover.  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 ball 14 times for 33 yards (2.4 ypc).  Harrington has not lived up to his potential coming out of college and he’s running out of time to turn things around.  Harrington has now played in 81 games (76 starts) in his NFL career and he has completed 1,424 of 2,538 passes (56.1%) for 14,693 yards with 79 TD passes and 85 interceptions (69.4 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 142 times for 402 yards (2.8 ypc).

D.J. Shockley will try to win the #3 QB job in training camp but the odds are stacked against him.  The only real thing he has going for him is that he went to college at Georgia.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2008 SEASON:  D+