The Falcoholic
The Falcons should be fresh coming into this week coming off a bye week and having a couple of notable players set to return from injury, including A.J. Terrell. They’ll need all of it with a matchup against reigning MVP Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in prime time.
The Bills come into this week having suffered their first defeat of the season under the primetime lights of Week 5 against the New England Patriots. Now they look to the capital of the south as the venue for their desired bounce back against a 2-2 Falcons team that went into their week off on a high after beating the shorthanded Washington Commanders.
This is one of two Monday Night Football games on the slate for Atlanta this season, with the other scheduled for Week 17 against the Rams. This is the second consecutive year where the Falcons will have multiple MNF games after a four year hiatus from the program before last season.
Here is the scenario the Falcons face if they beat the Buffalo Bills in Week 6, as well as if they lose.
It will be a seismic victory which will send a message to the rest of the NFC, given that the Bills are one of the primary Super Bowl contenders in the league. The 30-0 shutout against Carolina will feel like it came from a different timeline entirely given what will have transpired since.
Atlanta will match last season’s five game start to the season entirely — disappointing game 1 defeat, game 2 bounce back in prime time, defeat in game 3, victory in game 4, before an immensely impressive prime time victory in their first game in October. They will be on track in the Wildcard race, and could get to within one game back in the loss column of Tampa if the Bucs stumble against the 49ers.
The Falcons will move their record on Monday Night Football to an impressive 8-1 over the past decade and will break a small losing streak of two games against the Bills on a head to head basis.
They will move to 2-3, which isn’t great, but it won’t be a cause for panic as not many people really expected this to be a triumph at any point given Buffalo’s talent and recent success over the past half decade. I’m not one to flaunt morale victories, but this could be one depending on how the Birds look in a potential loss.
A defeat to an AFC opponent is also preferred over an NFC foe for tiebreaking purposes, but the Bucs will be able to start gaining some sepearation in the division race with their own victory this weekend, as they would go to 5-1 despite their litany of injuries.
There will be some added pressure on Atlanta in the immediate aftermath to not fall to 2-4 against the 49ers next week, as that light middle part of...
