Atlanta's Crucial Win Boosts Chances in Tough Division

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00:00Again, if you take a look now, if you're Atlanta, you are staring down the barrel of

00:08Owen Tewitt, the defending back-to-back champs coming into your building, while the Saints

00:11and the Bucs, through two weeks of football, have looked like maybe the best teams in this

00:16conference.

00:17New Orleans has looked like the best team in the sport.

00:20That win for Atlanta was monster.

00:23And now, they're still third in the outright market, in the division.

00:27I think some of that is tied to being a dog in week three.

00:31The New Orleans Saints have actually flipped the favorites against the Philadelphia Eagles,

00:35short albeit, but still favored.

00:37And then the Bucs are the big favorites of the week, laying nearly a touchdown to the

00:40Denver Broncos.

00:42But the Saints and the Bucs, that stuff would have stayed true, and Atlanta would have been

00:46staring down the barrel of Owen Tewitt.

00:48And that would have been nightmarish.

00:50And I think that is the biggest thing that happened for Atlanta last night.

00:53You can talk about what it did for confidence, for Kirk Cousins, and I think that's fair.

00:59Confidence for a new head coach, new play caller, all of that.

01:02Again, all of that is valid.

01:04But at the end of the day, Atlanta really wasn't going to be able to leave this game

01:09with moral victories.

01:1031-30, wow, look at the offense found a rhythm.

01:14No, no, no.

01:15They needed a win.

01:17Because now Atlanta can afford a loss to Kansas City.

01:25If that team went 0-3, again, odds are very likely they would have lost.

01:31I mean, look, we'll see what happens, but if they lose to Kansas City, odds are very

01:36likely at least one of New Orleans or Tampa Bay would have moved 3-0.

01:42So you now have a team that's two up on you, and they're in between a team that's up three

01:49on you.

01:50Now that they lost, now that they won, they can lose because the two games after Kansas

01:58City, they host the New Orleans Saints, and then they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

02:05This division will still more than not come down to the team in front of you and being

02:13able to win those head-to-head matchups.

02:16And now if you're Atlanta, and you're 1-2, going into a week four game against a 3-0

02:22Saints, right?

02:23Well, if you get your victory, you're 2-2, they're 3-1, it's a game back, plus you're

02:31early where you need to be tiebreaker-wise, right?

02:37If you beat New Orleans and Tampa Bay opens it up 3-0, well, guess what?

02:42Tampa Bay has to play Philadelphia, and then they're going to your building on a Thursday

02:49night.

02:51All of a sudden, through the odds, Atlanta could be 3-2, 2-0 in division, all of a sudden

03:00the Bucs have lost two in a row, and guess what the Saints get after the game against

03:05Atlanta?

03:07They go to Arrowhead and play the Chiefs.

03:10So that is why that game last night was so big for the Atlanta Falcons.

03:18It does not mean that they are going to win this division.

03:22Again, there is a reason the Bucs have now left them with the third-best odds.

03:27If you like them to beat Kansas City, I'd take a look.

03:31I would take a look.

03:34But if you just see where we are with the next three weeks of football for these teams,

03:43the odds would suggest that they will all be 3-2, and Atlanta will be in first place

03:51because they will have beaten both of these teams starting 2-0 in the division.

03:56There are going to be upsets considering they were all near touchdown dogs this week

04:00and won outright.

04:03We know that, but that is what Atlanta was able to essentially save their season because

04:09now their season isn't on the line Sunday night against Kansas City.

04:15That's the reality of it.

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