ATLANTA — For a team with what is considered by many to be the fiercest home-field advantage in the NFL, the Seahawks sure seem excite𝓡d to be the v🐼isitor this weekend.
And with good reason.
Seattle also has been one of the league’s better road teams this decade, especially in the playoffs, which explains why Russell Wilson & Co. haven’t exactly been sweating their NFC Divisional matchup with the second-seeded Falcons on Saturday in what cou🍬ld be Atlanta’s final game at the Georgia Dome.
The Seahawks have split their past four playoff games on the road since 2013, and their 3-4-1 road record this♔ season included a memorable 31-24 vi🐼ctory over the mighty Patriots in Week 10.
“We enjoy going on the road,” Wilson said this week. “I 💫think we do a⛄ great job of it in the sense of how we do and how we feel on the road. We don’t feel like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a drag.’ ’’
That’s especially true for Wilson. He personifies their success away from home since Pete Caroll’s arrival in 2010, posting the exact same career completion rate (65 percent) and throwing just seven fewer touchdown passes on🧸 the road (60) as he has at Seattle’s imposing CenturyLink Field.
The Seahawks’ confidence also might be higher than expected this week because of Atlanta’s fraught history — 𒁏including this season — playing at home, especially in the playoffs.
Although Matt Ryan’s lone career po🉐stseason win in five trips came at home over Seattle in 2012, the Falcons ar🎃e just 1-2 in the playoffs at the Georgia Dome this decade.
And despite winning the No. 2 seed with an 11-5 mark, Atlanta was a 🌸less-than-dominant 5-3 at home this season, including a 33-30 overtime loss in 🐎Week 7 to a woeful Chargers team that finished 5-11 and fired coach Mike McCoy.
The Seahawks also are recently familiar with Ryan and the Falcons, having rallied for a 26-24 hom🧜e victory in Week 6 in a game in which Atlanta’s vaunted rushing combination of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman was held to a season-low 52 yards.
N✅o one forgets, either, that the Falcons just last year were fined $350,000 and docked a fifth-round pick by the NFL for pumping in fake crowd noise at the Georgia Dome during the 2014 season and no doubt long before that.
So as imposing as Atlanta’s league-leading offense looks, a Seahawks team that has been in much bigger pressure situations in recent years — see: two Super♈ Bowl trips and one Lombardi Trophy — isn’t exactly quivering at a visit to the Falcons.
Is it any wonder? Including last week’s 26-6 wild-card t🐻hrottling of the Lions, the Seahawks have won seven of their past nine postseason games and have at least one playoff win in each of the past five seasons.
Home, away or on a neutral field, the Seahawks are in their element as long as ♏it’s the postseason.
“We get excited to play on the road,” Wi🔥lson said, “and this week is definitely no di🦄fferent.”
Marquee matchup
Falcons WR Julio Jones vs. Seahawks CB Richard Sherman
Jones was hampered down the stretch by ౠa tܫoe injury, but still finished second in the NFL with 1,409 receiving yards and has a history of torching the Seahawks.
Jones has 24 catches for 325 yards (an average ofꦉ 108.3 per game) and a TD in t♉hree career meetings with Seattle, including a monster outing in Week 6 this season in which he caught seven passes for 136 yards and a TD.
Sherman was in man coverage on that TD and lined up on Jones’ side on 30 of Jones’ 46 snaps that day in Seattle. The, uh, opiꩲnionated veteran corner made the Pro Bowl again but didn’t have one of his better seasons, so it will interesting to see if the Seahawks give him the primary coverage on Jones.
Then again, Seattle might not have much cho🍰ice. Star safety Earl Thomas is out and the Falcons’ receiving corps is deep, with No. 3 target Taylor Gabriel proving that point by catching five TD passes in the past six games.
Sherman still is the Seahawks’ best 𓆏cover corner. To꧃ see him not line up on Jones would be shocking.
Four Downs
Unstoppable force vs. immovable object: Despite Matt Ryan’s huge year, Atlanta🌠’🤡s offensive success starts with the terrifying, two-headed backfield of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman.
The two backs combined for 1,599 rushing yards, 883 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns in the regular season, fueling the Fal💖cons’ rise to the top of the NFL’s scoring char♛ts.
But the Freema💯n-Coleman combination might be meeting its match because the Seahawks are one of the league’s toughest teams to run on with any success.
Atlanta knows this from experience, havi𓄧ng mustered a season-low 52 rushing yards in a Week 6 road loss to Seattle.
And despite losing ♍Tho𝔉mas in Week 13, the Seahawks haven’t missed a beat against the run and haven’t allowed more than 100 rushing yards in six consecutive games.
Beasley in your face: The Falcons’ pass defens𝓰e was terrible, ranking 28th in the league, but that was built mostly during the first half of the season — and before outside linebacker Vic Beasley really started to turn it on.
Atlanta’s first-round pick a year ago, Beasley had a disappointing rookie season and was switched to linebacker last spring. The move eventually worked wonders as Bꦍeasley ended up leading the league with 15.5 sacks and six forced fumbles, helping the Falcons force 22 turnovers for the 🙈season.
Beasley is an especially difficult matchup for the Seahawks, whose offensive line has been a weak link for much of Carroll’s tenure. Beasley 🐽is expected to line up against right tackle Garry Gilliam, who was so bad earlier in the season he brief🌜ly lost his starting job.
Rawls rockin’: ꦇSeattle struggled much of the season to replace the retired Marshawn Lynch but enters on a sudden roll with Thomas Rawls.
The second-yearꦇ back comes into the matchup with Atlanta coming off a spec𝓰tacular performance in last week’s wild-card win over the Lions. Rawls set the franchise postseason record with 161 rushing yards and a TD.
If Rawls still has the hot hand, this💮 could be a nightmare scenario for the Falcons. Atlanta was awful against the run the second half of the season. and has allowed 104 or more rushing yards in each of its past five games.
Graham cracks Atlanta: ꧙These two teams don’t meet very often, but the Falcons certainly don’t need any introductions when it comes to ꦜSeahawks tight end Jimmy Graham.
Graham spent the bulk of his career with Atlanta’s NFC South arch-rival N💖ew Orleans and has regularly tormented the Falcons over the years, catching eight TD passes in his past 10 games against them.
Graham was a disappointment in hi𝔉s Seattle debu🍌t last season, but bounced back this year with 65 catches for 923 yards and six TDs. Since 2011, he leads NFL tight ends with 5,924 receiving yards and is second with 54 TD catches.
Hubbuch’s Hunch
As good as the Seahawks are on the road, the Falcons are just too deep and too dangerous in too many spots 🅷for a Seattle defense that just hasn’t been the same s🎀ince Earl Thomas was lost for the season. Matt Ryan will quiet his naysayers for at least one week.
Falcons 35, Seahawks 24